String Quartets Nos. 6 7 & 8 Quietness - Johnston / Kepler Quartet / Leventhal CD

Product Description The ten string quartets of Ben Johnston, written between 1951 and 1995, constitute no less than an attempt to revolutionize the medium. Only the first limits itself to conventional tuning. The others, climaxing in the astonishing Seventh Quartet of 1984, add in further microtones from the harmonic series to the point that the music seems to float in a free pitch space, unmoored from the grid of the common twelve-pitch scale. In a way, this is a return to an older conception of string quartet practice, since players used to (and often still do) intuitively adjust their tuning for maximum sonority while listening to each others intonation. The completion of the cycle, supervised throughout by the composer himself, is a historic achievement that will undoubtedly stand as the definitive document of these works, among the landmark quartet cycles of 20th-century music. The Seventh and Eighth Quartets are receiving their world-premiere recordings. The former has a reputation as the most difficult quartet ever written and the Kepler Quartet has met the challenge with enviable aplomb, as they have throughout the cycle, affording listeners a chance to finally hear these difficult but highly rewarding works. Johnstons brief, poignant Rumi setting, Quietness, with the composer himself as vocalist, rounds out the recording, a fitting denouement toin the words of composer/author Kyle Gann"possibly the most ambitious string quartet project in history". Review "A musical landscape which produces music of disarming charm, strange beauty and sometimes dreamlike familiarity." --The New York Times" The music is extraordinary, and so are the performances. The whole project is a landmark in American concert music, and I suspect will be a beacon for generations to come." --Fanfare"Ben Johnstons string quartets, sonically weird yet beguilingly beautiful, are now recognized as major works in the genre, largely due to the Kepler Quartets pioneering recordings." --BBC MusicAdditional Info: Personnel: Tony DeSare (vocals, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, synthesizer); Jane Monheit (vocals); Richard Padron, Bucky Pizzarelli (guitar); Andy Farber (alto saxophone); Nathan Childers (tenor saxophone); Jay Brandford (baritone saxophone); Dominick Farinacci, Glenn Drewes (trumpet); Wayne Goodman (trombone); Tedd Firth (piano); Mike Lee (bass guitar); Brian Czach (drums).

Specifics

• Album: String Quartets Nos. 6 7 & 8 Quietness
• Artist: Johnston / Kepler Quartet / Leventhal
• Label: New World Records
• Genre: Classical
• MPN: 80730-2

. String Quartet No. 7 (1984)
1. Prelude--Scurrying, Forceful, Intense
2. Palindromes--Eerie
3. Variations--With Solemnity
. String Quartet No. 8 (1986)
4. Vigorous, Aggressive
5. Lazy, Rocking
6. Scherzo--Fast, Skimming; Trio--Light
7. Extremely Light And Rhythmic
8. String Quartet No. 6 (1980) Legato Espressivo
9. Quietness (1996) (in memory of Salvatore Martirano)
Text By - Jalaluddin Rumi*
Translated By - Coleman Barks, John Moyne
Vocals - Ben Johnston
Text By - Jalaluddin Rumi*
Translated By - Coleman Barks, John Moyne
Vocals - Ben Johnston

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