Limelight magazine (Australia), January 2017
"…this is an exceptional performance of the two works, recorded with great clarity and immediacy. Just listen to the bridge passages in the opening of the Kreutzer—it will make you hairs stand up."
full review link - Limelight Magazine Review
Fanfare Magazine, January 2017
"This is a terrific Janáček album, one that is distinguished by some of the most coruscating and arresting playing I’ve ever encountered in the composer’s quartets. That, along with the added bonus of the lovely On an Overgrown Path arrangement to fill out the disc and a sensational recording to boot, makes this a release that simply has to be heard by everyone."
Classical-Modern Music Review, December 2016
"This is a performance that will be hard to top. The addition of “On An Overgrown Path” makes the release all that much more appealing.
There are no quartets quite like this and Quartetto Energie Nove give us beautiful readings of the new Critical Edition. Don’t hesitate!"
full review link - Classical-Modern Music Review
Musicweb International, November 2016
"…I find the excellent Lindsay Quartet on ASV nimble, articulate and highly skilled but more ‘placed’ without the fire and wildness that is often near the surface in this composer’s works. …The players provide all the dynamic and tonal range you could possibly hope for… One advantage of this close, occasionally oppressive sound is that the four instruments are very clearly placed in a semi-circle in front of the listener. Even without a score there is great clarity in the way Janáček shares the primary melodic material around the group.
Ultimately the quality of the playing and music-making trumps the concerns about the engineering but this was close to being an exceptional disc and one any admirer of this composer should hear."
full review link - MusicWeb International Review
KulturradioRBB/NDR/ARD (German National Radio station), August 2016
"From the first note, the Quartetto Energie Nove forces the listener to pay attention...
...Overall, the sound of the quartet is very homogeneous. The four musicians present a broad range of colours and sounds - from soft and tender toward rugged, sometimes ugly...
...Janáček's Second Quartet in the interpretation of the Quartetto Energie Nove leaves deep marks and stays in listeners' memory for long. It is full of moments in which "the earth shook" - exactly the emotional result intended by the composer and left with the listener after hearing this excellent recording."
full review link - KulturradioRBB/NDR/ARD Review
The art music lounge, August 2016
"Energie Nove, or New Energy, certainly does describe this phenomenal Swiss quartet, founded in Lugano in 2008. Every note crackles with energy...
Violinists Barbara Ciannamea and Hans Liviabella, violist Ivan Vukčevič and cellist Felix Vogelsang play at the very edge of passion...
In addition to their passion, Quartetto Energie Nove utilizes a very bright sonority of a type that has all but disappeared from modern string quartet playing... bright and lean with an almost edgy quality tempered by their superb intonation and remarkable blend. This is a group that can play as a section or pit one voice against another at a moment’s notice.
This disc is a killer!"
full review link - Artmusiclounge Review
THE ART MUSIC LOUNGE, AUGUST 2016
"...their taut, lean yet highly charged readings of the two big quartets are outstanding-listen, for instance, to the way they balance the lyrical and explosive elements in the second movements of both quartets, bringing out Prokofiev’s sometimes-obscured dark side.
This is a thoughtful as well as an exciting disc, highly recommended."
full review link - Artmusiclounge Review
The Strad, May 2013
"Electrifying performances that tap the music's inventiveness...
...Throughout even the thorniest passages they retain absolute technical composure, knife-edge ensemble and remarkable intonational accuracy.
If the general tendency in this music is to play cool with the music's essentially neo-Classical profile, the Energie Nove players throw themselves gleefully into the fray, clearly believing in every note. Relishing the music's bracing inventiveness and chameleon-like changes of mood, they play with an electrifying frisson that provides a vital musical bridge between the impassioned middle-period masterpieces of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich's agonising introspection...
... the detailed yet full-bodied recording captures these outstanding performances superbly."
full review link - The Strad Review
American Record Guide, July/August 2013
"I've attended excellent performances of Prokofieff's First Quartet. The Second Quartet is new to me, as is this arrangement of the Visions Fugitives. Energie Nove plays impeccably. If you are a fan of Prokofieff or simply would like to hear an excellent quartet performing something you haven't already heard umpteen times, this is perfect."
Classical Net, 2013
"QEN play with an impressive technique, a crispness in their attacks, very accurate intonation, and with an unsentimental approach in lyrical sections...
...There have been excellent performances of the Prokofiev quartets by the Chiligirian Quartet, the Aurora Quartet, and among older recordings, the Novak Quartet and Britten Quartet. but this one on Dynamic is at least is as good as the best of them and has an interesting bonus in the addition of the Visions Fugitives arrangement."
full review link - Classical Net Review
Arkiv Music / Fanfare, 2013
"...To repeat what I've said many times before, we are blessed to be living in a golden age of string playing, and the Quartetto Energie Nove is but yet another manifestation of our blessings. Most performances of Prokofiev's First String Quartet start off with an appropriately jaunty stride of cockeyed optimism. But Energie Nove's players spring forth, jack-in-the-box like, with a mischievous alacrity. Their first movement timing, 6:39, leaves the St. Petersburg Quartet (on Delos), at 7:43, in the dust. They're even faster than the Emerson Quartet at 7:05 and the Chilingrian Quartet (on Chandos) at 7: 01...
... Energie Nove plays with consummate technical authority and real feeling for the music's folk idioms.
...this new Prokofiev offering is strongly recommended."
full review link - Fanfare Review
MusicWeb International, 2013
"... the Quartetto Energie Nove make light of all difficulties and attack both works with eagerness and vivacity as well as impeccable tuning. They are ideally recorded in a close - but not too close - acoustic...
...Quartetto Energie Nove must earn the highest recommendation for giving us a chance to hear both Prokofiev quartets in such excellently turned performances. I have not heard either of its currently available competitors, but they cannot possibly be any better than this.
full review link - MusicWeb Review