Sirius Quartet Evans String Quartet No 1

This release is an important milestone in the collaboration between the Finnish composer and pianist Olli Mustonen and the Norwegian string quartet Engegård Quartet.

The later Mikhail Kopelman-led Borodin Quartet recordings of the complete string quartets of Shostakovich aren't so much better than the earlier Valentin Berlinsky-led Borodin Quartet's recordings as they have more than the earlier recording. For one thing, there are two more quartets; the earlier cycle stops with 13 because Shostakovich hadn't gotten any further yet. For another thing, the playing is more emotional; the earlier cycle is violently expressive, but the later cycle has more humanity.

The Smetana Quartet are a true legend. For over four decades (1945-1989), the ensemble gained critical acclaim and enthused audiences all over world, particularly in the UK, USA and Japan. They attained perfect chime and extraordinary flexibility in voice leading, resulting in part from their playing the entire repertoire by heart. The quartet performed Beethoven's works throughout their existence - following Smetana, he was the composer on whose music they focused the most and whose complete quartets were in their repertoire from 1974 onwards.

Over the course of time there have been many overlooked artists in classical music, because of their race and/or gender. It is important to acknowledge that we have not yet heard the whole story due to this sidelining of voices. Composers Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, William Grant Still, Florence B. Price, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and George Walker, have all contributed beautifully crafted works to the repertoire, but are not widely celebrated. Another contributing factor to this unfortunate reality is access to their manuscripts and recordings of their work which we believe would lead to greater awareness and programming of their incredible music.