Malion Quartett & Karsten Schmidt- Hern - The Juliet Letters (CD)

With The Juliet Letters (1993), Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet created a unique work that combines vocals and string quartet in a "song sequence with a title". Inspired by letters to "Juliet" from Verona, the 20 songs tell of love, loss and human abysses. The cycle transcends genre boundaries by merging elements of classical music, pop and jazz into a new unity. Karsten Schmidt-Hern and the Malion Quartet present their very own take on the work. The album was released in 1992 and reached number 18 in the UK charts in 1993. Elvis Costello himself is said to have described the work as "a series of songs for string quartet and voice, and it has a title. It's a bit different. It's not a rock opera. It's something new." However the work can be classified stylistically, the audience quickly recognizes that it is simply good music. If you want to, you can recognize all kinds of influences, from classical music, pop, jazz or folk songs, but the recognition only lasts a moment and the music surprises you all over again. All musical influences flow together in a unique synthesis. That's why the term "crossover" doesn't fit: no genres are mixed here, rather boundaries are broken down and something new is created.