Naxos’ English music series is turning into one of the gems of the CD catalogue. Time and again, it has revealed unexpected treasure in the chamber music of mid-20th century composers who were ...

In the thirty-page booklet that accompanies Wadada Leo Smith's String Quartets Nos. 1-12, the trumpeter & composer devotes a few paragraphs to the subject of inspiration. He traces an irregular line ...

Disc 1: String Quartet No. 1 (1965-1982) Movements 1 - 4, String Quartet No. 2 (1969-1980) 16:52; Disc 2: String Quartet No. 3 "Black Church: A First World Gathering of the Spirit" (1995) Movements 1 ...

Inspired by TS Eliot, the young Tippett dreamt of writing four quartets. In fact, he went on to compose five. Three are relatively early, dating from the second world war, two are from his later years ...

The Escher Quartet's performance of one of Zemlinsky's greatest and most radical pieces is a highlight of this superb disc The first instalment of the Escher Quartet's survey of Zemlinsky, including ...

There is real heritage here: formed in Moscow in 1945, the original Borodins learned Shostakovich’s quartets from the man himself. Marking the group’s 70th anniversary with a new complete cycle — of ...

Benjamin Britten wrote the first two of his numbered string quartets in 1941 and 1945. The First was in the US, where it was commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge; the Second was written for the ...

Royal String Quartet Hyperion CDA 67812 (2 CDs for the price of one)* * * Polish composer Henryk Górecki (1933-2010) is not just a one-hit wonder, but, for most people, a one-work composer, known for ...

Since winning first prize at the 2016 Banff International String Quartet Competition, Canada's Rolston String Quartet has been swept up in a whirlwind of concerts throughout Austria, Germany, Italy, ...