PRESS ACCLAIM
"The American ensemble, by now well established in the international pantheon, offers performances both fiercely intelligent and expressively pristine."
--New Yorker
“Exhilarating...this intensely physical quartet is defined by passion.”
“The Brentano produced a luxuriously warm sound, yearning lyricism and a palpable frisson of excitement.”
“Their gorgeous sound seemed to float and hover blissfully above the stage.”
“The Brentano gave a gripping performance.”
--New York Times
“Balance and intonation reach an almost unearthly level of perfection, yet there's nothing inhuman about these American musicians. And their intimate embrace is marvellous: it's as though each player is inhabiting each others' skin…a splendid quartet.”
--The Times (London)
“A performance such as this, which combines grandeur of utterance with meticulous attention to dynamics and rhythmic vivacity, is the sort of which legendary chamber music experiences are made….Among younger American quartets, the Brentano here claimed pride of place.”
--Financial Times (London)
"It's hard to communicate the sheer exuberance of these four artists, and the remarkable insight and discipline they brought to works that demanded impeccable musicianship. They devoted themselves not simply through supreme energy, but via complete authority and involvement."
--Louisville Courier-Journal
“Perfection may be an impossible goal in art, as in life, but the Brentano comes close….The performance was supple and sweeping…a collaboration of intense cohesion, which allowed the music to soar and sing as if it were being performed for the first time.”
--Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Playing on a different level...seemingly infallible instincts for finding the center of gravity in every phrase and musical gesture.”
“The overall effect wasn't that the group was playing music, but releasing it.”
--Philadelphia Inquirer
“A hair-raising level of focus and intensity...Whew!”
--Toronto Star
“Schubert's Quartet [Death and the Maiden] put the Brentano's pure, searching art on high display, and also showed what risks this group is willing to take….What a fabulous group.”
--Globe and Mail (Toronto)
“Astonishing…this was some of the most sophisticated ensemble playing I can remember.”
--Dallas Morning News
“[A] remarkable capacity for magical ensemble playing…effervescent.”
--The Washington Post
“This quartet does not flaunt with opulent sounds, but turns out to be an exponent of a highly filigree structural fabric. Haydn’s humour was therefore dry, with the cantilena in the Adagio elegantly sung out. This restrained elegance, paired with the strength of disposition for further movement perspectives and the precise understanding of roles in the tapestry of sound, made Debussy’s String Quartet into an “artistically patterned carpet of wondrous colourfulness” (Dukas). The fact that it is possible to do wonderful justice to Beethoven without expressionistic vehemence, but instead within a spirit of complexly layered sound intensities and rhythmic responsiveness, was celebrated by the audience.”
--Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Munich, Germany
"Spectacular…Superbly balanced…Sublime."
--The Washington Post
“The glittering clarity of the Brentano's sound was intoxicating....a revelatory performance.”
--The Strad
“The Brentano String Quartet...is something special….
Their music making is private, delicate and fresh, but by its very intimacy and importance it seizes attention.”
--The New York Times
“As usual with this ensemble, the performances were full of life….They seem to be listening to the same heartbeat.”
--The New York Times
“Such was their ferocity on Saturday night that the instruments almost burst into flames….Make no mistake: the Brentanos are a magnificent string quartet….This was wonderful, selfless music making.”
--The Times (London)
“Magnificent...The Brentanos [are] the talk of the chamber-music community.”
--Kansas City Star
“Hair-raising....an ensemble of exceptional insight and communicative gifts.”
--The Daily Telegraph (London)
“The Brentano Quartet could not have offered a more convincing interpretation…rewarding in every way.”
--The Washington Post
“Brilliant, virtuosic, and still mellow, its members perfectly meshed in sound while retaining their individual personalities—the Brentano String Quartet....must be one of the great musical hopes of a field overcrowded with contenders….
The [players] made every utterance sing and every phrase connect within the total.”
--Los Angeles Times
“The agile, wiry intelligence of their playing, in a constant state of alert, was every bit as good as promised. They followed with as momentous a performance of Beethoven's Op. 130 quartet as I've ever heard live...passionate, uninhibited and spell-binding.”
--The Independent (London)
“The concert made it clear that these players could well be the best of the latest generation. Their level of individual technique was superb, while musical dialog necessary for rich chamber music was evident from first to last.”
--Philadelphia Inquirer
“The quartet is evidently interested in the magical worlds created when music is allowed to take its course. Whereas Schubert’s Quartettsatz lives from the remarkably consistent equality of voices, the first movement from Debussy is more of a shimming carpet of sound than a gesture articulated down to the last detail. The fact that they also master this is demonstrated by them in the second and fourth movements. The Andantino, however, opens up an entirely different world: a world of light, weightlessness, of infinite tenderness.”
--Mainpost, Germany