The members of the
Klenke-Quartett got together after finishing music school in Weimar in 1994, which would put at least part of their training in the era of the East German conservatory system. Maybe that explains the meaningless Theodor Adorno quotation in the liner notes, but it really doesn't explain a certain mechanical quality in these readings of what are perhaps Mozart's densest, richest, and most ambitious string quartets. Give a listen to the opening movement of the String Quartet in C major, K. 465, the "Dissonant" quartet, whose introduction is marked Adagio. It's closer to Moderato here. The main body of the movement has been played as insouciant and has been played as tense; here it is neither -- it's a rapid little storm of notes. The
Klenke-Quartett seems determined to strip the lyrical content of Mozart's themes in favor of an approach that emphasizes shifting textures and basic melodic contour. The players have the chops to pull off an unusual interpretation: throughout, the four members of the quartet seem to move as one. In some of the more extreme passages in Mozart's quartets, though not in the opening of the "Dissonant," their straightforward playing is effective. The slow movement of K. 465, where a simple four-note motive seems to become inevitably ensnared in a trajectory leading to deep chromaticism, fares very well in the
Klenke's performance. But these performances are missing the basic songfulness that sets up the context for the gnarlier passages in these quartets. Sample this disc if you will -- it's a uniquely brisk and well-executed performance; it may be for some but not for all.
George Szell once defended his dry Mozart by saying that one doesn't pour chocolate sauce over asparagus. But this asparagus doesn't even get a pat of butter.