Mozart: String Quartets K465 & K499

CML call number: CD/CLASSICAL/Mozart
Bernard Holland wrote in the New York Times: "The Belcea Quartet, a young group from Britain, showed its sense of high drama in a Shostakovich performance at Zankel Hall a couple of weeks back. Here the players bring a similar high-tension style to two Mozart quartets: the 'Dissonance' (K. 465) and the 'Hoffmeister' (K. 499). Think 'operatic' in the benign definition of the word. There is no excess or grandiosity. Indeed, careful preparation, matched techniques and enlightened enthusiasm give the big statement a precision not all that common on the opera stage. The Belcea offers youthful juices and a lot of talent. Characteristically, it plays the famous opening of the 'Dissonance' Quartet for as much implied modernity as it can. … The rest of this recording is played with energy and high spirits. … The 'Dissonance' belongs to the six quartets Mozart dedicated to Haydn. Mozart did most of his editing in his head, so the uncharacteristic number of emendations in these manuscripts gives witness to the value he put on the quartets. Both the 'Dissonance' and the 'Hoffmeister' belong to the mid-1780's and come from a man then at the height of his success."