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Pizzicato

The Kreutzer Quartet is very closely associated with the composer Edward Cowie. They have already performed and recorded the first six quartets. Now Cowie has not only created the seventh quartet, with which he is breaking new ground. He has also dedicated a solo work personally tailored to each of the four musicians.

The 7th string quartet ‘The Western Australian’ is dedicated to three landscapes. Firstly, the road from Freemantle to Shark Bay, which leads through countless wildflowers. The second movement, Hamelin Pool – Shark Bay, takes us back to prehistoric times. Primitive seaweed grows in irregularly shaped islands in the bay. Swallows use the wooden walkway above to breed and catch insects. Most recently, he was inspired by the Pinnacles in Nambung National Park.

The musical portraits for the members of the Kreutzer Quartet lead from the cello to the first violin. Glaukopis, the Homeric name for the goddess Athena, but probably also the classical Greek term for ‘owl face’, is described as ‘Five atmospheric nocturnes for Athena’ and portrays five species of European owls. A piece about flying, named Icarus, was created for the violist. Instead of the injured protagonist Clifton, the first violinist Peter recorded the piece. For the second violinist Mihailo, he wrote One Second Fiddle – a piece about evolution. Brief musical events lead to a process of fission, of blastulation. The ‘one-second fiddle’ becomes a ‘multi-cellular fiddle’. The fourth piece for Peter conveys the singing and visual performances of the Australian lyrebird.

The Kreutzer Quartet, which specializes in modern music and in particular the music of Edward Cowie, offers technically superior interpretations both in the ensemble and in the solo works, which are mature in their creative presentation. The composer’s intentions are constantly teased out with nuanced intonation and finely crafted orchestration, so that despite the modern tonal language, the tension is maintained throughout the works and interest in this composer is aroused and kept alive. Even if Peter Sheppard Skærved, the first violinist of the quartet, is the best-known representative of the group due to his solo work, the contributions of the other participants are in no way inferior in quality.