Tim Homfray hears the performance of Mozart, Francisco Coll and Bartók at London’s Wigmore Hall on 13 February 2025
The Kuss Quartet set a brisk pace in the first movement of Mozart’s A major Quartet K464, which it played with constant contrasts between forthright determination and grace. The Menuetto had vivid dynamics and moments of delicacy, and in an expressive performance of the Trio first violinist Jana Kuss played her triplet passage with a gentle touch, leaving her colleagues to the fore. Kuss was similarly restrained with her filigree demisemiquavers in the Andante, and the finale had energy and elegance.
Next came the UK premiere of Francisco Coll’s First String Quartet ‘Códices’, a work drawing on folk music of several countries, frequently anguished. The Kuss played with a passionate intensity.
The opening movement of Bartók’s Sixth Quartet was forceful and expressive. The Kuss Quartet neatly negotiated the constant shifts in character and emotional temperature, and there was always an awareness of Bartók’s melodies threading through the busy writing. The Marcia had the necessary rhythmic vigour, and the later portamento sections were suitably seductive. All four players avoided astringent bowing both here and in the following Burletta, even in the sequences of down-bow quavers. In the final Mesto, voices emerged beautifully from the harmonic mists.
TIM HOMFRAY
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