There is no obvious reason why the Silesian Quartet’s Weinberg cycle should have attracted less critical attention than the pioneering set from the Quatuor Danel on CPO or the ongoing survey by the Arcadia Quartet on Chandos. Certainly, the performances of all the Silesians’  releases that I have heard are uniformly excellent and musically insightful, as is also the case with this latest release...

...There’s powerful competition from the Arcadia Quartet in the Fifth, and from the eloquent Pacifica Quartet (on Cedille) in the Sixth. Nonetheless, the Silesians outshine their rivals in the daredevil breathless speed they adopt for the manic Scherzo in the Fifth, and achieve a greater sense of flow during the emotionally intense Adagio of the Sixth.

Erik Levi

Emotional and committed retrospective of 20th-century composer’s string quartets

...Their playing is gripping in the two seven-minute modernist works, nos.1 (1960) and 2 (1968), with all the composer’s experimental additions – percussive and vocal as well as string-based – welded seamlessly into the whole.

Matthew Rye
The Strad, November 2021

Penderecki: Complete Quartets

...The Second Quartet (...) may not be so abrasively confrontational as its predecessor, but the contrast with the later works in the Silesian Quartet’s survey is still almost shocking, whether that’s in the four movements of the Third, Blätter eines nicht geschrieben Tagebuches (Leaves from an Unwritten Diary), or the two movements of the Sixth, music that seems to evoke 19th-century models such as Schubert and Brahms as much as earlier 20th-century ones such as Bartók and Shostakovich.

It’s hugely to the credit of the Silesians that they seem just as assured in negotiating the clusters and glissandos of the early quartets as they are in refining the traditional textures and lyrical phrases of the later ones. 

Andrew Clements
The Guardian, 02.09.2021

Children of Fortune

... The next day we witnessed a phenomenal chamber concert by the Silesian String Quartet. For many years, this ensemble has been regarded as one of the best string quartets, and what it presented on 7th November in Łódź could not fail to delight. For the ensemble’s performance is characterised by a wonderful homogeneity of sound and something that I would call a “collective imagination”, a unity of  intention in all its elements. And what wonderful colour!... In their interpretation, the quartets of Tansmann, Bacewicz and Ravel turned into expressive and colourful images, lively and gripping from the first note to the last…

Witold Paprocki
Ruch Muzyczny 07.01.2001

Congratulations from the composer

... The Silesian artists showed their full Slavic temperament in the last piece of Sunday’s concert – Antonín Dvořák’s Quartet in G major, Op. 106. Through their immense expressivity, dynamism and bravura, they revealed to their listeners the true complexity of this composition.

Ewelina Wilczek
Gazeta Wyborcza 15.05.2001

Concert series at the Warsaw Philharmonic: famous quartets

... the Quartet’s performance was a great success; we admired the playing of the ensemble as a whole, and at the same time also the virtuosity of each of its members… Stunning interpretations, a high standard of professionalism – and with a strong emotional engagement and rich sound. A wonderful concert followed by a long ovation. Anna Rechlewicz – the “youngest” find of the ensemble – played with great virtuosity. …The ensemble as a whole played with a balanced, dynamic and sumptuous tone . Their skills embraced a full range of emotions – from the pastoral and dramatic right up to the elegiac. This was Art with a capital A. A magnificent ensemble of a high musical culture, a worthy exponent of contemporary chamber music, a true phenomenon on the Polish contemporary scene.

Zbigniew Landowski

The Bull’s Eye

...Mendelssohn’s work (Quartet Op. 80) is regarded as the best of his string quartets. When performed by the Silesian String Quartet, it takes one’s breath away. One could already sense the anxiety in the energetic first movement, fueled in the second movement by a dark timbre and a syncopated rhythm. The precise rendition of the irregular motifs perfectly emphasised the funereal tone of the Adagio, followed by a highly contrasting finale with a spectacular (bravo!) violin part… And then came a real treat in the form of a tranquil Adagio and a Polka – full of distinct humour and played with such vigour that… the ensemble’s bill fell off the wall…

Marek Skocza

Dziennik Zachodni 13.03.2001

Their playing made the paintings fall off the wall

… The Silesian String Quartet performed at the chamber hall of the Gorlice Cultural Centre with unusual expressivity. When they played Dmitri Shostakovich’s piece, a framed poster fell off the wall. … The musicians played with great commitment. And the precision of their performance was also impressive.

Ewelina Wilczek
Gazeta Wyborcza 13.03.2001

Great music: contrasts of outbursts and torpor, culminations of ear-splitting chords, an almost orchestral texture, satanic colours – from the Silesian String Quartet’s repository of performance magic.

Małgorzata Komorowska
Ruch Muzyczny 2.04.2000, ruchmuzyczny.pl

The highest level of performance. The play like devils.
NRC – Nandelsblad

The concert gave its Roman audience the chance to discover the craft of the Silesian String Quartet:  this is an ensemble to remember, as it knows how to combine the perfect clarity of the  works it presents with a warmth and fullness of sound.

Il Manifesto 21.07.1993

The Silesian String Quartet is a first-rate ensemble.
Corriere della sera 24.07.1993

… With the Silesian String Quartet, an impeccable technique and virtuosity of performance are interlaced with sensitivity and deep musicality.
Dziennik Zachodni 1993, dziennikzachodni.pl

The Silesian String Quartet today stands at the summit of Polish chamber music: technically perfect, with great maturity of interpretation, and boasting an impressively rich repertoire.

Adam Walaciński
Dziennik Polski Kraków 4.03.1992

The Silesian String Quartet – a thrill.
Antwerpse Courrant 1990

A perfect rendition and a fascinating concentration driven by deep conviction.
Tagespiegel 1989

… after five minutes I was certain that this was the best rendition of chamber music  I had ever heard…
Tubantia 1989

The Silesian String Quartet – subtlety and exclusiveness.
Apeldoorn Courant 1989

The Silesian String Quartet was today’s revelation.
NRC – Handelsblad 1989

An unparalleled level of precision, sound and contrast.
La Dauphine 1988

The Quartet is indeed very good. They play with great commitment and intensity, so that they present every performed piece in the best light possible.
The Scotsman 11.1988

… Yesterday evening’s concert by the Silesian String Quartet was given unquestionably the best reception from the audience.
Glasgow 1988

Perhaps the first thing that the young instrumentalists have achieved is an impeccable professionalism and a sense of artistry and culture, over which predominate youthful sincerity, emotionality and human warmth. With a flexible, artistic, and magnetic spirituality, with an inner motivation moving from one style to another, from one form of sensitivity to another…

Margarita Władimirowa
Narodnoje Dieło Varna 1986