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Piano Quartets K. 493 & K. 478

Kuijken Piano Quartet

Piano Quartets K. 493 & K. 478

Format: SACD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917275827
Catnr: CC 72758
Release date: 08 September 2017
1 SACD
 
Label
Challenge Classics
UPC
0608917275827
Catalogue number
CC 72758
Release date
08 September 2017

"It is an intensely musical performance and all four players show an in-depth understanding of the Classical tradition. Highly recommended."

Music Web International, 21-5-2018
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
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About the album

The two piano quartets, written in 1785 and 1786, are all-encompassing – the appeal of a piano concerto in miniature on the one hand, and the mystery and intimacy of the most heavenly chamber music on the other. Mozart created this genre practically from scratch. Indeed, his treatment of these four instruments as equal partners was unheard of in his day. The silence, both empty silence and full silence, I experience in the slow movement of the second piano quartet, is like a balm, while the intense power of expression of both opening movements leaves me speechless.

Twee pianokwartetten van Mozart
Deze twee pianokwartetten van Mozart uit 1785 en 1786 zijn allesomvattend: enerzijds vormt het een miniatuur van een Mozart pianoconcert, anderzijds bevat het de intimiteit en pure schoonheid van zijn kamermuziek. Mozart was een van de eerste componisten die in het kwartet de vier instrumenten als gelijken behandelde. Door te spelen op historische instrumenten laat het Kuijken Kwartet wederom zien hoe helder Mozarts muziek kan klinken.

Het Pianokwartet K. 478, Mozarts eerste pianokwartet, is een van zijn minder bekende werken, maar zoals op dit album te horen is het niettemin een meesterwerk.

Die beiden Klavierquartette, komponiert 1785 und 1786, sind allumfassend; sie verbinden den Reiz eines Miniatur-Klavierkonzertes einerseits und das Geheimnis und die Intimität der himmlischsten Kammermusik andererseits. Mozart schuf diese Gattung praktisch neu. Seine Behandlung dieser vier Instrumente als gleichwertige Partner hatte es in der Tat zu seiner Zeit so noch nicht gegeben. Die Stille, sowohl leere als auch bedeutungsvolle Stille, die man im langsamen Satz des zweiten Klavierquartetts erfährt, ist wie Balsam, während mich die intensive Ausdruckskraft der beiden ersten Sätze sprachlos macht.

Artist(s)

Sigiswald Kuijken (violin)

Sigiswald Kuijken was born in 1944 close to Brussels. He studied violin at the conservatories of Bruges and Brussels, completing his studies at the latter institution with Maurice Raskin in 1964. He came into contact with early music at a very young age, together with his brother Wieland. Studying on his own, he gained a thorough knowledge of specific 17th- and 18th-century performance techniques and conventions of interpretation on violin and viola da gamba. This led to the introduction, in 1969, of a more authentic way of playing the violin, whereby the instrument was no longer held under the chin, but lay freely on the shoulder;  this was to have a crucial influence on the approach to the violin repertoire...
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Sigiswald Kuijken was born in 1944 close to Brussels. He studied violin at the conservatories of Bruges and Brussels, completing his studies at the latter institution with Maurice Raskin in 1964. He came into contact with early music at a very young age, together with his brother Wieland. Studying on his own, he gained a thorough knowledge of specific 17th- and 18th-century performance techniques and conventions of interpretation on violin and viola da gamba. This led to the introduction, in 1969, of a more authentic way of playing the violin, whereby the instrument was no longer held under the chin, but lay freely on the shoulder; this was to have a crucial influence on the approach to the violin repertoire and was consequently adopted by many players starting in the early 1970s.
From 1964 to 1972, Sigiswald Kuijken was a member of the Brussels-based Alarius Ensemble (with Wieland Kuijken, Robert Kohnen and Janine Rubinlicht), which performed throughout Europe and in the United States. He subsequently undertook individual chamber music projects with a number of Baroque music specialists, chief among which were his brothers Wieland and Barthold and Robert Kohnen, as well as Gustav Leonhardt, Frans Brüggen, Anner Bylsma and René Jacobs.
In 1972, with the encouragement of Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and Gustav Leonhardt, he founded the Baroque orchestra La Petite Bande, which since then has given innumerable concerts throughout Europe, Australia, South America, China and Japan, and has made many recordings for a number of labels (including Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Seon, Virgin, Accent, Denon, Hyperion and Challenge.
In 1986 he founded the Kuijken String Quartet (with François Fernandez, Marleen Thiers and Wieland Kuijken), which specialises in the quartets and quintets of the Classical period. Recordings of quartets and quintets by Mozart and Haydn have appeared on Denon and Challenge.
Since 1998 Sigiswald Kuijken occasionally brings together two generations Kuijken (his daughters Veronica and Sara and his brother Wieland) to perform string quartets of later periods (Debussy, Schumann, Beethoven, Schubert) often combined with Lieder by Marie Kuijken, soprano and also daughter of Sigiswald, and Veronica Kuijken, piano. Recordings of the two generations have been made for Arcana and Challenge Records.
In 2004 Sigiswald Kuijken reintroduced in practical performance the violoncello da spalla (shoulder cello) very probably the instrument Bach had in mind when writing his six suites for violoncello solo.
From 1971 to 1996, Sigiswald Kuijken taught Baroque violin at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague and from 1993 to 2009 at the Koninklijk Muziekconservatorium in Brussels.
For many years he was a guest teacher at institutions such as the Royal College of Music in London, Salamanca University, the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, the Conservatoire of Geneva and the Musikhochschule of Leipzig. Since 1998, Sigiswald Kuijken occasionally conducts “modern” symphonic orchestras in romantic programs ( Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn).

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Veronica Kuijken (piano)

Veronica Kuijken (1978) started to play piano at age six and violin at age eight. She went to the Brussels conservatory at the age of 16 in the piano class of Daniel Blumenthal. There she took her master's degree in piano cum laude in June 1999. After two years of violin lessons, and privately tutoring for seven years she continued her studies in London and obtained a master's degree in violin in September 1998 (via the Central Examining Committee of the Flemish Community). She has been studying at the Musikhochschule in Winterthur (Switzerland) since October 1999. In 1997 Veronica was selected as a violinist in the European Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, conducted by Iván Fischer, Semyon Bychkov and Pierre Boulez....
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Veronica Kuijken (1978) started to play piano at age six and violin at age eight. She went to the Brussels conservatory at the age of 16 in the piano class of Daniel Blumenthal. There she took her master's degree in piano cum laude in June 1999. After two years of violin lessons, and privately tutoring for seven years she continued her studies in London and obtained a master's degree in violin in September 1998 (via the Central Examining Committee of the Flemish Community). She has been studying at the Musikhochschule in Winterthur (Switzerland) since October 1999. In 1997 Veronica was selected as a violinist in the European Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, conducted by Iván Fischer, Semyon Bychkov and Pierre Boulez. Alongside her studies, Veronica Kuijken and her sister Marie (soprano and pianist) have performed since 1993 as the 'I Pulcini' duo. Veronica has regularly played with the Kammerorchester Basel since 2000, and holds a part-time position as piano accompanist with the Conservatory of Music in Lausanne and as harpsichord accompanist in the Geneva Conservatory.

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Sara Kuijken (viola)

Sara Kuijken (1968) studied viola at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, where she obtained a 1st prize in 1989 and in 1992 the Higher Certificate magna cum laude. At the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam she obtained a degree as a performing musician in 1995. Together with seven other musicians, she founded the Oxalys chamber music ensemble, in which she played viola and served as artistic director until 1998. This ensemble released two CDs, with impressionist and with contemporary Russian chamber music. Her father Sigiswald Kuijken gave her some baroque violin instruction in 1994. She is a regular participant in La Petite Bande. Since the academic year 2005-06 she has been assistant instructor of baroque violin at the Royal...
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Sara Kuijken (1968) studied viola at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, where she obtained a 1st prize in 1989 and in 1992 the Higher Certificate magna cum laude. At the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam she obtained a degree as a performing musician in 1995. Together with seven other musicians, she founded the Oxalys chamber music ensemble, in which she played viola and served as artistic director until 1998. This ensemble released two CDs, with impressionist and with contemporary Russian chamber music. Her father Sigiswald Kuijken gave her some baroque violin instruction in 1994. She is a regular participant in La Petite Bande. Since the academic year 2005-06 she has been assistant instructor of baroque violin at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels.

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Michel Boulanger (cello)

Michel Boulanger studied at the conservatory of Brussels (Master degree cello, chamber music and First Prize baroque cello). He completed his studies at the Musikhochschule Köln and the Indiana University Bloomington (VS) with Janos Starker. Michel Boulanger is active in the international baroque scene with ensembles as La Petite Bande, L'Orchestre des Champs Elysées, Anima Eterna, Il Fondamento a.o. in Europa, Brazil, the United States and Japan. He made several recordings. http://www.music.lv/bachfestival/en/index.asp?pageId=609&subPageId=1548&pageAction=showSubPage
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Michel Boulanger studied at the conservatory of Brussels (Master degree cello, chamber music and First Prize baroque cello). He completed his studies at the Musikhochschule Köln and the Indiana University Bloomington (VS) with Janos Starker. Michel Boulanger is active in the international baroque scene with ensembles as La Petite Bande, L'Orchestre des Champs Elysées, Anima Eterna, Il Fondamento a.o. in Europa, Brazil, the United States and Japan. He made several recordings.
http://www.music.lv/bachfestival/en/index.asp?pageId=609&subPageId=1548&pageAction=showSubPage
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Composer(s)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose actual name is Joannes Chrysotomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a composer, pianist, violinist and conductor from the classical period, born in Salzburg. Mozart was a child prodigy. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart is considered to be one of the most influential composers of all of music's history. Within the classical tradition, he was able to develop new musical concepts which left an everlasting impression on all the composers that came after him. Together with Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven he is part of the First Viennese School.  At 17, Mozart was engaged as...
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose actual name is Joannes Chrysotomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a composer, pianist, violinist and conductor from the classical period, born in Salzburg. Mozart was a child prodigy. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart is considered to be one of the most influential composers of all of music's history. Within the classical tradition, he was able to develop new musical concepts which left an everlasting impression on all the composers that came after him. Together with Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven he is part of the First Viennese School. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position. From 1763 he traveled with his family through all of Europe for three years and from 1769 he traveled to Italy and France with his father Leopold after which he took residence in Paris. On July 3rd, 1778, his mother passed away and after a short stay in Munich with the Weber family, his father urged him to return to Salzburg, where he was once again hired by the Bishop. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death.


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Press

It is an intensely musical performance and all four players show an in-depth understanding of the Classical tradition. Highly recommended.
Music Web International, 21-5-2018

...the interaction of the single voices seems like an alert, friendly and heartfelt conversation.
Fono Forum, 13-4-2018

This interpretation is...a masterpiece.
Toccata, 16-3-2018

Sigiswald Kuijken and his two daughters, together with cellist Michel Boulanger, bring with their CD a good example of a 'historically correct' approach to Mozart's piano quartets.
Kerk & Leven, 10-1-2018

GREAT INTERPRETERS: Ivan Fischer, Christoph Prégardien, Kuijken Piano Quartet, Marc Albrecht
Classic Voice, 02-1-2018

These musicians respect all repetitions in the scores.
Klassieke Zaken, 17-11-2017

For about 50 years, the Belgian musician family Kuijken has had its place in the music scene of historically informed performance practice. The new Kuijkens CD deals with Mozart piano quartets.
WDR1, 07-11-2017

Wonderful music by a fantastic family
Kerk & Leven, 02-11-2017

They are not only dynamically equal, beautiful enough, they play all four in the same space, in the same air, the air of Mozart's score.
JUNGE WELT, 01-11-2017

The 'Kuijkens' are assisted by cellist Michel Boulanger in these two piano quartets, but it has become a true 'family affair', that may be clear. A close family by the way, with sufficient musical and technical capabilities to put these two works into the most fancy daylight.
Opus Klassiek, 22-9-2017

A matter of choice? Surely. People allergic to period of all sorts, may opt for the Mozart Piano Quartet on MDG, those who prefer a performance as in Mozart’s time should turn to Challenge Classics. I love it, and will gladly give it all five stars.
HR Audio, 20-9-2017

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Often bought together with..

GOLDBRUN
Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet
Various composers
Altri canti d'amor
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Felix Mendelssohn, Johann Sebastian Bach
Bach - Mendelssohn - Metamorphosis
Michael Gees
The Truth
Tubis Trio
Various composers
Kinship
Sigrun Stephan

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