Mojca Erdmann & Kuss Quartet - Brahms: String Quartet No. 3, Lieder & Schoenberg String Quartet No. 2 (2016)

The Kuss Quartet s fourth ONYX album is a programme of Brahms and Schoenberg on which they are joined by the German soprano, Mojca Erdmann, in three Brahms Lieder and in the 2nd of Schoenberg s four string quartets. After composing his First Chamber Symphony Op.9 in 1907, Schoenberg wrote 'Now I have established my style I know now how I have to compose'. However his next work showed a great deviation in style and tonality is tenuous in the extreme. Schoenberg bids tonality farewell in this extraordinary composition. Setting Stefan George s poems Litanei and Entrücking , the 2nd Quartet caused a scandal. At the first performance 'all hell broke loose' wrote the composer ''Stop it! Stop it! We have had enough!' shouted a well known critic. It was then that people forgot their drawing room manners. Part of the audience joined in the riot …not much of the music penetrated the noise' Brahms s intense concentrated musical thinking heavily influenced Schoenberg. Like the younger composer however, Brahms was very much 'a natural continuer of properly understood good old tradition' (Schoenberg s words describing his own music) and his 3rd Quartet harks back to the classicism of Mozart, especially the Hunt Quartet, also in B flat major.

Tracklist:
01. I. Vivace - Kuss Quartet
02. II. Andante - Kuss Quartet
03. III. Agitato (Allegretto non troppo). Trio - Kuss Quartet
04. IV. Poco allegretto con variazioni - Kuss Quartet
05. Mässig - Kuss Quartet
06. Sehr rasch - Kuss Quartet
07. Litanei - Langsam - Mojca Erdmann and Kuss Quartet
08. Entrückung - Sehr langsam - Mojca Erdmann and Kuss Quartet
09. 5 Lieder, Op. 105: I. Wie Melodien zieht es mir - Mojca Erdmann and Kuss Quartet
10. 6 Lieder, Op. 85: I. Sommerabend - Mojca Erdmann and Kuss Quartet
11. 6 Lieder, Op. 85: II. Mondenschein - Mojca Erdmann and Kuss Quartet