New York Times
“striking arrangements of folk music… As Sunday’s eloquent performance demonstrated, the players bring the same charisma and sense of adventure to their selections.
The slightly tart, resiny sound of traditional fiddle playing carried over beautifully into fresh readings of Haydn and into the Beethoven. But perhaps the most arresting moment was James MacMillan’s “Memento” from 1994, in which wisps of a melody floated on hazy harmonies and coalesced into heaving sighs before dissolving again into ghostly strains, rendered with a kind of fierce tenderness. CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM
France Musique
"With this first recording, these four young Scots set the bar high. Inventiveness, rhythmic energy and irreproachable intonation in a programme conceived around the three Op. 71 Quartets" RODOLPHE BRUNEAU-BOULMIER
The Observer
"After each of the three quartets, the Maxwells add some evocative Scottish folk tunes, providing gentle, wistful punctuations between Haydn’s essays, beautifully serene" NICHOLAS KENYON
“Because they play the music as though they’ve known it all their lives, it seems to make perfect sense. Their Haydn should be enough to earn a recommendation on its own, but interspersed with Scottish tunes it points up Haydn’s way with folk tunes and rhythms and ends with the timeless beauty of Lady MacGregor’s Lament” ANDREW MCGREGOR
BBC Radio 3
"The Maxwells were brilliant in Nielsen's First Quartet... as too was their Shostakovich 10, where they caught the confidentiality of the music by scarcely letting it raise its voice"
"Deeply moving and elegiac...terrifically exhilarating"
"Brilliantly fresh, unexpected and exhilarating... an enlightening and enthralling musical experience" MICHAEL TUMELTY
The Scottish Herald
"Very fine performances from the Maxwell Quartet... a clear and impassioned reading alive to the score's delicate lyricism and need for control" GUY DAMMAN
The Guardian
"Affectionate and warm... the quartet shone in their hands... a persuasive advocacy" IVAN HEWETT
The Telegraph
"Succinct and beautifully crafted, it felt like every note mattered in the Maxwells’ thoughtful performance...an explosive performance"
“Philip Glass’ String Quartet No. 2 was brought alive by the visceral rhythmic playing of the Maxwell Quartet” KEN WALTON