![[Paul Kletzki - CD cover]](../jpg/kletzki_cover.jpg)
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Product: Album, two-CD set or digital file
Distributed by: Prelude Classics - Polonia
Approximate cost: ±€17
Reviewer: Matteo Bruni - TNT-Audio Italy
Reviewed: December 2025, January 2026
I recently discovered Paul Kletzki as a conductor through his recordings of Jean Sibelius’s First and Third Symphonies, a most gratifying musical experience: despite the recording bearing the unmistakable marks of its age, it remains an intense and vibrant performance. Consequently, when editor Lucio Cadeddu shared with the editorial staff the opportunity to review a world-premiere release containing two previously unheard string quartets by Kletzki, I immediately volunteered. And here I am, dear readers, sharing with you a few notes on a special project: the first publication of the complete cycle of Paul Kletzki's string quartets (1900 - 1973). Of particular interest is the fact that Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 have never been performed live, making the album not only a musical rediscovery but also a true historical document. The project is entirely curated by Prelude Classics, a young Polish label specializing, of course, in classical music, owned by Michal Bryla, who in addition to being the producer is also a violinist and, in this specific project, acted as balance engineer and took care of the album's editing and mastering.
![[Kletzi]](../jpg/kletzki.jpg)
The figure of Paul Kletzki occupies a singular place in twentieth-century music: not because of the breadth of his catalogue, but because of the silence that interrupts it. Born in Lodz in 1900, a precocious violinist and a composer admired by conductors such as Arturo Toscanini - who, at the end of the Second World War, invited him to conduct the La Scala Orchestra for its reopening after the severe damage it suffered in 1943 - and by Wilhelm Furtwängler, at whose “court” he had both the honour and, certainly, the burden of conducting the Berlin Philharmonic at only twenty-five years of age. Kletzki saw his creative trajectory shattered by racial persecution as a Jew. After exile from Nazi Germany and later from Fascist Italy, he witnessed the almost total destruction of his family during the Shoah. In 1942 he definitively stopped composing, claiming that Nazism had annihilated his creative will; nevertheless, his career as a conductor continued with the symphony orchestras of Liverpool, Israel, Dallas and the Suisse Romande.
For a long time it was believed that much of Paul Kletzki's music had been lost during the Second World War. His works seemed to share the fate of his personal history: fragmented, scattered, interrupted. Only in 1965, during some work in Milan, did an event occur that almost has the flavour of a symbolic tale. In a cellar of the Hotel Metropole a trunk was found containing the scores that Kletzki had left there in 1941 before leaving Italy. It was only after his death, in 1973, that his wife Yvonne opened that trunk, discovering that the scores had remained surprisingly well preserved. It is hard not to read in this episode a powerful metaphor: music believed to be destroyed, surviving in silence, waiting to be heard again. To place the string quartets into today's discography also means this: giving voice again (Hidden voices is indeed the album's title) to a heritage that not only risked disappearing, but for years remained suspended between memory and oblivion.
Before delving into the recording itself, it is worth briefly focusing on the four quartets, which trace a surprisingly coherent expressive arc - despite the profound biographical fractures of their composer. The four quartets collected on this double CD are not merely a sequence of works, but a genuine human and stylistic journey that spans Kletzki's entire creative trajectory. When listened to in succession, they allow the listener to follow almost in real time the transformation of his voice, from youthful impulse to a maturity shaped by history.
The first String Quartet (in A minor, Op. 1) is perhaps the most overtly Romantic in terms of timbre, and is the work of a Kletzki who was barely twenty-three. Energetic and vital, it contains the drive of a promising young composer, still not fully mature expressively and tied to conventional forms; even so, the first movement is absolutely engaging.
The second String Quartet (in C minor, Op. 13), composed two years after the first, marks a clear step forward in the artist's maturation. While remaining within a traditional framework, it grows in intensity and, above all, in compositional density, culminating in an excellent finale.
The dramatic biographical fracture of Kletzki permeates the string quartets collected on the second CD: it is music composed before his renunciation, yet already seemingly aware of the precariousness of his own voice. Here, the music often takes on an elegiac and poignant character, with these aspects becoming increasingly evident, ideally following the historical and existential path of the composer. All of this is supported by an extremely meticulous writing for strings, both in terms of timbre and counterpoint. In my view, these last two quartets are the most interesting and intense, and needless to say, they are also the ones I appreciated the most.
In the third String Quartet (in D minor, Op. 23), composed in 1931, there is neither aggressive experimentation nor any clear desire for rupture; the language remains that of an expanded tonality, constantly tense. Yet a great intensity and deeply moving depth emerge: we are no longer facing a young talent, but a composer who has reached maturity, capable of strongly astonishing the listener and stirring them to their core.
The final String Quartet, never published by Kletzki and composed in the year he decided to permanently abandon his compositional career, is undoubtedly the most experimental. The desire to break away from classical patterns is powerful, making it simultaneously the most modern. Engaging and poignant, it is fortunate that Prelude Records decided to publish it: it would have been a real loss if it had remained hidden.
![[Kletzki CD cover]](../jpg/kletzki_cd.jpg)
Let us now turn to the recording. Regarding the sound-stage, it is sufficiently wide and deep, and the individual voices of the quartet are clearly distinguishable and stable. This contributes significantly to the credibility of the sound image, which comes across as very convincing overall. The timbral coherence among the four instruments is high: the quartet sounds like a single, unified body, with a natural balance across the registers and without any voice standing out in an artificial or spotlighted way. The room, while perceptible, never asserts itself as a protagonist: the reverberation is well controlled and does not intrude on the image, contributing to a clean, focused presentation that feels closer to chamber music than to a large, reverberant space.
The violins, often taking the lead or emerging as prominent voices within the texture of the four instruments, sound softened. They are never aggressive, even in moments of maximum attack, where one might expect more harshness or bow tension. This characteristic does not detract from the overall listening experience and may even be more pleasant and less aggressive for many listeners. Personally, I found this surprising.
The dynamics are good, with broad and well-controlled crescendos; the microdynamics are excellent: the slightest variations in intensity, the inflections of phrasing, the subtle noises of the instruments - the bow rubbing against the strings, the minimal mechanical clicks - are rendered with clarity and continuity, contributing to a sense of realism, but above all without sounding artificial or cloying, as in some so-called audiophile recordings that I personally find unappealing. The details - those that often appeal to certain audiophiles - are present, yet they are never put forward in a self-indulgent or showy way: they emerge naturally from the quality of the recording, not as an end in themselves.
The performance by the Bacewicz String Quartet, an all-female Polish quartet, also deserves mention, as it emotionally engages the listener, conveying tension, lyricism, and the inner intensity of the pieces with natural ease.
A brief note should also be made on the overall aesthetics of the album, which impresses with its freshness. Despite the compositions being over eighty years old, the album avoids any sense of a museum artefact. The typography is carefully designed, legible, and never excessive; the photographs of the recording sessions convey a sense of musical focus and substance, without affectation. The cover, in particular, strikes a balance between the old and the new: an image that evokes tradition, yet is traversed by contemporary graphic design, especially in the typographic choices. This, in turn, reinforces the idea of a project conceived as alive and current, rather than merely an archival recovery.
Listening to these discs seriously challenged the critical review mindset I had rigidly set for myself before playing them. My initial analytical, “reviewer's” approach quickly dissolved: I found myself repeatedly carried away by the recording and the understated power of the music. And perhaps this is the most genuine compliment one can give to a recording: to make the listener forget the system, the analysis, even their own role, and simply immerse them in the music. In Hidden Voices, this effect is fully realized.
Ultimately, these string quartets are not only an important rediscovery of Kletzki's catalogue, but they are also musically engaging and capable of delivering space, dynamics, and detail without ever losing sight of the essential: the music itself.
The recording took place on 19th and 24th of July 2025, at the chamber music hall of Grażyna and the Kiejstut Bacewicz Music Academy in Łódź, Kletzki's hometown. The Bacewicz String Quartet consists of:
Ludwika Maja Tomaszewska-Klimek: first violin Hanna Drzewiecka-Borucka: second violin Roza Wilczak: viola Małgorzata Smyczyńska-Szulc: cello
