GRAMOPHONE, August 2007 --- For one, the playing is superb, the biting attack of the Fifth Quartet's opening, its precision, energy and tempered rhythmic momentum, not to mention the accuracy of intonation throughout. Everything tells, nothing sounds rushed. (...) No doubt about it, this is one of the most impressive, the most human accounts of Bartok Five I've heard in a long while (...). What's for sure is that any internal disharmony would have surfaced in Bartok's fragile last quartet, another memorable performance. Again, everything is well articulated (...). It's another winner, purposeful yet refined, and a worthy conclusion to what I hope will eventually emerge as a complete cycle. OK, I know we're particularly well off for Bartok quartets on CD, but not so well off that interpretation of this calibre isn't also welcome.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, 16/6/2007 --- Both in the concert hall and here on a disc of Bartók's last two string quartets, the Arcanto is an ensemble that makes you sit up and listen. (...) the fact that they can capitalize on the rapport they share as close friends makes for extraordinary cohesion and vibrancy of character. This is one of those unions made in heaven. With its appreciation of the eerie shivers that Bartók could provoke in his quartets, the Arcanto gives chillingly exciting accounts of the Fifth and Sixths, balancing with uncommon fluidity and spontaneity the rarefied wisps of texture and passages of quiet rumination against Bartók's forceful rhythmic propulsion. (...) one need look no further for a more compelling coupling.
THE TIMES, 8/6/2007 --- Bartók's Fifth and Sixth String Quartets receive superb handling in the Arcanto Quartet's recording debut. (...) Their precision is Godlike, while their full-blooded spirit allows a delicate response to tone and phrasing. They're equally impressive driving an argument at white heat (the Fifth's first movement). And the recording acoustic is close, natural and loving.
WESTDEUTSCHE ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG, 3/5/2007 --- The quartet cultivates an exquisitely sophisticated, diverse sound. Their repeated dynamic retreats into the subtlest pianissimo lent Schubert's String Quartet in E flat major (D87) a weightlessness which is seldom heard. But that's not all they can do. Wherever needed, the four of them surprise the audience with expressive eruptions of sound, as they often demonstrated in Bartók's explosive String Quartet No. 5. (...) One thing is for sure: anyone who can interpret chamber music this excitingly can confidently rank themselves as one of the greatest string quartets.
BADISCHE ZEITUNG, 4/5/2007 --- It blows you away: by this enormous range of expressions, such as in Haydn's Adagio, the exemplary unison piano, without overdoing delicacy, and the exquisite transparency in the playing of these four musicians. This creates an experience, too, from a young work such as Schubert's E flat major quartet, written when the composer was 16. In a chamber music festival packed with highlights, perhaps the most moving moment was offered by the Arcanto Quartet and Jörg Widmann (...). Any attempt to put this into words would fail miserably; suffice to say that the maturity of Brahms' late style found its counterpart in this haunting interpretation.
THE HERALD, 2/9/2006 --- There was one genuine bolt from the blue at this year's Festival, and that was a group called the Arcanto Quartet, a string quartet making its first appearance. (...) The first violinist, Antje Weithaas, is an established concerto soloist with an international career. The second violinist, Daniel Sepec, is also a soloist and has guest-led a range of top orchestras. The violist, Tabea Zimmermann, is the best viola player alive, and the cellist, Jean-Guihen Queyras, is known for his works with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, France's superlative music band. (...) Hand on heart, I have never heard string quartet playing of such refinement and sophistication.
THE HERALD, 19/8/2006 --- For any group to open a concert with Mozart's Dissonance Quartet represents something of a challenge (...). The sophistication with which the Arcanto Quartet peeled back the layers of the music almost beggared belief. The refinement of musicianship between the players, and that indefinable sense of four musicians having seemlessly blended themselves into an indivisible unit, characterised a revealing interpretation of the music, whose complexity dissolved in the face of such unified intimacy. The soft setting-down of the end of the first movement with a series of immaculately-placed chords was one of those miraculous moments of performance that live with you. If anything, the mesmerising interpretations of Ravel's String Quartet and Beethoven's opus 59 F major Quartet were even more impressive, with supple fluidity and an exceptional rapport between the players.
THE SCOTSMAN 19/8/2006 --- The Ravel quivered incessantly with exciting touches, the slow movement enriched with a mesmerising, ethereal quality as the players teased out its silken textures. The Beethoven was no less inspirational. It had backbone: the grizzly dissonances of the opening Allegro were carved out like rough-hewn rocks, the more exposed intimacy of the Allegretto was delivered with sensitised virtuosity.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, 17/2/2006 --- Sepec, leading the quartet in Haydn's D major Op 71 No 2, used his experience in "historically aware" interpretation to provoke a bright, light sound. (...) Texture was lucidly understood and communicated throughout the quartet, the music's character shrewdly encapsulated, its harmonic diversions signposted in a way that still preserved the element of surprise. Weithaas led Ravel's Quartet in F, and here the sound was appropriately mellower. The flow of the music was easy and mellifluous, and, as in the Haydn, there was a prevailing sense that the Arcanto had absorbed the nature of the music's drama. (...) This was a performance full of incident, but with a cohesive consciousness of style. On a miniature scale, Webern's Six Bagatelles Op 9 (...) the Arcanto's expressiveness was exquisitely focused, diamond-sharp in showing how Webern could distil all that needed to be said in a matter of seconds.
TELEGRAAF, 7/2/2006 --- The discovery of this small festival was the Dutch debut of the Arcanto Quartet. (...) What these musicians offer together is emotional, with taste and feeling for the style of the work they play, always direct, unadorned and purely musical. (...) In the incredibly beautifully played String Quintet in g (KV 516) by Mozart, the direction is nearly always given by the first violin. Antje Weithaas played her leading role subtly and with rich detail. Her interaction with the other quartet members and the additional violist was in perfect balance. All phrasings were wonderfully coordinated, always with the slightest personal touch.
DE MORGEN, 13/2/2006 --- The Arcanto Quartet's concerts are still rare. For the listener, they are downright confrontations: with Über-musicianship, with an ideal balance between independence and unity, with perfection or the best attempt at perfection. This won't last much longer, but it is still possible to hear the Arcanto in small chamber music halls. Last year in the Brussels Conservatory, last week Friday in the Handelsbeurs in Gent. (...) It would make for a very long list if one wanted to include all the admirable qualities of this Quartet. Briefly and succinctly, the important message is this: Make sure that you are at their next concert.
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG, 26/9/2005 --- The Arcanto Quartet are brilliantly attuned to one another; constantly making eye-contact, they complement and inspire each other.
OFFENBACH-POST, 23/9/2005 --- This high-calibre group forms a community of chamber music individualists, truly a dream ensemble.
MAIN-ECHO, 24.25/9/2005 --- Brahms's Piano Quintet as well as Schumann's Piano Quartet were enhanced to an almost orchestral sound - with fantastic results. There were twinkles and sparks in every note, at the same time fervid animation, and such an irrepressible joy at the variety in sound in this music that all listeners couldn't but be raptured and amazed.
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, 5/7/2005 --- One almost can't want the contouring of contrasts in Beethoven's first Rasumovsky quartet to be any more impressive, gruffer and sharper. And it got even better. With their structurally masterful interpretation of Bartok's fifth string quartet that got under one's skin, Antje Weithaas, Daniel Sepec, Tabea Zimmermann and Jean-Guihen Queyras showed their enormous potential.
OSTSEE ZEITUNG, 28/6/2005 --- [the performance] offered something outstanding, even unique, for where else can such experienced soloists (...) be experienced as a string quartet - and a perfect one indeed! Their terrific, artistically outstanding performance as Arcanto Quartet set new standards: all advantages and qualities of solistic playing are united in music-making which nevertheless can hardly be thought more "collectively" and opens up completely new dimensions of extreme richness of sound (...). One does not have to stop oneself from using superlatives - and even less from wishing to hear the ensemble soon again.
NORDKURIER, 28/6/2005 --- There was a marvellous surprise at this year's Mozart-Fest at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Wismar. It took place at the afternoon concert of the Arcanto Quartett, which only made its debut last year in Stuttgart. The string quartet consists of musicians which are well-known as soloists (...). In the quartet, however, their individual styles blend into a fascinating ensemble sound of unheard-of precision and balance.
STUTTGARTER NACHRICHTEN, 27/6/2005 --- During Mozart's Quartet in D-major K575, an open communication ignited between the musicians, full of virtuosic joy of play and musical esprit. (...) Brahms' very first string quartet breathed fierce impetus and bittersweet yearning. (...) The Arcanto Quartet congenially turned the rebelling nihilism and the apocalyptic sentiment of the six Adagio movements [of Shostakovich's quartet in e-flat minor op. 144] into one expressionistic sculpture of sound. Enthusiastic bravos.
BIETIGHEIMER ZEITUNG, 27/6/2005 --- While the summery temperatures melted icecream in no time, the Arcanto Quartet made music in such breathtaking way that one would have liked to melt away in it. Sure enough one should not compare the profanity of melting ice with the virtuosity of these outstanding musicians. Still, their music making is a force of nature just like the momentary heat, and they received ovations from the breathless, deeply touched listeners already before the interval. (...) They are a peerless ensemble with their sense of humour, their perfect intonation and unanimity. (...) In the string quartet firmament, a new star has risen.
DE MORGEN, 19/4/2005 --- What this quartet delivered on Saturday night in (...) Brussels, was possibly - and I have really thought this through - the best quartet which I have ever heard live. (...) For several reasons, this ensemble is already the revelation of the year, as far as well-known soloists can be discoveries. First and foremost, there is the total equality in their musical discourse. None of them has to impose himself on the others, nobody gave his name to the quartet, nobody can be left out. Even more striking is the combination of individual freedom and commitment to the ensemble, of technical finesse and listening to the others, of total ease and perfection. (...) Don't miss the next concert!
STUTTGARTER NACHRICHTEN, 26/6/2004 --- Together they are not only strong, but stunningly beautiful. Following their convincingly differentiated case for bowed resonance and harmony, one can expect great things from the Arcanto Quartet. After all, the four musicians offer exactly what their name promises: First-class singing strings.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, 16/6/2007 --- Both in the concert hall and here on a disc of Bartók's last two string quartets, the Arcanto is an ensemble that makes you sit up and listen. (...) the fact that they can capitalize on the rapport they share as close friends makes for extraordinary cohesion and vibrancy of character. This is one of those unions made in heaven. With its appreciation of the eerie shivers that Bartók could provoke in his quartets, the Arcanto gives chillingly exciting accounts of the Fifth and Sixths, balancing with uncommon fluidity and spontaneity the rarefied wisps of texture and passages of quiet rumination against Bartók's forceful rhythmic propulsion. (...) one need look no further for a more compelling coupling.
THE TIMES, 8/6/2007 --- Bartók's Fifth and Sixth String Quartets receive superb handling in the Arcanto Quartet's recording debut. (...) Their precision is Godlike, while their full-blooded spirit allows a delicate response to tone and phrasing. They're equally impressive driving an argument at white heat (the Fifth's first movement). And the recording acoustic is close, natural and loving.
WESTDEUTSCHE ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG, 3/5/2007 --- The quartet cultivates an exquisitely sophisticated, diverse sound. Their repeated dynamic retreats into the subtlest pianissimo lent Schubert's String Quartet in E flat major (D87) a weightlessness which is seldom heard. But that's not all they can do. Wherever needed, the four of them surprise the audience with expressive eruptions of sound, as they often demonstrated in Bartók's explosive String Quartet No. 5. (...) One thing is for sure: anyone who can interpret chamber music this excitingly can confidently rank themselves as one of the greatest string quartets.
BADISCHE ZEITUNG, 4/5/2007 --- It blows you away: by this enormous range of expressions, such as in Haydn's Adagio, the exemplary unison piano, without overdoing delicacy, and the exquisite transparency in the playing of these four musicians. This creates an experience, too, from a young work such as Schubert's E flat major quartet, written when the composer was 16. In a chamber music festival packed with highlights, perhaps the most moving moment was offered by the Arcanto Quartet and Jörg Widmann (...). Any attempt to put this into words would fail miserably; suffice to say that the maturity of Brahms' late style found its counterpart in this haunting interpretation.
THE HERALD, 2/9/2006 --- There was one genuine bolt from the blue at this year's Festival, and that was a group called the Arcanto Quartet, a string quartet making its first appearance. (...) The first violinist, Antje Weithaas, is an established concerto soloist with an international career. The second violinist, Daniel Sepec, is also a soloist and has guest-led a range of top orchestras. The violist, Tabea Zimmermann, is the best viola player alive, and the cellist, Jean-Guihen Queyras, is known for his works with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, France's superlative music band. (...) Hand on heart, I have never heard string quartet playing of such refinement and sophistication.
THE HERALD, 19/8/2006 --- For any group to open a concert with Mozart's Dissonance Quartet represents something of a challenge (...). The sophistication with which the Arcanto Quartet peeled back the layers of the music almost beggared belief. The refinement of musicianship between the players, and that indefinable sense of four musicians having seemlessly blended themselves into an indivisible unit, characterised a revealing interpretation of the music, whose complexity dissolved in the face of such unified intimacy. The soft setting-down of the end of the first movement with a series of immaculately-placed chords was one of those miraculous moments of performance that live with you. If anything, the mesmerising interpretations of Ravel's String Quartet and Beethoven's opus 59 F major Quartet were even more impressive, with supple fluidity and an exceptional rapport between the players.
THE SCOTSMAN 19/8/2006 --- The Ravel quivered incessantly with exciting touches, the slow movement enriched with a mesmerising, ethereal quality as the players teased out its silken textures. The Beethoven was no less inspirational. It had backbone: the grizzly dissonances of the opening Allegro were carved out like rough-hewn rocks, the more exposed intimacy of the Allegretto was delivered with sensitised virtuosity.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, 17/2/2006 --- Sepec, leading the quartet in Haydn's D major Op 71 No 2, used his experience in "historically aware" interpretation to provoke a bright, light sound. (...) Texture was lucidly understood and communicated throughout the quartet, the music's character shrewdly encapsulated, its harmonic diversions signposted in a way that still preserved the element of surprise. Weithaas led Ravel's Quartet in F, and here the sound was appropriately mellower. The flow of the music was easy and mellifluous, and, as in the Haydn, there was a prevailing sense that the Arcanto had absorbed the nature of the music's drama. (...) This was a performance full of incident, but with a cohesive consciousness of style. On a miniature scale, Webern's Six Bagatelles Op 9 (...) the Arcanto's expressiveness was exquisitely focused, diamond-sharp in showing how Webern could distil all that needed to be said in a matter of seconds.
TELEGRAAF, 7/2/2006 --- The discovery of this small festival was the Dutch debut of the Arcanto Quartet. (...) What these musicians offer together is emotional, with taste and feeling for the style of the work they play, always direct, unadorned and purely musical. (...) In the incredibly beautifully played String Quintet in g (KV 516) by Mozart, the direction is nearly always given by the first violin. Antje Weithaas played her leading role subtly and with rich detail. Her interaction with the other quartet members and the additional violist was in perfect balance. All phrasings were wonderfully coordinated, always with the slightest personal touch.
DE MORGEN, 13/2/2006 --- The Arcanto Quartet's concerts are still rare. For the listener, they are downright confrontations: with Über-musicianship, with an ideal balance between independence and unity, with perfection or the best attempt at perfection. This won't last much longer, but it is still possible to hear the Arcanto in small chamber music halls. Last year in the Brussels Conservatory, last week Friday in the Handelsbeurs in Gent. (...) It would make for a very long list if one wanted to include all the admirable qualities of this Quartet. Briefly and succinctly, the important message is this: Make sure that you are at their next concert.
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG, 26/9/2005 --- The Arcanto Quartet are brilliantly attuned to one another; constantly making eye-contact, they complement and inspire each other.
OFFENBACH-POST, 23/9/2005 --- This high-calibre group forms a community of chamber music individualists, truly a dream ensemble.
MAIN-ECHO, 24.25/9/2005 --- Brahms's Piano Quintet as well as Schumann's Piano Quartet were enhanced to an almost orchestral sound - with fantastic results. There were twinkles and sparks in every note, at the same time fervid animation, and such an irrepressible joy at the variety in sound in this music that all listeners couldn't but be raptured and amazed.
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, 5/7/2005 --- One almost can't want the contouring of contrasts in Beethoven's first Rasumovsky quartet to be any more impressive, gruffer and sharper. And it got even better. With their structurally masterful interpretation of Bartok's fifth string quartet that got under one's skin, Antje Weithaas, Daniel Sepec, Tabea Zimmermann and Jean-Guihen Queyras showed their enormous potential.
OSTSEE ZEITUNG, 28/6/2005 --- [the performance] offered something outstanding, even unique, for where else can such experienced soloists (...) be experienced as a string quartet - and a perfect one indeed! Their terrific, artistically outstanding performance as Arcanto Quartet set new standards: all advantages and qualities of solistic playing are united in music-making which nevertheless can hardly be thought more "collectively" and opens up completely new dimensions of extreme richness of sound (...). One does not have to stop oneself from using superlatives - and even less from wishing to hear the ensemble soon again.
NORDKURIER, 28/6/2005 --- There was a marvellous surprise at this year's Mozart-Fest at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Wismar. It took place at the afternoon concert of the Arcanto Quartett, which only made its debut last year in Stuttgart. The string quartet consists of musicians which are well-known as soloists (...). In the quartet, however, their individual styles blend into a fascinating ensemble sound of unheard-of precision and balance.
STUTTGARTER NACHRICHTEN, 27/6/2005 --- During Mozart's Quartet in D-major K575, an open communication ignited between the musicians, full of virtuosic joy of play and musical esprit. (...) Brahms' very first string quartet breathed fierce impetus and bittersweet yearning. (...) The Arcanto Quartet congenially turned the rebelling nihilism and the apocalyptic sentiment of the six Adagio movements [of Shostakovich's quartet in e-flat minor op. 144] into one expressionistic sculpture of sound. Enthusiastic bravos.
BIETIGHEIMER ZEITUNG, 27/6/2005 --- While the summery temperatures melted icecream in no time, the Arcanto Quartet made music in such breathtaking way that one would have liked to melt away in it. Sure enough one should not compare the profanity of melting ice with the virtuosity of these outstanding musicians. Still, their music making is a force of nature just like the momentary heat, and they received ovations from the breathless, deeply touched listeners already before the interval. (...) They are a peerless ensemble with their sense of humour, their perfect intonation and unanimity. (...) In the string quartet firmament, a new star has risen.
DE MORGEN, 19/4/2005 --- What this quartet delivered on Saturday night in (...) Brussels, was possibly - and I have really thought this through - the best quartet which I have ever heard live. (...) For several reasons, this ensemble is already the revelation of the year, as far as well-known soloists can be discoveries. First and foremost, there is the total equality in their musical discourse. None of them has to impose himself on the others, nobody gave his name to the quartet, nobody can be left out. Even more striking is the combination of individual freedom and commitment to the ensemble, of technical finesse and listening to the others, of total ease and perfection. (...) Don't miss the next concert!
STUTTGARTER NACHRICHTEN, 26/6/2004 --- Together they are not only strong, but stunningly beautiful. Following their convincingly differentiated case for bowed resonance and harmony, one can expect great things from the Arcanto Quartet. After all, the four musicians offer exactly what their name promises: First-class singing strings.
Photo: Marco Borggreve
Photo: Marco Borggreve
Photo: Marco Borggreve