Musical postcards addressed to the Salzburg master: in its new CD project, the Kuss Quartet once again embarks on a musical journey through time.
Building acoustic bridges between the present and bygone eras has become a true hallmark of the quartet. Now the four musicians have turned their attention to all six of Mozart’s string quintets, pairing classical masterpieces with contemporary compositions: “We felt that ‘simply’ recording the Mozart quintets didn’t quite suit us,” says the ensemble. “So we came up with the idea of asking well-known, great contemporary composers to compose short ‘postcards’ to Mozart.”
Vol. 1 of the complete recording series, released in May 2026, introduces two new quartet works by Manfred Trojahn and Matthew Shlomowitz. These are presented alongside Mozart’s String Quintets Nos. 4 and 1, recorded with the American-Iranian violist Muriel Razavi. For the quartet, this recording fulfils a special wish, and they have deliberately involved top young talents from the classical music scene: “We thought we’d ask younger people to join us in recording this fantastic music. Young violists who have left university and are at the start of their careers – and so we chose three wonderful young artists.”
One can look forward to the forthcoming two albums – for these, the composers Rebecca Saunders, Enno Poppe, Isabel Mundry and Sarah Nemtsov have been asked to compose new ‘postcards’ to Mozart.
Kuss Quartet and Muriel Razavi:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, String Quintets K. 174 and 516
Manfred Trojahn: Introduktion & abgebrochenes Finale "Ein einsames Cello hallt durch die leere Saalflucht eines ländlichen, sommerlichen Chateau"
Matthew Shlomowitz: Bagatelle für Streichquartett
Rubicon, 5061094590124
