Skampa Quartet - Reviews

"The Škampas Quartet’s full-blooded, idiomatic style is made to measure for Czech chamber music"

“The Škampa, recorded live, open with Mozart’s quartet in D K.575, immediately establishing an atmosphere of intimacy, fluent argument and intelligent nuance – the very soul of chamber music. The Central European timbre of their Smetana No 2, with vigour and repose in perfect balance, is even more imposing, as they end with with Shostakovich’s Quartet No 8… It is interpreted here with colossal insight and sincerity“
[Wigmore Hall Live CD]

The Financial Times, October 2007

“This dark programme is delivered with trademark intensity…the Skampa’s raw attack draws unsettling tension from Smetana’s String Quartet No. 2” [Wigmore Hall Live CD]

The Times, November 2007

"The Škampas Quartet’s full-blooded, idiomatic style is made to measure for Czech chamber music. Dvořák’s mature and sunny Piano Quintet is the highlight, with Kthryn Stott’s dappled, sparkling piano well suited to the bright, bucolic textures. Everyone is rustic without being coarse.”

The Times, July 2007

“In the field full of strong ripvals, the Škampa Quartet, as one would expect, make a strong showing. This is music, after all, that flows through thein veins… There’s an uncanny exactitude in the group’s ensemble work and the sound they make is characteristically bright and forward… Is there a Czech feeling to the playing as well as to the music? Most certainly, and that makes this release even more attractive ”
[Dvořák Piano and Double Bass quintets, Supraphon SU 3902-2]

Stehen Pettitt, The International Record Review, November 2007

“Dvořák’s ‚Double Bass‘ Quintet…benefits from the crystalisation of his mature style. Full of delightful lyrical detail, the Scherzo, with it’s anticipation of Dvořák’s ‚American‘ colouring, and the slow movement, constantly veering toward melancholy, are particularly winning. The Škampa Quartet have an enviable reputation for considered interpretations which always generate a strong feelling of immediacy. This super performance goes very much to the head of the field“

Jan Smaczny, BBC Music Magazíne, December 2007

“As with the greatest of string quartets, it is the group’s internal chemistry which makes these recordings [Smetana String Quartets] special. The Škampas play as one – chamber music as it should be.”

The Observer, January 2004

“I am wreathed in a beatific smile, for the disc contains the most idiomatic, fully alive performances of these two pieces these ears have ever heard.” [Smetana String Quartets No. 1 & 2]

The Times, January 2004

“These performances exude authority, and do throw a sharper focus on innumerable aspects of both quartets.”
[Janáček String Quartets CD, Supraphon SU 3486]

The Guardian, September 2001

“The Škampa’s minutely inflected lines and fine sense of balance reveal the raw nerves of Beethoven’s melody…..two outstanding performances” [Beethoven Op127&135 CD]

The Times, July 2000

“However one views these performances [Škampa Quartet Beethoven Op127&135 CD] – and they are bound to be controversial – there is no denying their commanding intensity, technical polish and remarkably fresh approach to scores that have become all too familiar”

International Record Review, September 2000

“Bright and bushy-tailed Beethoven, with plenty of thought beneath the notes. Probably the Škampa’s best CD to date.”

Gramophone October 2000

"In this superb account [of Smetana's Quartet No. 2] the group unfailingly responds to the varying moods of a composer edging towards dementia.... The dramatic and deeply moving aspects are so perfectly conveyed in a performance that has each instrument carefully balanced in relation to the others. Every minute detail in the score is revealed, while at the same time they produce a warm tonal quality in the more tender passages."

The Strad

"A fluent, highly polished account of Schubert's C minor 'Quartettsatz' shows the Škampa to be one of the brightest among today's young chamber groups. Its exceptional interpretive range and musical intelligence are confirmed by splendid performances of quartets by Haydn [the Fifths] and Ravel."

BBC Music Magazine