Part b

Violinists Simone Lamsma and Candida Thompson explore connections between J.S. Bach and Arvo Pärt on their new release Pärt über Bach with Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Arvo Pärt’s groundbreaking Tabula Rasa is presented alongside Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin in the version for 2 violins, and Pärt’s own Collage über B-A-C-H , written in 1964 wherein the Estonian master intertwines his own modernist music with phrases from J.S. Bach’s music.

Of four living composers here, one is less well known. Like the Borusan Quartet itself, Hasan Uçarsu (born 1965) is Turkish. His String Quartet No 2 “The Untold” consists of two short, pensive outer movements – called epilogue and prologue – and two questing, energetic central movements full of Anatolian folk inspiration. Arvo Pärt’s Summa is a string version of a meditative vocal piece from 1977. Pēteris Vasks, like Pärt, found his own spiritual voice within or despite the restrictive Soviet aesthetic, as witnessed in his poignant String Quartet No 4. Philip Glass, in contrast, wrote his Quartet No 2, robustly minimalist, as stage music for an adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s novel Company. A fascinating, engagingly played quartet of quartets.