Mark O'Connor: String Quartets Nos. 2 & 3 (2009)

The transformation of Mark O'Connor from country fiddler to classical composer has gone through several stages, which is all to the good. He began with some progressive bluegrass recordings that would now be called chamber folk, joined Yo-Yo Ma in the spectacularly successful crossover Appalachian Journey project, wrote several pieces of soundtrack music, and has penned some accessible orchestral scores in a Copland-esque idiom. The series of string quartets on which he embarked in the late 2000s decade seems to mark yet ... Read More

The transformation of Mark O'Connor from country fiddler to classical composer has gone through several stages, which is all to the good. He began with some progressive bluegrass recordings that would now be called chamber folk, joined Yo-Yo Ma in the spectacularly successful crossover Appalachian Journey project, wrote several pieces of soundtrack music, and has penned some accessible orchestral scores in a Copland-esque idiom. The series of string quartets on which he embarked in the late 2000s decade seems to mark yet another new stage. The subtitles "Bluegrass" for the String Quartet No. 2 and "Old-Time" for the String Quartet No. 3 recorded here don't mean quite what you might think, and indeed the listener who comes to this music hoping that the instruments of the string quartet will replicate the sounds and harmonies of bluegrass or old-time music may emerge disappointed. O'Connor is attempting not to write quartets in the style of bluegrass or old-time country music but instead to make use of... Read Less