Escher String Quartet – Barber & Ives: String Quartets (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Previous releases from the New York-based Escher Quartet include an acclaimed set of Mendelsohn’s six String Quartets as well as an album with works by Dvor’ak, Tchaikovsky and Borodin. For their latest offering the members have looked closer to home, however, choosing to combine the quartets by Samuel Barber and Charles Ives. The recording opens with Barber’s String Quartet in B minor, containing the music for which the composer remains best-known: the second movement which he two years later expanded into Adagio for Strings. Recognizing its potential already while composing it, Barber described the piece as “a knock-out” – which made it all the more difficult to come up with a third movement worthy to follow it. In the end he decided to make the quartet a two-movement work, but the Eschers have here included the lively third movement that the composer discarded, offering the opportunity to hear the work as it was once planned.

Barber is followed by the two full-scale quartets by Charles Ives, as well as a brief Scherzo. Like many other compositions by Ives, his First Quartet makes extensive use of revival and gospel hymns, quoting them in all four movements in a highly accessible tonal idiom. Far more challenging, the Second Quartet is a portrayal of “four men / who converse, discuss, argue … fight, shake hands, shut up / then walk up the mountainside to view the firmament” – a programme which invites a liberal use of dissonance, but also – towards the end – a particularly fulfilling resolution.

Tracklist:
01. Escher String Quartet – Barber: String Quartet in B Minor, Op. 11: I. Molto allegro e appassionato (08:05)
02. Escher String Quartet – Barber: String Quartet in B Minor, Op. 11: II. Molto adagio (08:10)
03. Escher String Quartet – Barber: String Quartet in B Minor, Op. 11: III. Molto allegro come prima – Presto (02:20)
04. Escher String Quartet – Barber: String Quartet in B Minor, Op. 11: IV. Finale. Andante mosso, un poco agitato – Allegro molto, alla breve (05:45)
05. Escher String Quartet – Ives: String Quartet No. 1 “From the Salvation Army”: I. Chorale. Andante con moto (04:36)
06. Escher String Quartet – Ives: String Quartet No. 1 “From the Salvation Army”: II. Prelude. Allegro (06:17)
07. Escher String Quartet – Ives: String Quartet No. 1 “From the Salvation Army”: III. Offertory. Adagio cantabile (05:18)
08. Escher String Quartet – Ives: String Quartet No. 1 “From the Salvation Army”: IV. Postlude. Allegro marziale (05:31)
09. Escher String Quartet – Ives: A Set of 3 Short Pieces: No. 2, Holding Your Own! (Version for String Quartet) (01:37)
10. Escher String Quartet – Ives: String Quartet No. 2: I. Conversations and Discussions (09:50)
11. Escher String Quartet – Ives: String Quartet No. 2: II. Arguments (05:01)
12. Escher String Quartet – Ives: String Quartet No. 2: III. The Call of the Mountains (11:21)

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