Aviv Quartet Press Reviews

         These four young musicians (Sergey Ostrovsky, Evgenia Epshtein, Shuli Waterman and Rachel Mercer) were prizewinners in 2003 at the 5th international “Franz Schubert and Modern Music” competition in Graz and as a result, were invited three years ago to the Salzburg Castle concerts.
         The ensemble approached Mozart’s “Dissonance Quartet,” dedicated to Haydn with respect. The unusually long Adagio introduction in the first movement was spontaneous and refreshingly light, while the second movement sang poetically with perfect intonation and tender ensemble playing from the somber cello and soothing violin. The minuet, with its many major-minor key changes was never insistent but an always brilliant and finely balanced sense of ensemble reigned. The four professionals did justice to the ambitious and long final movement with their young, passionate intensity.
         The affinity for the absurd and the irony of life was expressed refreshingly and cunningly, yet still dramatically, in Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 3, op. 73 in F major (composed in 1946). Shostakovich’s work shone through in this personal interpretation by the Aviv String Quartet, which put honesty and integrity of interpretation at the highest level. The first movement was laid out as a great scene, the first violin beginning with graceful, sonorous melodies that continue astutely into a double fugue by the other three spirited players. However, this leads finally to a wonderful absurd mood. The interpretation of the score in the third movement — an unstoppable, threatening Rondo — was well thought out. One could see and hear the cries of the Second World War, with diverse states of uncertainty, loneliness, desolation and despair displayed until the first violin begins an inward song of hope and peace. The first violin floats with a tender melody above the agitated movements of the cello and viola in the beginning of the Finale, reflecting the memory of a beautiful, peaceful time. The cello joins in with a dance from the first movement. In a dramatic escalation, the passacaglia theme of the fourth movement returns in the Adagio to a melody full of hope on the first violin, which lights up above the final chord in F major. The public acknowledged these young musicians with acclaim and a long sustained ovation for this special moment.
         After the interval, came Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden”: once again it was a very personal sound. “Give me your hand, you beautiful and delicate form! I am a friend, and do not come to punish. Be of good cheer! I am not savage. You will sleep softly in my arms!” Schubert used only these lines of personified death for his slow movement, and gave different aspects to the voice of death in the variations that constitute this Andante. The Aviv String Quartet brought an incredible precision for detail and a deeply moving interpretation both to death and to the young, fragile maiden.
The tremendous ovation for these young musicians was unending and they produced their best with an encore of a Tchaikovsky movement.

The young Aviv- Quartet from Israel replaced, due to sickness, the oldest functioning quartet-Borodin Quartet- at the Zurich Festival. It was a discovery for those few who found their way to the Tonhalle Zürich on Friday evening despite the unknown name. The program consisted of Mozart Quartet E-Flat Major KV 428 framed by both quartets Nr. 7 in f sharp minor op. 108 and Nr. 3 in F Major op. 73 by Dmitri Shostakovich. Fragile the sound in the piano beginning of Shostakovich’s’ f-sharp minor quartet and then: what colour range these four developed out of a score which marks only the very essential things and denies all opulence. How exact (and well balanced) they make use of these colours to define with absolute precision the demanded structure in its emotionality. How tasteful they search for the drama hidden in the musical score. How wonderfully they allow the time to flow through their whole ensemble. And how perfect is the intonation.

In the F-Major Quartet they show with overwhelming freshness the composers’ sarcasm, his affinity to the grotesque, the double meanings. With their very definite interpretation of this piece a Sergei Ostrovsky, Evgenia Epstein, Shuli Waterman and Rachel Mercer let us experience a new- and modern- Shostakovich. But also in Mozart: they approached the E-flat Major Quartet very respectfully; maybe some more insolence would have done a better job to show the proximity to Haydn’s music. But every single note of the score was analyzed on its meaning in the work-whole. The result was an intelligent, well thought score by the Aviv Quartet; the various states of suspension were shown beautifully, with a very special intensity. We sure will hear a lot more of this ensemble.

Shostakovich Cycle on CDs STRAD Magazine June 2006
SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartets vol.2: nos.4, 7, & 11; vol. 3: nos.1, 10 & 13
Dalia Classics DCD 002; DCD 003

The young Aviv Quartet won accolades for its Shostakovich cycle at Wigmore Hall in January, when its distinctive precision and eager intelligence suggested to London audiences that here already were wise heads on young shoulders. Especially admired was its playing of Shostakovich’s Ninth Quartet (1964) – already included on its first disc in this cycle. The Tenth Quartet op.118 dates from the same year, and receives here an admirably crisp, lucid reading (the Allegretto furioso is splendidly driven), whose slow tempos nevertheless narrowly miss the boat (the crucial mourning Adagio needs to suggest more of the mood of Beethoven’s late A minor). Clearly there is still plenty to learn, not least about sustaining. But all four play with absolute commitment and conviction.
Other works also emerge well, notably a superbly affecting reading of the agonised, single-movement Quartet no.13 op.138 (1970), beautifully introduced by Shuli Waterman’s strikingly evocative viola. Shostakovich had suffered politically from the 1930s to the 1950s; now he was suffering physically and neurologically as well. This gripping performance shows clearly why so many have raved about the Aviv, and built up high expectations of it.
The players don’t quite get the measure of the tricky, neo-Classical yet hybrid First Quartet op.49, which dates from 1938, when Stalin’s show trials finally subsided. By contrast, these charming Israeli and Canadian performers reveal many rich layers in the profoundly involving Fourth Quartet. It’s exciting to see a gifted, patently youthful ensemble emerging in chamber music, and many will take pleasure in that alone… But these blithe young performers of the future deserve a hearty welcome.
RODERIC DUNNETT Strad June 2006

Shostakovich Cycle - Wigmore Hall January 2006 Review from STRAD Magazine
"... there was a natural, collective boldness with the Aviv that never sought to trumpet itself. In one listening the players practically became Shostakovich specialists..."

Edward Bhesania, The STRAD April 2006

From The Library of Congress - Washington DC, February 10th 2005
"... the Aviv's tightly honed ensemble made itself felt in its no-fail interaction and sense of continuity..."

Purcell Room Royal Festival Hall November 11th, 2004
"... There might be better quartets somewhere, but we don't need them. Let's hope the Avivs stay a little longer next time! ..." Musical Pointers

Wigmore Hall concert 3.1.2004 - Review in MusicalPointers.co.uk
"... don't miss the next chance to see and hear them live when the Aviv Quartet comes to town, yours or mine. "
4.1.2004 - Peter Grahame Woolf

London Times Wigmore Hall Concert --- "... On the Strength of the Wigmore recital, the Aviv Quartet should be snapped up by a company..."

Wigmore Hall Review 3.1.2004
"... the Aviv String Quartet, founded in 1997, is rapidly emerging as one of today's finest chamber ensembles ... ... An impressive evening that marked the Aviv String Quartet out as a force to be reckoned with..."

"...The performers play with a real youthful enthusiasm of vim and vigour that always feels secure and technically accomplished. The Aviv quartet led by Sergey Ostrovsky is the most exciting ensemble that I have heard for some time and they are I feel destined for an esteemed career..." Michael Cookson
http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2003/Oct03/Hoffmeister_string_quartets.htm

"...It is a factor that allows us to enjoy each player of an uncommonly fine group of musicians, their leader Sergey Ostrovsky right in the centre of every note, even when Hoffmeister has him chasing around the instrument. The sound quality is immaculate and in terms of sheer uncomplicated enjoyment, I most strongly commend the disc to you..."
Click here for full review from the STRAD Magazine DAVID DENTON

The 'Aviv String Quartet' performing in Carnegie Hall, NYC, NY

Debut concert in Kennedy Center - Washington DC, February 6th, 2002

Aviv Quartet

The Aviv Quartet, founded in 1997 by four young Israelis, has won several international competitions and now has a recording contract with the enterprising NAXOS label. Its high standards were everywhere apparent in its appearance Wednesday evening at Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater.

Haydn's last completed quartet (Op. 77, No. 2)

had a spacious, fruity lyricism underpinned with rhythmic flexibility, and the counterpoint of the inner parts flowed easily and naturally without overt pointing or slick, extrovert interpretation. The players -- Sergey Ostrovsky and Evgenia Epshtein, violins; Shuli Waterman, viola; Iris Jortner, cello -- have a beautifully tuned collective sound that is distinctively their own.

Bartok's quirky Quartet No. 1, which begins in the high romanticism of Wagner and Strauss and ends with the barbed, folk-derived rhythms that characterize Bartok's maturity, barked and roared with real authority. Schubert's great Quartet No. 13 ("Rosamunde") was technically poised, luminous and freely impulsive.

-- Ronald Broun

© 2002 The Washington Post Company

Aviv Quartet – Wigmore Hall, London 8 December 2002

"This splendid young Israeli quartet – it hardly seems possible that it has been going only six years – appeared somewhat different from its former self at this coffee concert. For one thing the original cellist (who always looked rather worried), had been replaced six months earlier by the Canadian Rachel Mercer and for another the players were now seated in the 19th –century fashion, with the violinists facing each other. The two works on the programme might have been chosen as a baptism of fire for the new member, as she was exposed straight away in each. She emerged with credit, and if there were a few signs if quartet inexperience, they were slight enough to be insignificant.
Indeed, I have not enjoyed a Haydn performance so much as this op. 76 no. 1 for a long time. It had all the right qualities: a robust stylishness, strength in the inner parts, marvelous tone, bubbling rhythms in the faster movements and a flair for fantasy from leader Sergey Ostrovsky in the Adagio sostenuto. Even the new seating made its contribution, with such a sterling musician as Evgenia Epshtein (second violin) playing outside right.
Dvorak A flat major Quartet op. 105 was beautifully played and from the outset, as in the Haydn, one noted the quality of the cellist and the violist Shuli Waterman. But one hears a lot of good Dvorak from quartets theses days. Good Haydn is rarer – and all the more welcome for that.

Tully Potter STRAD Magazine, March 2003.

Aviv Quartet - Hoffmeister String Quartets Op. 14 - Naxos Laureate Series

David Denton- STRAD Magazine, November 2003