Monday, August 4, 2025
Deutschlandfunk "Music Panorama" 9:05 PM
Klaus Gehrke on the recording from the Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal
August Klughardt
String Quartet Op. 61
String Quintet Op. 62

October 7, 2024
Gaetano Donizetti: The Complete String Quartets
Review at klassik.com (Dr. Jürgen Schaarwächter)
Highest rating (5 stars) with recommendation

"...understatement as a means of expression, with the goal of allowing the music itself to shine through, especially in its subtleties, its melodic, harmonic, and contrapuntal richness. The right tempos, the right phrasing, balance, and dynamics – everything comes about almost automatically, without the need to apply any extra 'triggers.' The combination of a 'light touch' and a rich expressive spectrum is actually a very special asset that only a few string quartet formations can boast – the 'individual quartet tone' is often more important than the music and the style of the music.
The edition – despite the profound break of almost twenty years and the participation of two very different quartets – appears to be cast from a single mold. Interpretations and recording technique appear entirely harmonious: a reference publication that deserves wide distribution.

PLEYEL QUARTET KÖLN

»Sleeps a song in things abounding
that keep dreaming to be heard:
Earth’es tunes will start resounding
if you find the magic word.«

These famous lines by Joseph von Eichendorff (engl. transl. Walter A. Aue) paraphrase the critics response to the Pleyel Quartet’s recordings with a poetic notion. The gut strings with their delicate responsiveness and particular wealth of colour, the subtly nuanced use of vibrato, the vivid phrasing, and the articulation next to highest technical sophistication – all together provide for the new listening experiences found in the interpretations by the Pleyel Quartet. In addition to the well known works of the canon, works previously unheard of, composed by largely forgotten or undervalued “Kleinmeister” are also met with enthusiastic response by the audience and critics.