Gramophone Magazine
January 2025
Editor's Choice

Jana Kuss, Oliver Wille, William Coleman, Mikhail Hakhnazaryan

Schiphorst: Sei gutes Muts
Marc Andre: 7 Pieces for String Quartet
Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, D. 810 "Death & the Maiden"

For their latest album for Rubicon, the Berlin based Kuss Quartet have programmed Schubert’s quartet ‘Death and the Maiden’ with two contemporary works by composers the quartet have often championed.

Schubert’s disturbing, death obsessed quartet, composed in the winter of 1822 when the composer was suffering from syphilis that would eventually claim him at the age of 31, has become one of his most performed works. The opening bars are electrifying, and without doubt, the early romantic age in music had dawned.

"It’s not often that you get a chamber disc over which gripping, cumulative storytelling and bringing the repertoire forwards are favoured so entirely over playlist hits. This is how to programme Schubert, and flip me, it’s powerful." - Gramophone Magazine, January 2025