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. Ralph Evans is more familiar as a performer than composer. Finally completed in 1995, his 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 American 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. Evans, Ralph String Quartet No. 1 Fine Arts Quartet 1. I. Moderato 00:06:52 2. II. Andante espressivo 00:05:27 3. III. Allegro scherzando 00:02:43 Glass, Philip String Quartet No. 2, "Company" 4. I. quarter note = 96 00:02:47 5. II. quarter note = 160 00:01:49 6. III. quarter note = 96 00:01:49 7. IV. quarter note = 160 00:02:26 Antheil, George String Quartet No. 3 8. I. Allegretto 00:05:31 9. II. Largo 00:05:40 10. III. Quasi presto (scherzo) 00:02:21 11. IV. Allgro giocoso 00:04:44 Herrmann, Bernard Echoes 12. Echoes 00:20:17

 

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Weitere Beteiligte: Fine Arts Quartet