Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart :: Mozart: String Quartets in G major, K387 & in D minor, K421

Superb! A Breath of Fresh Air from the Klenke Quartet

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 04/11/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The first two of Mozart's 'Haydn' Quartets are presented on this CD by a string quartet that is new to me, but certainly one that I'm sure we'll be hearing more from -- the Klenke Quartet, a group of very attractive young women who met at a conservatory in Weimar and who formed the quartet in 1994. (I am fairly certain that my positive reaction to this release is not affected by the extreme attractiveness of these women, but their glamor certainly doesn't hurt!) Their playing is fresh, unaffected, full of light and air. Their phrasing is nuanced without being mannered. There is a lightness and clarity to their tone that is striking. This is not to suggest that they are not capable of digging into the strings when necessary, and even at the softest dynamic their tone is not thin. They bring an uncluttered approach to these beloved quartets, the first two of the six Mozart wrote in honor of (and modeled after, but expanded upon) the Op. 33 quartets of his senior colleague, Haydn.



The beauties of these two quartets hardly need any description but one cannot but mention the delights of the fugal final movement of the G Major Quartet, K. 387, or the marvelous handling of the recapitulation of the first movement of the D Minor, K. 421, both marvels that demonstrate the unique genius of the then twenty-five year old Mozart. One can only thank the heavens for the almost supernatural talent inherent in these quartets. And frankly I cannot remember recordings of these two quartets that are any better than these of the Klenke Quartet. They are given extraordinarily lifelike sound by the Profil engineers who beautifully captured the Quartet's sound in the SWR studios in Baden-Baden.



This release gets my unmitigated recommendation. If you love the quartets of Mozart, you owe it to yourself to obtain this release.



Scott Morrison"