“Lors de la 9e édition de leur Composer’s Kitchen, le Quatuor Bozzini invitait hier les curieux à entrer dans l’antre de la
création, à humer ce qui bouillonnait dans le chaudron, en proposant quatre pièces
de jeunes compositeurs.”
Montréal
Workshop’s Closing Concert (Composer’s Kitchen 2013) (Apr 27, 2013) in Clavier
bien tempéré (Québec), April 2013
“What’s the last concert where all the composers were new to you?”
Salon qb I
(Salon qb 2013) (Apr 17, 2013) in The Gazette (Québec), April 2013
“Quatuor Bozzini are more experimental… Maybe maverick
is a little (better).”
hcmf// (Nov
22, 2012) in The Wire (UK), February 2013
“Other far-out explorations were engaged in by Canada’s Quatuor Bozzini.”
hcmf// (Nov
22, 2012) in The Irish Times (Ireland), November 2012
“… the prize for the weirdest noise produced at the year’s festival was probably
taken by Quatuor Bozzini, who played Simon Steen-Andersen’s String Quartet No 2 with
masking tape on their bows.”
hcmf// (Nov
22, 2012) in The Guardian (UK), November 2012
“On Thursday night, one of the world’s great new-music quartets, the Canadian
Bozzini Quartet, submitted with every sign of grace and
good humour to having their venerable medium totally deconstructed.”
hcmf// (Nov
22, 2012) in The Telegraph (UK), November 2012
“Four 4 was a soulful tribute to a Great”
Open Music
(Nov 16, 2012) in Kronen Zeitung (Austria), November 2012
“Quatuor Bozzini played (Cage)
with high connoisseurship and fine sense of sound.”
Open Music
(Nov 16, 2012) in Kronen Zeitung (Austria), November 2012
“La relation entre les musiciens, le danseur et la chorégraphie est belle, juste
et fragile.”
Une idée sinon
vraie… (Oct 24, 2012, Oct 25, 2012, Oct 26, 2012) in Le Devoir (Québec),
October 2012
“La nouvelle chorégraphie de Marc Boivin se nourrit de
la musique d’Ana Sokolović, du Quatuor
Bozzini et de la commedia dell’arte.”
Une idée sinon
vraie… (Oct 24, 2012, Oct 25, 2012, Oct 26, 2012) in Le Devoir (Québec),
October 2012
“To the sounds of jagged strings, he swung his arms wildly. His choreography was
not about trying to make beautiful body lines, but about showing mood and
personality changes.”
Une idée sinon
vraie… (Oct 24, 2012, Oct 25, 2012, Oct 26, 2012) in The Gazette (Québec),
October 2012
“The audience should expect a compelling questioning. The staging is simple yet
ingenious and Ana’s music is evocative.”
Une idée sinon
vraie… (Oct 24, 2012, Oct 25, 2012, Oct 26, 2012) in La Scena Musicale
(Québec), October 2012
“No other ensemble could repeat the Bozzinis
interpretation, with its thousand colours, all grey, as a critic wrote about their
special qualities.”
Ny Music
Boras (Sep 9, 2012) in Boras Tidning (Sweden), September 2012
“The movements of the lines completed the experience and gave it hallucinatory
or at least hypnotic qualities. Was it a transparent angel which glided through the
room? The way the Bozzini Quartet played, time was
repealed by an infinite beauty.”
Ny Music
Boras (Sep 8, 2012) in Boras Tidning (Sweden), September 2012
“The Quatuor Bozzini is relentless with regards to the
notion of vulnerability in their work, and it is an idea that perhaps characterizes
them best as contemporary artists, defining their history to date.”
Ange noir /
Black Angel (Jun 1, 2011, Jun 2, 2011, Jun 2, 2011, Jun 3, 2011) in Circuit
(Québec), May 2012
“… the Quatuor Bozzini’s adventure in this daring
theater/music creation is typical of the group’s unabashed commitment to exploring
possibilities for the contemporary string quartet.”
Ange noir /
Black Angel (Jun 1, 2011, Jun 2, 2011, Jun 2, 2011, Jun 3, 2011) in Circuit
(Québec), May 2012
“Le Quatuor Bozzini s’est révélé un complice idéal,
transmettant la profondeur de la partition, l’intimité dans le traitement des
timbres et un lyrisme non dépourvu d’une certaine sombreur.”
Thomas devant la
fontaine éteinte (Jan 27, 2012) in Clavier bien tempéré (Québec), January 2012
“… impeccablement interprétée par le Quatuor
Bozzini”
Ange noir /
Black Angel (Jun 1, 2011, Jun 2, 2011, Jun 2, 2011, Jun 3, 2011) in Clavier
bien tempéré (Québec), June 2011
“… donne une œuvre hybride, inventive, profonde dans les thèmes qu’elle
aborde.”
Ange noir /
Black Angel (Jun 1, 2011, Jun 2, 2011, Jun 2, 2011, Jun 3, 2011) in Le Devoir
(Québec), May 2011
“Marlowe S., was written for the Bozzinis… music for string quartet has always been full of dramatic
confrontations between these four instruments, bound together like partners in a
marriage, but only in a Jennifer Walshe quartet would the
cellist pull a gun on one of the violinists.”
Concert
(Nov 19, 2010) in The Guardian (UK), November 2010
“The Quatuor Bozzini is a wonderful ensemble for its
assertions about and through contemporary compositions… The Quatuor puts a silent,
calmly precise, thoughtful and highly intense argumentation against a noisy
world.”
Concert
(May 12, 2010) in Nordwest-Zeitung (Germany), May 2010
“… bewundernswert war die eiserne Disziplin mit der das Quatuor Bozzini die
scheinbar endlosen Klangflächen fest und stabil hielt…”
Concert
(Mar 28, 2009) in Klassik.com (Germany), March 2009
“… davantage de satisfactions: Un concert du Quatuor
Bozzini, impliqué dans une Trance du compositeur
canadien Paul Frehner, et précis dans le 3e
quatuor de René Koering, mais qui régale surtout par la
Grande Fugue de Beethoven — une
véritable fontaine de jouvence et de modernité — et par un somptueux quatuor du
compositeur québécois Walter Boudreau…”
Les figures du
siècle (Mar 15, 2009, Mar 22, 2009) in altamusica.com (France), March 2009
“L’intégrale des Quatuors à cordes de John Cage, […] traversé avec conviction
par notre prodigieux Bozzini.”
John Cage: les
quatuors à cordes (Feb 9, 2008) in La Presse (Québec), December 2008
“… performed at their very best by the Bozzini Quartet”
Portrait Aldo
Clementi (Nov 22, 2008) in Boras Tidning (Sweden), November 2008
“One must congratulate the Quatuor Bozzini on their
total commitment to exploring the world of new music on our behalf. It may be many
years before concerts like these become less of a puzzle and more of a treat. So be
it, and more power to the Bozzini.”
Concert
(Aug 5, 2008) in Showtimemagazine.ca (Canada), August 2008
“… a remarkably distinct evening of music.”
Suoni per il
Popolo (Jun 3, 2008) in Panpot (Québec), June 2008
“Bozzini’s all-Cage evening does its magic. McGill’s
Tanna Schulich Hall — an ideal room for this kind of concert — was near full, and
the audience was breathtakingly silent. This was Cage
lovingly played and received.”
John Cage: les
quatuors à cordes (Feb 9, 2008) in The Gazette (Québec), February 2008
“The way the world looks today, maybe it’s not so strange that artists in all
genres are responding by lifting forth the most clean sense of beauty. Evil does
not let itself be fought with something equally crooked, with power or violence,
when life itself is in danger. This is how I experience the singularly skilled and
brave Canadian Quatuor Bozzini’s choice of expression free
from all outward ornamentation to reach the musical core… The musicians made a
grand performance… The people of Boras have had the chance to hear one of the most
meaningful and finally most successful art-esthetical experiments we know of.”
Ny Musik
Borås (Oct 8, 2007), Borås
Tidning / Ny Musik Borås (Oct 10, 2007) in Boras Tidning (Sweden), November
2007
“The Quatuor Bozzini convey the authority of their
understanding of the music and their enthusiasm for it.”
Music
Toronto (Nov 1, 2007) in Showtimemagazine.ca (Canada), November 2007
“Le Bozzini a choisi ce répertoire… il le défend avec un zèle qui force
l’admiration.”
New
Simplicity (Oct 20, 2007) in La Presse (Québec), October 2007
“… Arbor Vitae is Tenney’s last
composition, commissioned by Montréal’s Quatuor Bozzini,
who played it with intense musicality and immense sensitivity…”
Concert
(Dec 10, 2006) in Musicworks #97 (Canada), March 2007
“[in Brahms’ Quartet in B Flat Major opus 67] the quartet
succeeded remarkably well in bringing out the transparency of sound and to let the
melodic material move freely between the four voices… Warm applause will follow the
musicians on their eight concerts tour.”
Rikskonserter (Jan 29, 2007) in Uppsala
Nya Tidning (Sweden), January 2007
“There were also some overwhelming moments. One of them was the string quartet
Gradients of Detail by the Berlin-based Canadian
Chiyoko Szlavnics, performed by the outstanding
Bozzini Quartet from Quebec, who successfully realised the
rather simple glissando-processes as free flowing moments musicaux… A twenty-minute
enigma for the ears, one which never allowed our attention to slacken.”
Berliner
Festspiele: MaerzMusik (Mar 18, 2006) in Positionen #66 (Germany), May 2006
“…(les 3 œuvres) reçurent des exécutions absolument magistrales de la part du
Bozzini…”
La Quadrature
du cercle (Jan 17, 2006) in La Presse (Québec), January 2006
“Ces compositeurs ont une chance extrême de pouvoir compter sur un quatuor aussi
impliqué, sûr et imaginatif que le Quatuor Bozzini, qui évolue au top-niveau
international en la matière.”
La Quadrature
du cercle (Jan 17, 2006) in Le Devoir (Québec), January 2006
“In a carreer-spanning concert featuring the Bozzini Quartet, Tenney’s
specialists, the composer’s ideas are engagingly performed…”
James Tenney:
70 ans (Nov 11, 2004) in Los Angeles Times (USA), November 2004
“It is close to impossible to catch in words the feeling of this weekend’s four
concerts with New Music. It is necessary to start in the right place, with the
musicians. Canadian-German Bozzini Quartet is the one quartet in the whole world
that I prefer to hear… Clean colours and clean interpretations lift the qualities
in the music which are subtle, yet incredibly artistically important.”
NY Musik:
Quintets (Oct 3, 2004), NY
Musik: Christian Wolff — The Complete String Quartets (Oct 2, 2004), NY Musik: Canons and Counterpoints (Oct
1, 2004) in Boras Tidning (Sweden), November 2004
“… and the phenomenal Bozzini Quartet from Canada is leading us into the
mountains. The end of [Charles Ives] second quartet is named “Call of the
Mountains”. Here the music reaches its limits…”
Maerzmusik —
Berliner Festspiele (Mar 21, 2004) in Die Zeit (Germany), April 2004
“… souple dans son rendu de texte, le Bozzini, fait ressortir un lyrisme
personel… On va aller le revoir en concert pour partager avec lui le mûrissement
qu’il apportera à cet art.”
Concert de
saison II: Hiver (Jan 15, 2004) in Le Devoir (Québec), January 2004
“Here we have a dream quartet among the string quartets of the world, the
Canadian Bozzini Quartet from Montréal… The overtone rich sound that the four
musicians supplied in the final number, James Tenney’s Koan, became one of my most
sacred moments… The young performers Clemens Merkel and Nadia Francavilla, violin,
and Stephanie and Isabelle Bozzini, viola and cello, were like a vision… Played
with this etching clarity, brightness and yet cool restraint, (Beethoven’s late
quartets) would be an experience we can still only dream of.”
Concert
(Dec 9, 2003) in Boras Tidning (Sweden), December 2003
“… with this group performing, (Koan from James Tenney) will likely feel like
the heavens opening… What a gift we received with (Jurg Frey’s) second quartet… And
what glowing playing!”
Concert
(Dec 9, 2003) in Boras Tidning (Sweden), December 2003
“… visiting Bozzini Quartet, from Canada, took an approach to Glass’ Mishima
that unshackled the music… [from] the Bozzini’s performance of James Tenney’s Koan,
there was a lot to be learned in the journey…It was the great irony of the program
that, in a festival mounted by an ensemble exploring new media, the greatest
musical rewards came from string quartets…”
Concert
(Dec 4, 2003) in The Irish Times (Ireland), December 2003
“… cette formation, tranquillement, est en train de s’imposer comme lieu ardent
de la musique vivante ici. Après la qualité de ce qu’il a présenté qui n’a d’égale
que celle dont ces instrumentistes jouent, les deux prochaines années au TLC
s’annoncent provocatrices de tournants dans le paysage musical de qui n’a froid ni
au yeux, ni aux oreilles.”
Événement
«Wandelweiser» II (Sep 12, 2003) in Le Devoir (Québec), September 2003
“… lors de l’écoute, l’oreille s’émerveille de se sentir si intimement
transportée.”
Concert
(Aug 27, 2003) in Le Devoir (Québec), August 2003
“Quatuor Bozzini brought the 47th annual Slee Beethoven Cycle to a graceful
close. The Bozzini is a likable group. The musicians… perform without flash or
fanfare… Francavilla was touching in the way she enunciated the beautiful, romantic
main theme, without much vibrato, with a hint of a scratch in her sound… the slow
movement (of the second “Razumovsky” Quartet) showed a taut togetherness.”
Concert
(May 30, 2003), Concert (May 31,
2003) in The Buffalo News (USA), June 2003
“The quartet sound was very beautiful and homogenous, always aiming for
transparency. Especially in the early c minor quartet op. 18 n.4 with its
tempestuous outside movements the Bozzini Quartet could joyfully romp about and
have all the youthful energy of this piece burst out… The final movement (of
Beethoven op. 59-2) became a real “bouncer”… (in Beethoven’s quartet op. 135) the
Bozzini Quartet showed capricious humour in the Scherzo and impetuous- fierce
eruptions in the finale.”
Concert
(May 10, 2003) in Rheinische Post (Germany), May 2003
“The Bozzini Sting Quartet from Canada offered a programme which juxtaposed
Wolff’s Exercises out of Songs and Gerald Barry’s 1998. This was an inspired bit of
programming, presenting the work of composers whose refractions of their chosen
material produced some momentarily similar gestural outcomes. 1998 is possibly
Barry’s most rigorously unyelding composition.”
Concert
(Nov 25, 2002) in The Irish Times (Ireland), December 2002
“With the Bozzini Quartet’s assured performance of Christian Wolff’s 1974-6
‘Exercises Out of Songs’, a patchwork quilt of rhythmic variations on folk themes
from a wide range of quasi-political sources, the Old Masters of modern music were
painting patterns of a complexity and technical mastery to put their disciples to
shame.”
Concert
(Nov 25, 2002) in The Observer (UK), December 2002
“The Bozzini String Quartet is one of those groups which gets its teeth into
music. Quiet or loud, fast or slow, these Canadian musicians play with compelling
engagement.”
Mostly Modern
Series (Nov 28, 2002) in The Irish Times (Ireland), November 2002
“The players’ individual intelligences, combined with their well-honed
interactive abilities, provided a synergy that elevated each moment of the
performance to a “truest possible” experience of music.”
Concert
(May 2, 2002) in Musicworks (Canada), September 2002
“… le Bozzini apporte une jeune et stimulante fraîcheur d’accent à Beethoven, en
plus de bien suivre le texte, y compris les reprises et le retour du menuet ‘un peu
plus rapide’, tel qu’indiqué.”
Concert
(Jul 1, 2002) in La Presse (Québec), July 2002
“L’exécution fut précise, le solo de Clemens Merkel convaincant… L’entrée en
matière est furieuse… Les dynamiques surprennent et, de fff à ppp, permettent aux
interprètes de briller là aussi. Le Quatuor no 3 de Wolfgang Rihm a permis aux
cordistes d’atteindre un moment de grâce.”
Concert
(Apr 14, 2002) in La Presse (Québec), April 2002
“Les chuchotements furtifs des musiciennes achèvent de construire une atmosphère
empreinte de mystère… Une soirée de haut calibre…”
Concert
(May 11, 2001) in Voir (Québec), May 2001
“The Bozzini Quartet… developed a concentrated creative energy… sound after
sound a breathing, light and mysterious world full of shining details.”
Concert
(May 4, 2001), Concert (May 6,
2001), Concert (May 6, 2001) in
Aargauer Zeitung (Switzerland), May 2001