Four American Quartets

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No masterpieces here but a pleasant enough collection. Expertly played… — Gramophone Magazine, October 2008 More…

Release Date: 30th Jun 2008
Catalogue No: 8559354
Label: Naxos
Series: American Classics
Length: 62 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Evans, Ralph: String Quartet No. 1

Work length15:03

$3.00

$3.90

Fine Arts Quartet

I. Moderato

Track length6:50

$1.00

$1.30

II. Andante espressivo

Track length5:25

$1.00

$1.30

III. Allegro scherzando

Track length2:48

$1.00

$1.30

Glass, P: String Quartet No. 2 'Company'

Work length8:42

$4.00

$5.20

Fine Arts Quartet

I. Quarter note = 96

Track length2:41

$1.00

$1.30

II. Quarter note = 160

Track length1:47

$1.00

$1.30

III. Quarter note = 96

Track length1:47

$1.00

$1.30

IV. Quarter note = 160

Track length2:27

$1.00

$1.30

Antheil: String Quartet No. 3

Work length18:09

$4.00

$5.20

Fine Arts Quartet

I. Allegretto

Track length5:22

$1.00

$1.30

II. Largo

Track length5:39

$1.00

$1.30

III. Quasi presto (scherzo)

Track length2:21

$1.00

$1.30

IV. Allegro giocoso

Track length4:47

$1.00

$1.30

Herrmann, B: Echoes

Work length20:10

Album only

Fine Arts Quartet

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This recording gathers four string quartets by American composers who are widely divergent in style and manner, and who have made a distinctive and personal contribution to this endlessly re-inventive format. Finally completed in 1995, Ralph Evans’s First String Quartet is written in a non-derivative style, with tuneful melodies, lively counterpoint and piquant harmonies. Philip Glass has completed five mature quartets, his Second Quartet deriving from a theatrical presentation of Samuel Beckett’s prose poem Company. The self-styled ‘bad boy of classical music’, George Antheil wrote three string quartets, the third of which is permeated by a folk-music ambience. Best remembered for his film scores, Bernard Herrmann had not released a concert work for 25 years when he wrote Echoes. Its title applies to the thematic connections unobtrusively linking the ten sections of this one-movement piece.

Reviews

October 2008

No masterpieces here but a pleasant enough collection. Expertly played…

23rd August 2008

This eclectic collection of Americana hardly gives a representative survey of 20th-century trends, but it is welcome all the same. Most interesting are the Third Quartet of George Antheil, where Dvorák meets Shostakovich, and Bernard Herrmann's Echoes for String Quartet, music that typically combines atmosphere (it was written for a ballet) with motivic tautness. The best thing about Philip Glass's Second Quartet (Company) is that it is blessedly short, but the attractive First Quartet by the Fine Arts Quartet's violinist Ralph Evans has plenty of substance. Performances sound a little rough at times, but the players' advocacy is never in doubt

Four American Quartets

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