Krise Crisis

by Kuss Quartett

Overview

"The Kuss Quartet's new album," according to the publicity, "draws upon music composed over the past 250 years that embraces emotional turmoil, suffering, and psychological stresses." The string quartet medium seems uniquely suited to such a project, but there is more to Krise ("Crisis") than an uninterrupted mood of strain and stress. The concept conflates inward suffering, most extensively in Janacek's String Quartet No. 1 ("Inspired by Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata"), with the effects of external events such as terrorism (in Steve Reich's WTC/911), and with religious somberness in two excerpts from Haydn's Die Worte des Erloesers am Kreuze ("The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross"). The quartet indicates that the album was born from reactions to how the pandemic gave way to a new crisis in the form of the Ukraine war, and the ebb and flow of emotions between personal and externally inspired panic is convincing. Perhaps the strongest feature here is the structure of the whole. The Kuss Quartet commissioned three new works for the project from composers Francesco Ciurlo, Birke Bertelsmeier, and Oscar Escudero; that by Escudero is described by the composer as a "social experience for string quartet, electronics, and audience." It includes, perhaps uniquely, spoken introductions to each section of the piece. This may not fit with the rest of the program (although listeners are invited to make their own judgments about this), but it is entirely intriguing on its own. A strong entry from a quartet with a growing reputation for programming originality. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	12/16/2022
Label:	Rubicon
UPC:	5065002228321
Rank:	177550

Tracks

1. Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erl¿¿sers am Kreuze, Hob.XX/1B~I. Introduction
2. Hasta pulverizarse los ojos
3. Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erl¿¿sers am Kreuze, Hob.XX/1B~V. Ach, mich d¿¿rstet
4. String Quartet No. 14 in D minor D. 810 'Death and the Maiden'~III. Scherzo. Allegro molto
5. String Quartet No. 6, Sz. 114~I. Mesto - Pi¿¿ mosso pesente - Vivace
6. String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110~I. Largo
7. Krise
8. WTC 9/11~III. WTC
9. Spring
10. String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op, 80~II. Adagio
11. String Quartet No. 1 in E minor 'From my Life'~IV. Vivace
12. String Quartet No. 1, JW 7/8 'Inspired by Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata'~I. Adagio. Con moto
13. String Quartet No. 1, JW 7/8 'Inspired by Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata'~II. Con moto
14. String Quartet No. 1, JW 7/8 'Inspired by Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata'~III. Con moto - Vivo - Andante
15. String Quartet No. 1, JW 7/8 'Inspired by Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata'~IV. Con moto - (Adagio) - Pi¿¿ mosso
16. Post

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Kuss Quartett   Primary Artist,String Quartet

Technical Credits

Oscar Escudero   Liner Notes,Composer
Franz Joseph Haydn   Composer
Bela Bartok   Composer
Franz Schubert   Composer
Bedrich Smetana   Composer
Komitas   Composer
Dmitry Shostakovich   Composer
Bastian Schick   Balance Engineer
Paul Mitchell   Cover Design
Robert Sargant   Liner Note Translation
Leos Janacek   Composer
Dirk Fischer   Editing,Mix Down,Recording Producer
Thomas Hirschberg   Engineer
Matthew Cosgrove   Executive Producer
Kuss Quartett   Liner Notes
Oliver Wille   Liner Notes
Falk Wenzel   Photography
Birke J. Bertelsmeier   Composer,Liner Notes
Francesco Ciurlo   Composer,Liner Notes
Steve Reich   Composer
Felix Mendelssohn   Composer