American Quartet

The Brodsky Quartet, continuing to pioneer unique repertoire on Chandos Records, presents a programme of works from the ‘New World’ that explores an American sound in the string quartet. The earliest piece on the disc is the American String Quartet, in F major by Antonín Dvořák, the only non-American composer in the release.

Ragazze Quartet perform works by two female composers Rhiannon Giddens (*1977) and Florence Price (1887-1953), combined with the ‘American’ String Quartet No.12 by Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904). Florence Price was the first African-American woman to be recognized for her symphonies, yet her music was forgotten for many years. Her String Quartet No.2 is a mix of European romanticism, her ‘Southern’ roots, the emerging blues and African-American spirituals. The title of the album derives from a song Rhiannon Giddens wrote after seeing a 19th-century advertisement for a 22-year-old female slave whose 9-month-old baby was also for sale, but 'at the purchaser’s option'.

Exploring the repertoire for solo violin, the young Korean violinist Sueye Park has chosen works spanning exactly 100 hundred years – from Max Reger’s Prelude and Fugue from 1909 to Penderecki’s Capriccio, composed in 2008. Framing the 20th century, the program starts as a relay race of famous violinist-composers; Reger dedicating his piece to Kreisler, who dedicated his Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice to Ysaÿe, who wrote his Sonata No. 6 for the Spanish virtuoso Manuel Quiroga. In this series of names, that of Richard Strauss may come as a surprise, but his little-known Daphne-Etüde from 1945 is also dedicated to a violinist – his young grandson. The journey now turns eastwards with two solo sonatas, by Prokofiev and Weinberg, that were both composed in Moscow, albeit 20 years apart. These are followed by Isang Yun’s ‘Royal Theme’. The Korean-born composer uses the theme from Bach’s Musical Offering, but takes it on ‘a walk through the Asian tradition’ in the course of seven variations. In A Paganini, Alfred Schnittke revisits another colleague from the past – and one closely associated with the violin. Finally bringing us into the 21st century is Penderecki, whose early training as a violinist stood him in good stead when he composed his virtuosic Capriccio.

Violinists Alejandro Carreño and Boris Suaréz, violist Ismel Campos and cellist Aimon Mata breathe new life into three gems of the string quartet repertoire, performed with the perfect balance of classical refinement and South American panache.

Dvořák’s mature string quartets are masterly, all brimming with life-enhancing music, and Op 106 is no exception. The Takács Quartet gives superlative accounts of both this and the apt coupling by a young Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

In 2023 the Formosa Quartet, winners of the prestigious Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, embarked on a new recording project featuring the four string quartets of American composer George Frederick McKay. Renowned for their adventurous programming, the quartet recorded these reflective, playful, and intricate works at the historic Bastyr Chapel in Kenmore, Washington, with GRAMMY award-winning producer David Sabee.

Antonin Dvorak's 'American' chamber music works are the fruits of a happy, carefree time. And this is reflected in the music: colourful, vibrant, imbued with the musical and scenic impressions he gathered in the bustling metropolis of New York and during his summer holidays in rural Iowa.

Antonín Dvořák's 'American' chamber music works are the fruits of a happy, carefree time. And this is reflected in the music: colourful, vibrant, imbued with the musical and scenic impressions he gathered in the bustling metropolis of New York and during his summer holidays in rural Iowa.