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Fine Arts Quartet - Four American Quartets: Philip Glass, Bernard Herrmann, George Antheil, Ralph Evans (2008)

Posted By: Designol
Fine Arts Quartet - Four American Quartets: Philip Glass, Bernard Herrmann, George Antheil, Ralph Evans (2008)

Fine Arts Quartet - Four American Quartets (2008)
Philip Glass - Bernard Herrmann - George Antheil - Ralph Evans

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 289 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 154 Mb | Scans included
Classical, Chamber | Label: Naxos | # 8.559354 | Time: 01:02:25

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.

Naxos' Four American Quartets features four later twentieth century American string quartets, dating from 1948-1995, as performed by the Fine Arts Quartet, the same Fine Arts Quartet that has been around since 1946 and resident at the University of Wisconsin. Naturally, the lineup has changed completely from the original group, though until the departure of violist Yuri Gandelsman in 2008 the membership of the Fine Arts Quartet had been relatively stable for a quarter century. Though replaced in the meantime by interim violist Chauncey Patterson, Gandelsman fills the viola chair here. The Fine Arts Quartet has been involved in a slew of recordings for Naxos, of which this release is only the second entry. However, as most of this activity is focused in more conventional, European fare such as Schumann and Mendelssohn, this disc of American works is particularly welcome; the original Fine Arts Quartet was renowned for its pioneering recordings of the earliest American chamber literature.

There is certainly no law against string quartet members composing – Claus Adam, one-time cellist of the Juilliard Quartet, wrote a superb Cello Concerto – and it is of interest that Fine Arts first violinist Ralph Evans should lead off this collection with his own string quartet, begun in 1966 but not completed until 1995. By his own account, Evans was unimpressed with formalistic music current in 1966 and wanted to create something comparably rigorous, but non-confrontational and entertaining. Indeed, the result is whimsical and clever, and in relation to the Babbitts and Boulezes of that time, this quartet has a Flying Spaghetti Monster-ish aspect to it. It is the Darmstadt school turned on its head, containing no specific references to pre-existing music, yet Evans constructs fleeting figments of tonality in a formal design that is architectonic, rather than based on psychological form or other established strategies. Evans' quartet is both engaging and amusing and well deserves recording.

Philip Glass' String Quartet No. 2, "Company," is relatively familiar company indeed, recorded by Kronos, the Smith Quartet, and in at least two arrangements. Compared to these other versions, Fine Arts' reading is leaner, less fluid, and more marked, and it is stimulating to hear this quartet played with a little more bite than is the norm. The admixture of folk forms and futurism in George Antheil's String Quartet No. 3 is – pardon the pun – a heady one, and Fine Arts' recording represents a positive step toward establishing this excellent quartet to a well-deserved place in the main quartet literature. Bernard Herrmann's Echoes for String Quartet makes for a rather odd, and somewhat disquieting, match with the rest of the program. Echoes was an example of Herrmann making lemonade out of the lemons that life gives; at the time he was separated from his wife and deeply engaged in what turned out to the be the death throes of his professional relationship with Alfred Hitchcock. While this is a fine performance, it concludes the album on a down note; it might have been better placed in the middle or even at the start of the program. Nevertheless, it is nice to have Herrmann's work included in the context of other serious musicians as opposed to that of other film composers, or most commonly, his own context. Overall, Naxos' Four American Quartets is a refreshing and intriguing program that whets one's appetite for the remaining slate of Fine Arts Quartet releases.

Review by Uncle Dave Lewis, Allmusic.com

Here are four string quartets by American composers, all vivid and in diverse styles.

Ralph Evans is the leader of the Fine Arts Quartet. He wrote most of his String Quartet No. 1 in 1966-8 then laid it to one side, only completing it in 1995. It is in four movements of which the first is shot through with determination and irony in a manner that had me thinking of Weigl and Zemlinsky. For all its occasionally spiky energy this is essentially heartfelt tonal writing with a feint dusting of dissonance.

The Glass work may well be familiar if you have heard his orchestral score for Company. It is derived from music he wrote for Samuel Beckett's prose poem of that name. The four movements are very short and are lit by the usual flight and propulsion. The second and fourth movements are classic chaffing Glass – exciting and ingratiating.

The four movement Antheil work is a surprise. It is very close in style to Dvořák in ebullience of expression and in open air poetry. In the last movement there is a spray of wrong-note flavour that assures you that this is not a long lost work by a Bohemian romantic. The effect is very entertaining and appealing. You might think about this as if it had come from the pen of E.J. Moeran but caught in a mood when he wanted to pastiche the Dvořák of the American Quartet. That said, the finale has one or two sickle-edged ‘danses macabres’ that also suggest Shostakovich.

Bernard Herrmann's string quartet Echoes began life as a ballet given by the Royal Ballet in 1971. It is in Herrmann's most potently downbeat mood - at first really gloomy and soon dimly but irresistibly lit by English melancholia. It at times naturally prompts thoughts of Psycho and Marnie. There is little sun in this music; clouds scud across gun-metal skies or fill the heavens with the covenant of rain.

Review by Rob Barnett, MusicWeb-International.com

Fine Arts Quartet - Four American Quartets: Philip Glass, Bernard Herrmann, George Antheil, Ralph Evans (2008)



Fine Arts Quartet:
Ralph Evans (Violin)
Efim Boico (Violin)
Wolfgang Laufer (Cello)
Yuri Gandelsman (Viola)

rec. 17-19 March 2007, Il Bagno Konzertgalerie, Steinfurt, Germany.

Tracklist:

Ralph EVANS (b. 1953)
String Quartet No.1 (1995)
01. I. Moderato (6:52)
02. II. Andante espressivo (5:25)
03. III Allegro scherzando (2:51)

Philip GLASS (b. 1937)
String Quartet No.2 'Company' (1983
04. I. Tempo 96 (2:43)
05. II. Tempo 160 (1:49)
06. III. Tempo 96 (1:50)
07. IV. Tempo 160 (2:30)

George ANTHEIL (1900-1959)
String Quartet No.3 (1948)
08. I. Allegro (5:23)
09. II. Largo (5:40)
10. III. Quasi presto (Scherzo) (2:23)
11. IV. Allegro giocoso (4:49)

Bernard HERRMANN (1911-1975)
12. 'Echoes' for String Quartet (1965) (20:10)


Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 1 from 15. November 2010

EAC extraction logfile from 25. October 2012, 22:17

Fine Arts Quartet / Four American Quartets

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==== Log checksum BE49F850E58CA5D24D53D59274DF3C55A3DEA88FD34652E0EFD723288C91EFA7 ====

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2017-07-05 16:50:41

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Fine Arts Quartet / Four American Quartets
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR14 -4.25 dB -22.37 dB 6:52 01-Ralph Evans - String Quartet No.1 (1995) - I. Moderato
DR12 -5.41 dB -22.77 dB 5:25 02-Ralph Evans - String Quartet No.1 (1995) - II. Andante espressivo
DR15 -1.80 dB -22.08 dB 2:51 03-Ralph Evans - String Quartet No.1 (1995) - III Allegro scherzando
DR12 -9.55 dB -25.64 dB 2:43 04-Philip Glass - String Quartet No.2 'Company' (1983) - I. Tempo 96
DR11 -6.17 dB -21.67 dB 1:49 05-Philip Glass - String Quartet No.2 'Company' (1983) - II. Tempo 160
DR14 -4.95 dB -23.89 dB 1:50 06-Philip Glass - String Quartet No.2 'Company' (1983) - III. Tempo 96
DR12 -11.12 dB -27.57 dB 2:30 07-Philip Glass - String Quartet No.2 'Company' (1983) - IV. Tempo 160
DR15 -1.88 dB -20.52 dB 5:23 08-George Antheil - String Quartet No.3 (1948) - I. Allegro
DR14 -4.45 dB -23.50 dB 5:40 09-George Antheil - String Quartet No.3 (1948) - II. Largo
DR13 -3.16 dB -19.88 dB 2:23 10-George Antheil - String Quartet No.3 (1948) - III. Quasi presto (Scherzo)
DR15 -1.47 dB -19.13 dB 4:49 11-George Antheil - String Quartet No.3 (1948) - IV. Allegro giocoso
DR18 -0.08 dB -23.97 dB 20:10 12-Bernard Herrmann - 'Echoes' for String Quartet (1965)
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 12
Official DR value: DR14

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Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 621 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

Fine Arts Quartet - Four American Quartets: Philip Glass, Bernard Herrmann, George Antheil, Ralph Evans (2008)

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