Marquis Classics
Release date: June 12, 2020

Jupiter String Quartet

Ludwig van Beethoven: Quartet in C# minor, Op. 131
György Ligeti: String Quartet No. 1, "Métamorphoses nocturnes"

“What a superb pairing of Beethoven and Ligeti quartets. An extensive palette of colours is explored in the Jupiters’ interpretations here. Compelling playing with a good deal of drama.”
- BBC Music Magazine

"In Ligeti’s Bartók-on-acid First Quartet, the Jupiter players are simply superb: theatrical, full of dark humour, alive to the composer’s switchback flips of style. And they achieve it all with an unerring fidelity to the letter of the score, peering through the work’s abundant grotesqueries and bizarre sonic inventiveness to Ligeti’s meanings – sometimes sinister, sometimes playful – underneath. It’s a joy from start to finish, and often bewitching in its uncanny beauty."
- The Strad

“In all, this is a tremendous Ligeti performance: a testament both to the JSQ’s formidable chops and their impressive rapport as an ensemble.”
- The Arts Fuse

"A thoroughly engaging chamber music recital from beginning to end.”
- AllMusic

“Any mood you can dream up is in these pieces, and violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel, and cellist Daniel McDonough conjure it all evocatively.”
- Cleveland Classical

“This performance is a fully mature one that convincingly captures the depth and breadth of Beethoven’s masterpiece. Jupiter has paired it with one of the seminal quartets of the second half of the 20th century, Ligeti’s Quartet No.1 'Métamorphoses nocturnes.' Completed in 1954, the work is reminiscent of the quartets of Bartók and looks backward as much as forward while remaining rooted in the abrasive textures of the recent avant-garde, before metamorphosing to a 'melancholy and lonely close.'”
- The Whole Note

"a noble performance filled with gravitas that never lapses into self-importance ... Jupiter String Quartet astonishes with its magically virtuosic playing and its fastidiously meticulous musicianship.”
- Rafael's Music Notes