Mozart: Piano Quartet No. 2 in E flat major, K493

“The pianist Bronfman joins the Zukerman Chamber Players (violinist Pinky plus three young Canadians) for an excursion into the rural idyll of Schubert’s Trout Quintet. The irresistible swing that they generate comes from deep within the core of their bright sound. The slowings at cadences are of one mind, and you’re swept along by the andante’s pendulum dialogue and the bouncing repeated notes of the scherzo. The Trout Variations are the height of gentility until fury erupts as the fish is caught. The jaunty finale, each long note an elegant springboard dive, suggests that he leaps free. The shared engine also drives Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E flat K493 in a performance that sounds nothing but fun.” The Times, 27th June 2008 ****

“Not just a piano virtuoso of steely right-hand brilliance, Yefim Bronfman also uses his left hand - to accentuate bass-lines and generate harmonic tension.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2008

“Choosing steady tempos, Yefim Bronfman and his string accomplices take an unusually serious view of proceedings. There are moments of great lyrical eloquence. But Bronfman, Zukerman and co do not do Viennese charm. Too often - above all, in their sober finale - they miss a blitheness and rhythmic buoyancy crucial to any performance of this lovable work. The players' spacious, thoughtful approach is better suited to Mozart's E flat Piano Quartet. The first movement, close in spirit to the contemporary piano concertos, has an almost symphonic amplitude. Again, though, the finale is slightly po-faced, with little sense of Mozartian roguishness bubbling beneath the music's urbane surface.” Richard Wigmore, The Telegraph, 23rd August 2008

"What a difference when this much-advertised work of art is performed with the highest degree of accuracy by four skilled musicians who have studied it carefully, in a quiet room where the sound of every note cannot escape the listening ear, and in the presence of only two or three attentive persons! But, of course, in this case no éclat, no brilliant modish success is to be thought of, nor is conventional praise to be obtained! Here political ambition can have no part to play, nothing to gain, nothing to bestow, nothing to give and nothing to take – in contrast to public concerts of the modern kind, where such factors exert such an almost constant influence." – Journal des Luxus und der Moden (June 1788)

“A performance which chases along nicely and cheerfully….Benny Goodman’s now classic performance of the Mozart Clarinet Quintet comes up well on reacquaintance, with an engaging simplicity”. Gramophone

" the Budapests in their prime - their playing here is outstanding. " International Piano

'Anyone who has heard the Fauré Quartett will want to hear them again.' - Martha Argerich