Review Centaur Quartet – String Quartets by Devantgarde Composers

At the 17th aDevantgarde Festival 2023 under the (new) motto “Biedermeier” the go-ahead was given for your own brand. Looking back at the festival’s past, the restoration of the string quartet, which was declared dead in the mid-20th century, is surprisingly colourful. Above all, the added aesthetic value of a healthy reduction of symphonic and epic proportions à la Krennic and Feldman into delicate, often one-piece riffs makes this debut album leap and bound in the best sense of the word. Melodic elements collide with lively playing techniques, and the romantic recollections of cellist Caio de Azevedo, who plays in the Quartet of Centaurs, oppose dashing overtures such as Alexander Strauch’s “HIAS”, which transcend the Bavarian idiom. The children and grandchildren of Henzi, Munich’s most important new musical pillar, together with Viva Musica and the Musical Theatre Biennale, favor an array of sounds and formats worth listening to.

String Quartets by Devantgarde Composers
Works by Bettendorf, Dewes, Schmoeder, Lyman Horn, Azevedo, Weidner, Schachtner, Strauch, Salvatore, Dick, Bhagwati, Bogachar and Eggert

Centaur Quartet
Devantgarde Records