Jürg Frey: String Quartets
Collection QB, 2025
9/10
Listen to Jürg Frey: String Quartets
Originally released in 2006, this reissue assembles the Swiss composer's first two quartets and other works, where Quatuor Bozzini’s inimitable strings illuminate the timeless vision.
“Streichquartett” leads with Nadia Francavilla’s and Clemens Markel’s violin’s radiating mystery and hypnotic ideas across the cinematic and occasionally plucked 11 minutes, and “(Unbetitelt) VI” follows with the rich bowing of the violins alongside Isabelle Bozzini’s well timed cello bouts.
The back half belongs to the 2 segments of “Zwei allerletze Sachelchen”, where atmospheric is key and dreaminess enters in ways that are cryptic and short lived, while “Streichquartett” exits with nearly 30 minutes of gentle waves of ambience that make great use of Stephanie Bozzini’s viola.
An often slow moving body of work, the Montreal quartet again impress us with their detail, as seemingly simple moments unfold with beauty, wonder and emotion that truly does justice to Frey’s work.
Travels well with: Quatuor Bozzini- Alexandre David: Photogrammes; Quatuor Bozzini/junctQin Keyboard Collective- Rebecca Bruton + Jason Doell: a root or mirror, blossom, madder, cracks; together