Cage: Quodlibet

“…Saariaho's combination of instruments with live electronics comes up as fresh as ever… it's… the vibrant quality of the playing from Norway's premiere new music quartet - never ugly, even when asked to make extreme demands on the instruments, and always impeccably coloured, balanced and timed. There's colour of a different sort in Cage's Quartet - a monochrome that's achieved by playing almost without vibrato. Maderna's Quartet is the hardest nut to crack, with its fragmented phrases and restless rhythms and dynamics. But behind the notes the Cikadas' deeply committed playing reveals glimpses of a dramatic personality that could only be Italian in its lyrical warmth. Riveting stuff.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2005 *****