ChiaroscuroQuartet

/
String Quartet
Scroll for more
4 musicians standing outside a green corrugated iron shed in a garden
4 musicians standing outside a green corrugated iron shed in a garden

Press

  • Recording: Beethoven String Quartets Vol 3

    BIS records
    Oct 2023

    • The wonderfully paced opening grows steadily in insistence, until it blossoms into melody in a totally unforced way, setting the tone for everything that follows; there seem to be no preconceptions in these performances, everything comes from the music itself.

  • Recording: Haydn Op.33 Vol 1

    BIS Records
    May 2023

    • Les Chiaroscuro, dont la fraîcheur de leurs instruments sur cordes de boyau fait merveille, vont au-delà du « raisonnable » en insufflant une vie pleine de contrastes et de joies multiples à ces superbes partitions. Ils justifient ainsi l’impact produit par l’esprit de comédie qui circule notamment dans les scherzos, qui remplacent les habituels menuets, avec une spontanéité jaillissante et une efficacité virtuose.»

    • It’s that combination of crisp, earthy clarity and lively, virtuoso sparkle that marks these readings out – in drink terms, think tannin-rich reds against fine, biscuity champagne – along with the conversational vitality as the four of them move fluidly in and out of the spotlight, and between colours and moods, all with such an adrenalin-filled, spontaneous-feeling rhythmic impetus and swing that at times it’s a challenge to sit still as you listen.

  • Concert, Boston Early Music Festival

    Jordan Hall, Boston
    Mar 2023

    • Contrasts played a major role for sure: tense and strained sound in the tempestuous Allegro of opus 13 — and other pieces as well — sounded miles away from the lush cantabile in the Adagio and the starry-eyed purity of the Intermezzo. Opposites generously enriched the narrative. This glorious music could have been played with a consistent juicy vibrato throughout and might have left some audiences content and well nourished. But having once experienced the Chiaroscuro’s drama, I would be loath to settle for usual relentlessly beautiful tones of mainstream groups.

  • Recording: Mozart Prussian Quartets

    BIS Records
    Nov 2022

    • Invigorating energy and attention to articulation and phrasing that’s constantly rewarding and sometime a soaring lyricism that reminds us we are never that far from Mozart’s operas…nothing is taken for granted, everything explored as though for the first time.

      • Recording of the Week, BBC Radio 3 Record Review
      • 12 November 2022

    • What makes this release so impressive is how the Chiaroscuro Quartet’s playing operates beyond any feeling of tendentiousness in this area. They use gut strings (naturally), and deploy non vibrato as something close to a default position (naturally). Meanwhile their underlying musicianship is so superb that you find yourself absorbed in the mesmerising mastery of these works without any issues of style getting in the way

  • Recording: Beethoven Op.18 Vol 1

    BIS Records
    Oct 2021

    • Die Perfektion des Chiaroscuro Quartetts liegt darin, alle Nuancen des Originalklangs zu nutzen und daraus die Interpretation zu formen. Alles wird anders: die Wahrnehmung der einzelnen Instrumente, die Farben der Klänge, Auftritt und Gewicht der Motive. Eine Überraschung jagt die andere. Denn Beethoven war genial. Und das Chiaroscuro-Quartett ist es auch.

      • Bayerischer Rundkfunk BR-Klassik CD of the Week
      • 04 October 2021

    • Spielfreude, ein ausbalancierter Quartettklang und dann noch dieser verblüffende Schluss nach all dem Gewusel, ein Hauch, ein Nichts – man möchte es nicht mehr anders hören. Their spirited playing, the well-balanced quartet sound, and then that baffling ending after all the turmoil - a mere wisp - makes the listener never want to hear it any other way.

      • Westdeutscher Rundfunk WDR3

    • ...the Chiaroscuro produces a sound of ravishing sonic and intonational purity...experiencing these remarkable performances is akin to hearing this groundbreaking music for the very first time.

      • The Strad
      • 03 January 2022

    • Eine mitreißende Aufnahme, die mir ihrer organischen Kraft begeistert. This is a thrilling recording, that inspires the listener with it's earthy power.

      • Deutschlandfunk . Die neue Platte
      • 22 March 2022

  • Recording: Schubert Op.14 and Op.9

    BIA Records
    Nov 2018

    • ...with their ‘period’ sound world allied to hungry tempos and phrasing that vaults across the bar line, Schubert’s darkest quartet seems more than ever a study in the inexorable power of rhythm. It is also, properly, a drama of uncomfortable extremes. In their dangerous night-ride of a finale, straining at the edge of the possible, the Chiaroscuro do not eschew harshness. Here and elsewhere their unvarnished sonorities (vibrato minimal or non-existent) make Schubert’s harmonic clashes all the more excruciating. After the coda’s truly frantic più mosso, the Chiaroscuro, with their bleak, blanched pianissimo, suggest traumatised exhaustion: Schubert staring into the void

    • This is a simply stunning performance, as remarkable for its expressive power as it is for its textural clarity. As well as mastery of period niceties (vibrato is restrained but by no means absent, and deployed with immense thoughtfulness), the group is obviously completely attuned to the Schubertian idiom – that elusive but unmistakable combination of Biedermeier charm, bittersweet Schubertian lyricism, and the visceral emotional engagement of early Romanticism that no other composer comes close to...This is playing of real distinction, combining stylishness and thrilling musicianship in measures rarely encountered.

    • This is a dramatic and unsettling performance, its beguiling beauties furiously dispelled.

      • The Strad
      • 03 December 2018

    • Fierce dynamics, powerful attack and articulation and superb ensemble in some extreme dramatic reaction to Schubert's writing... Uncompromising and thrilling in the way they engage in Schubert's emotional extremes... Not a comfortable ride, and neither should it be.

      • BBC Radio 3 Record Review; Disc of the Week
      • 17 November 2018