Bach's Art of Fugue came down to us without any clear indication of the performing forces desired. The fugue was primarily a keyboard genre, and this massive, almost mystically complex extraction of well over an hour's worth of contrapuntal treatments from a simple fugue subject is most often performed on a harpsichord or organ. But the work's ...
While there are those who would agree along with the Boston Herald that "when arguments about the greatest living quartet begin, one choice remains non-controversial: the Emerson Quartet," there are those who might amend their assertion to read "the greatest living American quartet. Because while it might be persuasively asserted that there are ...
Among the top performers of Béla Bartók's six string quartets, the Emerson String Quartet has had few rivals, and it is perhaps only matched in technical prowess and expressive clarity by the Takács String Quartet in its 1998 recordings on London, and historically, by the Juilliard String Quartet in its legendary 1963 cycle for Columbia. While the ...
This set of the String Quartets of Mendelssohn may prove to be the most lasting contribution the Emerson Quartet has yet made to the string quartet discography. While the Emerson has always been slightly out of its depth in the quartets of Bartók, Beethoven, and Shostakovich, in the quartets of Mendelssohn, the Emerson has met its match. This is ...
Among the top performers of Béla Bartók's String Quartets (6), the Emerson String Quartet has had few rivals, perhaps only matched in technical prowess and expressive clarity by the Takács String Quartet in its 1998 recordings on London, and historically, by the Juilliard String Quartet in its legendary 1963 cycle for Columbia. While the Takács ...
Given that box sets are too often thrown together in a last cavalier attempt to get mileage from back catalog, it's a pleasure to find one that has rhyme and reason, assembling a program that would be hard for the buyer to find on his or her own and offering a real tribute to a beloved figure. The career of cellist and conductor Mstislav ...
Upon its debut in the United States, this Deutsche Grammophon collection of the songs of American composer Samuel Barber was titled Secrets of the Old: The Complete Songs of Samuel Barber. This selection of 47 songs coordinated, annotated, and accompanied by pianist John Browning is not "complete," as certain songs written by Barber have never ...
An extraordinary disc in every way, this release from Deutsche Grammophon presents a new edition of a profound masterpiece, wonderfully performed by a great string quartet in splendid, lifelike sound. Composed for Good Friday services, Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross is, in its most familiar version, a sequence of seven ...
Rich, warm, ripe, and full of wisdom, the Emerson Quartet's 2007 recording of Brahms' three string quartets for Deutsche Grammophon is not only the finest recording of the group's 30-year career, but the recording that confirms its title as America's Greatest Quartet. Here, the Emerson's mastery of ensemble playing is complete. With its easy ...
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