The Alexander String Quartet brings to life the complete quartets of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály in this new 3-CD release. Contemporaries and fellow ethnomusicologist-composers, Bartók and Kodály wrote some of the most beautiful, beguiling, and ultimately influential string quartet music of the 20th century. Producer and multiple Grammy® winner Judith Sherman captured the recordings of these eight quartets under superb conditions, performed on the Ellen M. Egger Quartet of instruments by luthier Francis Kuttner.

iTunes: http://bit.ly/GJCLFa
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1brzUyn
Allegro Classical: http://bit.ly/BartokKodaly

ASQ Presents Bartok and Kodaly

Music: String Quartet No. 1, Op. 2 — III. Presto
Composer: Zoltán Kodály
Artist: Alexander String Quartet
Album: Bartók & Kodály
Label: Foghorn Classics

iTunes: http://bit.ly/GJCLFa
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1brzUyn
Allegro Classical: http://bit.ly/BartokKodaly

The Alexander String Quartet brings to life the complete quartets of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály in this new 3-CD release. Contemporaries and fellow ethnomusicologist-composers, Bartók and Kodály wrote some of the most beautiful, beguiling, and ultimately influential string quartet music of the 20th century. Producer and multiple Grammy® winner Judith Sherman captured the recordings of these eight quartets under superb conditions, performed on the Ellen M. Egger Quartet of instruments by luthier Francis Kuttner.

Kodály String Quartet No. 1, Op. 2 — III. Presto

Music: Intermezzo In A Major, Op. 118 No. 2 - Andante Teneramente
Composer: Johannes Brahms, arranged by Zakarias Grafilo
Artists: Alexander String Quartet
Album: Brahms: String Quartets (FCL 2022)
Label: Foghorn Classics
Available 5 November, 2021
Order: newalbm.link/brahmsquartets

The Alexander String Quartet launches its 40th season with this new release of Brahms String Quartets — plus Zakarias Grafilo’s transcription for string quartet of Brahms’ Intermezzo. This is the ASQ’s final recording with its highly esteemed founding violist, Paul Yarbrough, who passes the viola bow to the illustrious David Samuel, a long­ time ASQ collaborator.

The Brahms Project: This Brahms Quartet Cycle follows recordings of Brahms’ Clarinet Quintets (FCL 2021, with Eli Eban) and Piano Quintets (FCL2014, with Joyce Yang), both named MusicWeb Inter­ national Recordings of the Year, as well as his String Quintets and Sextets (FCL 2012), which were hailed as a “life­enhancing set” by The Arts Desk.

Brahms: Intermezzo In A Major, Op. 118 No. 2 - Andante Teneramente

Music: Schumann: Quintet for piano & Strings in E-Flat Major, Op. 44: I. Allegro Brillante
Artists: The Alexander String Quartet and Pianist Joyce Yang
Composer: Robert Schumann
Album: Brahms & Schumann: The Piano Quintets
Label: Foghorn Classics — FCL 2014

Purchase via Amazon: http://amzn.to/M8QBn9

“If you enjoy these two works, you owe it to yourself to hear what the Alexander Quartet and Joyce Yang make of them.” —Lynn René Bayley, Fanfare Magazine

Two of the greatest and most popular piano quintets in the standard repertoire, performed by the renowned Alexander String Quartet with sensational, electrifying, and much-lauded pianist Joyce Yang. Produced by multi-Grammy® winner/nominee Judith Sherman in just four days under optimal conditions in California in April 2013, this is a truly celebratory collaboration between well-met and likeminded 21st-century contemporaries.

Schumann: Quintet for piano & Strings in E-Flat Major, Op. 44: I. Allegro Brillante

Music: Piano Quintet In F Minor, Op. 34: III. Scherzo: Allegro
Composer: Brahms
Artists: The Alexander String Quartet and Joyce Yang, piano
Album: Brahms & Schumann: The Piano Quintets
Label: Foghorn Classics - FCL 2014

Buy on Amazon: http://amzn.to/M8QBn9

“If you enjoy these two works, you owe it to yourself to hear what the Alexander Quartet and Joyce Yang make of them.” —Lynn René Bayley, Fanfare Magazine

Two of the greatest and most popular piano quintets in the standard repertoire, performed by the renowned Alexander String Quartet with sensational, electrifying, and much-lauded pianist Joyce Yang. Produced by multi-Grammy® winner/nominee Judith Sherman in just four days under optimal conditions in California in April 2013, this is a truly celebratory collaboration between well-met and likeminded 21st-century contemporaries.

Brahms: Piano Quintet In F Minor, Op. 34: III. Scherzo: Allegro

The Alexander String Quartet working on Tarik O'Regan's “Gradual” which was commissioned by the Boise Chamber Music Society for a 2016 world premiere!

ASQ Rehearsing Tarik O'Regan's “Gradual”

Music: Patagón - Movement 2: La tierra claiente que duerme ("The sleeping warm earth")
Composer: Cindy Cox
Artists: Alexander String Quartet

April 4, 2012 Concert at UC Berkeley's Hertz Hall

Order the recording on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1NEEYBY

This is ASQ’s second recording of Cindy Cox’s first quartet, Columba aspexit, a stunningly difficult yet delicately spiritual work of exquisite beauty. The 2nd Quartet, Patagón, was written at the request of, and dedicated to, the Alexander String Quartet on the occasion of their 30th Anniversary. Cindy wrote this powerfully evocative work chronicling her sabbatical year spent partly amongst some of Argentina’s most splendid natural sea- and landscapes celebrating the uniquely inspiring wildlife.


Cindy Cox: Patagón - Movement 2 (LIVE)

Music: Patagón - Movement 5: La cruz del sur y el cielo que gira ("The southern cross and the revolving sky")
Composer: Cindy Cox
Artists: Alexander String Quartet

April 4, 2012 Concert at UC Berkeley's Hertz Hall

Order the recording on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1NEEYBY

This is ASQ’s second recording of Cindy Cox’s first quartet, Columba aspexit, a stunningly difficult yet delicately spiritual work of exquisite beauty. The 2nd Quartet, Patagón, was written at the request of, and dedicated to, the Alexander String Quartet on the occasion of their 30th Anniversary. Cindy wrote this powerfully evocative work chronicling her sabbatical year spent partly amongst some of Argentina’s most splendid natural sea- and landscapes celebrating the uniquely inspiring wildlife.

Cindy Cox: Patagón - Movement 5 (LIVE)

Music: Patagón - Movement 4: La tierra fría que duerme ("The sleeping cold earth") 
Composer: Cindy Cox
Artists: Alexander String Quartet

April 4, 2012 Concert at UC Berkeley's Hertz Hall

Order the recording on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1NEEYBY

This is ASQ’s second recording of Cindy Cox’s first quartet, Columba aspexit, a stunningly difficult yet delicately spiritual work of exquisite beauty. The 2nd Quartet, Patagón, was written at the request of, and dedicated to, the Alexander String Quartet on the occasion of their 30th Anniversary. Cindy wrote this powerfully evocative work chronicling her sabbatical year spent partly amongst some of Argentina’s most splendid natural sea- and landscapes celebrating the uniquely inspiring wildlife.

Cindy Cox: Patagón - Movement 4 (LIVE)

Music: Excerpts from "Clair de Lune" 
Composer: Paul Chihara 
Artists: Alexander String Quartet and the San Francisco Choral Artists 
Album: With Strings Attached 
Label: Foghorn Classics

Purchase With Strings Attached via: 
Allegro Classical - http://bit.ly/GGzRdn 
Amazon.com - http://amzn.to/GFboqb

“When I think about San Francisco I think about ballet, and since Verlaine’s ‘Clair de Lune’ (Moonlight) poem is about dancing, it was inevitable I would pick this.” Paul Chihara, a former composer-in-residence for the San Francisco Ballet, has had a unique connection with French Impressionism ever since he was a student and discovered the music of Ravel, Poulenc, and Debussy through his teacher Nadia Boulanger. So for this special commission, it was only fitting to refer to Debussy’s most popular composition — Clair de Lune. “But,” stresses Chihara, “it is more about Verlaine’s poem than about Debussy’s music, more about dancing in the moonlight than about the moon itself.”

With Strings Attached: "Clair de Lune" (excerpts)

Music: Excerpts from Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, Op. 74
Composer: César Cano
Artists: Joan Enric Lluna, clarinet; Alexander String Quartet
Album: In Friendship
Label: Foghorn Classics

Purchase In Friendship:
Allegro Classics: http://bit.ly/HF8NPI
iTunes: http://bit.ly/I0G3iM
Amazon: http://amzn.to/HIkr8v

One of the most fertile conjunctions in the history of music has been the combination of the smooth sonority of the clarinet and the resonant sound of stringed instruments — that fusion of quite different textures and sounds has produced great music in completely different eras. And that combination of sonorities has at particular moments been energized by the close friendship between a superb clarinet player and a particular composer — from Mozart and clarinetist Anton Stadler, and Carl Maria von Weber and clarinetist Heinrich Baermann, to Brahms and clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld, and Carl Nielsen and clarinetist Aage Oxenvad. In Friendship offers two works for clarinet and string quartet that grew out of close relationships between performers and composers. Clarinetist Joan Enric Lluna recalls his long friendship with composer César Cano:

César and I met in the harmony class at the Valencia Conservatory. Our teacher was very demanding, and halfway through the academic year, from the original ten students only César and I survived in the class. I learned a lot that year, struggling every week to have my harmony exercises done on time while César came every week with more exercises than we were asked to do. He was brilliant and our teacher nicknamed him “César Franck.”

I returned to Valencia some years later from Belgium to join a horn player and pianist for a concert. We were short of repertoire and immediately thought of asking
César to write a piece for us, as he had a reputation for being a very good and fast composer. He provided a brilliant trio in just a week — the first of several pieces he wrote for me. Later came Sueño oscuro (“Dark Dream”) for solo clarinet, which I premiered in the Ensems (a contemporary music festival in Valencia). César spent two years in London, where I was already living, and there he wrote Vigilias for clarinet and piano, which I premiered at Wigmore Hall, and later — back in Valencia — Apolo en Sodoma, also premiered at Wigmore Hall. He also wrote a clarinet concerto for me that was premiered with the Valencia Orchestra. The Clarinet Quintet is the most recent piece César has written as the result of our friendship.

César Cano on his Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, Op. 74:

The Clarinet Quintet, Opus 74 is a work for clarinet and string quartet, structured in four movements. Veladas Proporciones (veiled proportions) is the enigmatic title of the first movement. Here we find a great variety of proportional note values and rhythms, intentionally written for the listener to perceive them almost unconsciously, as they are organic and coherent with the musical discourse, and not artfully calculated. Finding that balance between organic simplicity and necessary complexity, which is never arbitrary, ostentatious or pretentious, is one of my aesthetic goals. In this first movement there is a combination of sharply rhythmic passages, creating poly-rhythms and poly-pulses with intensely lyrical phrases from the clarinet and the first violin.

The second movement, Ecos y Lances (echoes and duels), is a lively scherzo in triple meter. The motoric underpinning of the entire piece relies on a particular rhythmic cell which dislodges the basic rhythm, played by two strings in ricochet, imitating one another in an echo, while the other instruments create a polyrhythm. On this complex but thin and light rhythmic tapestry, the clarinet and first violin join to expose the main theme, which returns later. The clarinet has two more short duels, first with the cello and then the viola.

Cantos Oblicuos (oblique chants) is the title of the third movement. It begins with a counterpoint of glissandi in the strings, something heard in the previous two movements, though with less prominence. The magical clarinet multi-phonics stand out in this subtle microtonal passage. The strings deploy rapid polyrhthmic arpeggios while the clarinet and cello play slow and expressive contrapuntal melodies which create a beautiful contrast. The final section displays a dense polyphonic mural featuring all five voices, characterized by the constant presence of accented ornamental turns of varied dimensions.

The fourth and last movement, Pulso Florido (florid pulse), is strong, energetic and eminently rhythmic with passages of instrumental virtuosity between the clarinet and first violin. Contrasting rhythmic cells are alternated to give variety while maintaining the rhythmic drive that holds the whole movement together. These cells are generated by various internal reorganizations of 7/8, 8/8, and 9/8 meters. The carefully planned development of dynamics and the melodic and harmonic material create tensions that strain the structure of this piece, which retains a clear musical momentum.


In Friendship: Cano Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 74

Music: Excerpt from "Intermezzo in A Major" 
Composer: Johannes Brahms, transcribe by Zakarias Grafilo 
Artists: Alexander String Quartet 
Album: With Strings Attached 
Label: Foghorn Classics

Purchase With Strings Attached via: 
Allegro Classical - http://bit.ly/GGzRdn 
Amazon.com - http://amzn.to/GFboqb

The Intermezzo in A Major is the second of Brahms’ Six Piano Pieces, Opus 118, which
he composed in 1892–93, only a few years before his death. Brahms’ performance marking for this music is Andante teneramente (“tenderly”), and that gentle mood prevails throughout, though the center section is elaborate and varied before the subtle reintroduction of the opening material.


Brahms/Grafilo - Intermezzo in A Major (excerpt)

Music: Piano Quartet in G Minor, K.478: Allegro (Excerpt)
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Album: Mozart: The Piano Quartets — Apotheosis, Volume Two
Label: Foghorn Classics (FCL2018)
Release Date: July 27, 2018

Maintaining focus on Mozart’s last years, members of the Alexander String Quartet join with electrifying and much-lauded pianist Joyce Yang on this recording of the two piano quartets. This is the second of a three-volume set which will include many of Mozart’s great chamber works from that period.

Eric Bromberger’s liner notes contextualize these works within the canon: “Some have claimed that Mozart invented the piano quartet, but he did not. Other composers—including the fourteen-year-old Beethoven—had written quartets for piano and strings earlier, but Mozart was the first to face squarely the challenges of this difficult form, and he wrote the first two great piano quartets.”

Mozart: The Piano Quartets — Apotheosis vol. 2

Mozart: Piano Quartet in G Minor, K.478: Allegro (Excerpt)

Music: Rückert-Lieder: Liebst du um Schönheit (If you love for beauty’s sake)
Composer: Gustav Mahler (transcribed for String Quartet and Mezzo Soprano by Zakarias Grafilo)
Artists: Kindra Scharich, mezzo-soprano; Alexander String Quartet
Album: The Mahler Song Cycles: In meinem Himmel (FCL 2019)
Label: Foghorn Classics
https://foghornclassics.com

The award-winning Alexander String Quartet joins with acclaimed mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich in this world premiere recording of some of Mahler’s great orchestral Lieder — transcribed for voice and string quartet by Zakarias Grafilo. Commissioned by LIEDER ALIVE!, these exquisite transcriptions combine the lushness of the orchestral versions with the intimacy of chamber music — and the result is transcendent.

MAHLER SONG CYCLES: In meinem Himmel

Mahler: Rückert-Lieder: Liebst du um Schönheit (If you love for beauty’s sake)

Music: String Quartet in B-flat Major, K 589, "Prussian": I. Allegro
Composer: Mozart
Artists: The Alexander String Quartet
Album: Mozart: The Final Quartets - Apotheosis, Vol. 1
Release Date: March 8, 2019
Foghorn Classics (FCL 2016)
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2GTXmJj
Apple Music/iTunes (MFiT): https://apple.co/2XhVy2k

The Alexander String Quartet turns its attention to Mozart’s last years with this recording of the final four quartets (part of their three-volume set which includes all of his great chamber works from that period).

Mozart: The Final Quartets – Apotheosis, Vol. 1

Mozart: String Quartet in B-flat Major, K 589, "Prussian" I Allegro

With their latest Foghorn Classics release, Locale, the Alexander String Quartet presents brand new accounts of two of Antonín Dvořák’s most enduringly popular chamber works. The “American” String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96 from 1893 was written during the composer’s extended retreat from New York City to the rural “Czech” community of Spillville, on the Turkey River in northeastern Iowa. The ASQ plumbs the rich and reflective “outdoor” nuances of this exquisitely crafted masterpiece. And the miraculous pianist Joyce Yang joins the Alexanders once again for this recording of the jubilant Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81 from 1887, composed at the composer’s country home amidst Bohemia’s woods and fields in Vysoka, just a little south of Prague. These two works are among the composer’s most expressively articulate chamber works. Both are profoundly influenced by their geographic “locale” and are, perhaps, exemplars of the sophisticated duality of the transatlantic experience of the late 19th century, embracing the nostalgia of the traditional bucolic ideal and the urbane sophistication of the imminent new age. Eric Bromberger’s accompanying notes and commentary provide illuminating musical and historical context, not least some of Dvorak’s own thoughts on the American-ness of his quartet.

This is the third release on Foghorn Classics celebrating the inimitable collaboration between the Alexanders and Yang. Earlier releases include the Brahms and Schumann Quintets (FCL2014) and, most recently, the Mozart Piano Quartets (FCL2018). Their combined concert repertoire now includes, among several other standard and modern works, a bril- liant new and much-lauded quintet from the American composer Samuel Carl Adams, commissioned to help celebrate a decade of joyful collab- orative music-making.

Locale

Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81 III Scherzo (Furiant): Molto vivace - Poco tranquillo

Music: Clarinet Quintet in B Minor for Clarinet and Strings, Op. 115 III. Andantino - Presto non assai, ma con sentimento
Composer: Johannes Brahms
Artists: Alexander String Quartet and Eli Eban (clarinet)
Album: Brahms & Mozart: Clarinet Quintets (FCL2021)
Label: Foghorn Classics
Release Date: August 14, 2020
Pre-order: https://smarturl.it/asqbrahmsmozart5tets

Alexander String Quartet

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