专辑简介

Does the name Sigiswald Kuijken mean anything to you? How about his brother Wieland Kuijken? How about the name of the string quartet they founded together with François Fernandez and Marleen Theirs in 1986, the Kuijken Quartet? No? It's not surprising. Although the players are among the finest Dutch period instrument musicians, with the Kuijken brothers having been frequent partners with harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt, the Kuijken Quartet has made only a few recordings for the Japanese Denon label, all of which got poor circulation outside of Japan and Europe and most of which have long since gone out of print. And yet the age of miracles hasn't passed -- here they are with a disc of Mozart's chamber music for winds and strings recorded in 2003 and 2004, a disc of singular beauty and supreme musicality. After the diverse excellences of their earlier recordings, the warmth of tone, the strength of technique, and the subtlety of interpretation of the Kuijken Quartet is to be expected, but what one could not be prepared for was the uniform high quality of the three wind soloists. And yet robust hornist Pierre-Yves Madeuf, plangent oboist Patrick Beaugiraud, and especially sweet clarinetist Lorenzo Coppola are equal partners with the quartet in wonderfully intimate performances of transcendent grace and ineffable bliss. Challenge's sound is, unfortunately, way too close.