Native Instruments Amati Viola V1.2.0

This fascinating set provides a refreshing window onto a much studied, much idolized, and oft performed master of composition, allowing many of his familiar works to appear in a new light, recognizable and yet transformed. Bach's music is often described as indestructible, in the sense that no matter how it is performed, or in whichever arrangement, it's essential spirit survives. Many of the transcriptions included here represent the work of contemporary, world-class performers bringing Bach's masterpieces into the repertoire of their own instruments or ensembles, thereby giving new timbres to the genius of Bach's contrapuntal lines.

Kronos Quartet's groundbreaking 2002 collaboration with composer Terry Riley, Sun Rings, is available as a recording for the first time via Nonesuch Records on August 30, 2019.

The Chiaroscuro Quartet has embarked on a chronological, single-album cycle of Beethoven's quartets, and the group returns here with the second volume, offering the fourth, fifth, and sixth quartets from the composer's Op. 18 set of six. The group uses gut strings and early instruments (second violinist Pablo Hernán Benedí plays a 1570 Amati instrument) that impart a physicality fitting the quartet's expressive aims. The word "chiaroscuro" befits this quartet, which, even in Haydn quartets, offers high-contrast performances.