The Juilliard String Quartet – Press

“Vivified by the recent addition of first violinist Areta Zhulla, the Juilliard String Quartet captured Beethoven at his brightest and darkest…”

“… the Juilliard proved adept at achieving chamber-music intimacy in a large concert hall. Often a small ensemble can sound isolated or overwhelmed in a big space even when giving a technically excellent performance. Not so here.”

“… what particularly stood out in this performance was the way in which this diversified foursome is reclaiming some of the old Juilliard Quartet verve, bringing an assertive, even intense musicality to works by Beethoven and Kúrtag.”

“… these musicians were able to define with such accuracy and minute detail. Subtleties – a momentary surge, a whispered diminuendo – jumped to the fore with high definition quality.”

“Zhulla has clearly settled in nicely, and played in absolute empathy with her colleagues… In the opening Allegro [of Beethoven’s Op. 18, No. 3] the players were robust and vigorous, with some sinuous legato, and the Andante con moto had many colours and moods, sometimes jaunty, sometimes rich, with some good spiky staccato.” 

“Stresses were smartly placed in the third movement, and the finale, starting with a solo challenge by the first violin, promptly became a democratic and joyous sword fight. The witty pianissimo conclusion delighted the substantial crowd.”

“Their superb performance merged classical-minded studiousness with modernistic forcefulness and elasticity.”

“This was a performance, above all, of high polish and efficiency.”

“The players hit this out of the park, rounded the bases and brought the music home in a joyous finish.”

“Yet somehow, their soul, that ineffable lyric singing voice, whether in their iconic Bartók or their down-to-earth Dvorák has remained always…well, the Juilliard String Quartet. They are not glued to classics or adventures, but embrace all with (what can only be called) joy.”

“The gentle rocking motion of the opening Allegro and the honeyed second movement marked Poco adagio offered a degree of comfort after the rigours of Bartók, whilst the lilting rhythms of the Scherzo and the gossamer Finale were played with wit and humour and brought the evening to a fitting close.”

“This Juilliard performance was full of smiles, rhythmically alive and much appreciated by the audience.”

“The Juilliard’s performance of the Dvořák, meanwhile, was a joy. This much-played work – one of the most popular string quartets there is, together with the Debussy and the Ravel works – rediscovers its freshness here.”

“Executed as by the unfailing hands of surgeons, over the course of the evening, the Juilliard String Quartet performed with barely containable ardor—that at moments impelled their bodies to rise upward from the benches and chairs they sat upon—displaying unparalleled artistry, effortlessly laying claim to a shared sovereignty as one of the world’s finest.”

“This evening with the Juilliard String Quartet clearly showed that in traditional programs, music played at the highest level can be its own draw.”

“The musicians achieved a crystalline clarity as the pretty second movement alternated between a gently rocking beat and tick-tock staccatos. They struck a nice balance through the counterpoint passages, and created a haunting moment when the cello took the minor-key iteration of the four-note theme.”

“Certainly the ensemble’s famed rhythmic precision and keen feeling for instrumental balance remains firmly in place, as does its ability to “play hard” without any unpleasant roughness of tone, but Zhulla also brought to her solos, especially in the slow movement of the “American” Quartet, a welcome degree of passion and spontaneity too. It sounds like she’ll make a fine addition to the team.”

“The Great Fugue, however, was what everyone seemed to be waiting for, and here the quartet seemed genuinely possessed by Beethoven’s radical and grinding dissonance. Even now, as in its day, the music threatens to explode the concept of the string quartet, and the mighty efforts of the Juilliard players Tuesday to bring to life this propulsive, shattering music were nothing short of heroic.”

“Every detail, from technical virtuosity to balance, is set nakedly in front of the listener. And each of these hurdles, big and small, were navigated with grace by these four fine players. The music pulsed and sang. This was a deeply burnished performance that captured the full emotional spectrum while also displaying ensemble playing that would be hard to surpass.”

“The Juilliard’s bracing, rhythmically adept performance evoked a mechanism of interlocking parts, meticulously built to create a single, strong gesture.”

“Krosnick with violist Roger Tapping, then Lin with violinist Ronald Copes, so vividly realized Carter’s score that you hated saying goodbye.”

“Beautiful playing from the four individuals was the highlight of the variations, and the hell-for-leather finale was played with a combination of tight control and dramatic vitality that seems to be the hallmark of this current incarnation of the Juilliard Quartet.”

“Everything about the Juilliard’s traversal of the great ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet was beautiful in sound, impeccable in rhythm and ensemble, and richly dramatic.”

“The Juilliard String Quartet can plausibly be called the most important American quartet in history… the performances of Webern and Berg were sensational. I have never heard Webern’s Five Movements (Op. 5) sound so complete — structurally, emotionally, musically. The Juilliard adroitly captured the bits of Viennese nostalgia hiding in Webern’s epigrammatic phrases, and virtually every moment — the slashing energy of the third movement, the desolation of the fourth — was charged with electricity… The performance united X-ray clarity among the parts, technical precision, and sheer passion, an amalgam it is hard to imagine being bettered… Some groups seem to wrestle with their past and legacy; the Juilliard seems completely revitalized. …It may be just hitting its stride.”

“The Juilliard Quartet delivered the full drama laden within the score, coloring the swirling lines of the first movement with burnished tone and crafting each lyrical phrase with spellbinding focus. They dug in for the more aggressive music that fills the second of the two movements, the lines radiating with a mahogany ensemble quality that rang full in every register… The performance was superb, the interpretation as clear as a country creek.”

“Sony’s new two-CD set adds a 2013 recording of Carter’s Fifth Quartet to the earlier four, and there are personnel changes, too, with Joseph Lin and Ronald Copes replacing Robert Mann and Joel Smirnoff on violins. It’s a truly beautiful performance, both witty and poignant, and captured in close, analytical sound.”

“The Juilliard String Quartet here demonstrates the value of its close relationship with Elliott Carter in negotiating the difficulties of this most challenging of composers… The Juilliard handles these problems, and the complex ‘metric modulation‘ of String Quartet No 1, with a grace and dexterity that surely belies the industry involved.”