Conceived as a set of short orchestral pieces to accompany the Holy Week liturgy, The Seven Last Words proved so popular that Haydn recast his work as a string quartet, piano piece, and oratorio. These excerpts attest to the composer’s genius for scene- and text-painting, which would later come to fruition in his great oratorios The Creation and The Seasons.
Still going strong in his 80s, Sir Harrison Birtwistle is among the most prominent ambassadors of Britain’s lively musical avant garde. Pulse Shadows, an unconventional hybrid of string quartet and song cycle, demonstrates his longstanding preoccupation with complex rhythms, multilayered textures, and flexible formal structures.
Like his teacher, György Kurtág, British composer Thomas Adès has a penchant for delicately tinted, distinctly contoured, and richly evocative soundscapes. Arcadiana—the first of his two string quartets—uses harmonics, glissandos, quarter-tones, and other special sonic effects to depict a gauzy pastoral world that is by turns idyllic and nightmarish.
Beethoven’s Op. 132, the second of three quartets commissioned by Russian Prince Nikolai Golitsïn, centers on its transcendently beautiful slow movement, a deeply felt “song of thanksgiving” for the composer’s recovery from illness. Like many of Beethoven’s “late” works, the A-Minor Quartet expresses spiritual struggle through extreme contrasts of mood.
With its unique approach to music making, the Kuss Quartet ranks among the world's most
renowned ensembles. Since its founding in 2002 by violinists Jana Kuss and Oliver Wille,
the ensemble has developed its passion for experimentation, revealing new musical
perspectives and attracting a wide-ranging audience.
The ensemble's classical lounge series, Kuss Plus, has made its mark on the Berlin music
scene. The quartet is also known for boundary-breaking concerts that combine compositions
for quartet with works of literature. Regular collaborations between the quartet and
renowned actor Udo Samel have led to invitations to perform at festivals and concert halls
in Germany and Austria, with programs such as Ohne Grund nicht denken
(Brecht/Berg/ Beethoven), Traumbilder (Heine/Mendelssohn/Schumann), and Das
Rauschen der Zeit (Mandelstam/Stravinsky/Tchaikovsky).
In 2002, the Kuss Quartet was awarded first prize in the Borciani competition by the
German Music Council. The following year, it won the Borletti-Buitoni Award and was
selected for the European Concert Hall Organization's Rising Stars program.
The quartet's international engagements have included performances at Carnegie Hall,
Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, London's Wigmore Hall, and Berlin's Philharmonie, as well as at
major festivals that include the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Beethovenfest Bonn, Rheingau
Musik Festival, and the Edinburgh and Salzburg festivals. In addition, the ensemble has
toured throughout the US, Australia, South America, and Japan.
The Kuss Quartet inspires the next generation of chamber musicians in numerous
international master classes. Violist William Coleman and violinist Oliver Wille hold
professorships at music colleges in Salzburg, Hannover, and Birmingham.
The quartet's repertoire ranges from music of the Renaissance to contemporary compositions
by Helmut Lachenmann and György Kurtág. As a result of a grant from the state of Lower
Saxony, over the next four years the quartet will commission new works by composers who
include Aribert Reimann and Enno Poppe.
Following the success of the quartet's album Bridges (Sony Classical), English
label Onyx Classics released the highly acclaimed concept CD Thème Russe in
January 2012, with works and transcriptions by composers who included Tchaikovsky,
Stravinsky, and Schnittke. In November 2013, a third disc was released by Onyx Classics,
featuring Schubert's String Quintet with cellist Miklós Perényi. Three years later, the
label released a new disc with Schoenberg's Second String Quartet, Brahms's Third String
Quartet, and Brahms lieder for soprano and string quartet arranged especially for the
ensemble with Mojca Erdmann. The Kuss Quartet has also collaborated with such artists as
Avi Avital, Paul Meyer, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard, as well as slam poet Bas Böttcher.
Proud Season Sponsor