Mojca Erdmann, Kuss Quartet – Brahms: String Quartet No. 3, Lieder & Schoenberg: String Quartet No. 2 (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:13:08 minutes | 728 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Onyx Classics
The Kuss Quartet’s fourth ONYX album is a programme of Brahms and Schoenberg, and they are joined by the German soprano Mojca Erdmann in three Brahms Lieder, and the 2nd of Schoenberg’s four string quartets.
After composing his First Chamber Symphony Op.9 in 1907, Schoenberg wrote ‘Now I have established my style I know now how I have to compose’ However his next work showed a great deviation in style, and tonality is tenuous is the extreme – Schoenberg bids tonality farewell in this extraordinary composition. Setting Stefan George’s poems ‘Litanei’ and ‘Entrücking’, the 2nd Quartet caused a scandal. At the first performance ‘all hell broke loose’ wrote the composer ”Stop it! Stop it! We have had enough!’ shouted a well known critic. It was then that people forgot their drawing room manners. Part of the audience joined in the riot …not much of the music penetrated the noise’ Brahms’s intense concentrated musical thinking heavily influenced Schoenberg. Like the younger composer however, Brahms was very much ‘a natural continuer of properly understood good old tradition’ (Schoenberg’s words describing his own music) and his 3rd Quartet harks back to the classicism of Mozart, especially the ‘Hunt’ Quartet, also in B flat major.
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Kuss Quartet, Sarah Maria Sun, Bas Böttcher, Johannes Julius Fischer – Berlin FREIZeit (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:10:13 minutes | 664 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RUBICON
The Kuss Quartet’s “KussPluss” at the Klassiklounge of the Berlin Classical Radio station RBB and in the trendy Watergate riverside nightclub in Berlin is the inspiration for their latest album. Guests Sarah Maria Sun, the soprano in the Reimann Lieder, percussionist Johannes Julius Fischer and slam poet Bas Böttcher mark this innovative album as something far removed from the standard string quartet recording. Prepare to be shocked, excited and delighted as you embark on a journey of musical discovery with one of the most creative and innovative quartets of our time.
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Kuss Quartet – Krise/Crisis (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:24:07 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RUBICON
We live in a time of turmoil, flux, stress and crisis. The stresses and strains of modern life during and after the pandemic, war raging in Ukraine, climate change, energy shortages, soaring cost of living, large numbers of refugees seeking safe haven, lack of trust in our leaders – this is the reality of life in the 2020s. The Kuss Quartet’s new album draws upon music composed over the past 250 years that embraces emotional turmoil, suffering, and psychological stresses. Some of the music was composed during periods of deep personal trauma for the composers. This very same music can also bring about a mood of reflection, solace, and contemplation. This is music for our times, as powerful and relevant now as it was when new.
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