Witold Lutoslawski
“The Kronos Quartet interprets Witold Lutoslawski’s 1964 String Quartet, an uncommonly difficult piece since the four musicians are commanded to play their parts ad lib, as if they were alone. Lutoslawski was influenced by the random procedures of John Cage, but he also wished to maintain dramatic structure, so String Quartet includes rigidity in time measures. The balance between freedom and structure provides for a surprisingly appealing recording.”
From Mark Swed’s liner notes: “Witold Lutoslawski’s String Quartet contains all that we have come to expect from Western music. Its musical gestures are distinctly expressive. The work unfolds through time with a compelling logic and clear dramatic form. The details are rich and interesting. Like all urgent music, it seems to leap off the page. But open the score: it doesn’t look like traditional music, and it hardly seems possible meaningful sound could come jumping off those pages… Yet the result does not sound free and unstructured, but uncommonly coherent… Abstract music’s greatest power is its ability to communicate beyond metaphor, Lutoslawski’s meaningful abstraction becoming an eloquent expression of the inexpressible.”
SELECT CREDITS
Kronos Quartet
David Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Joan Jeanrenaud, cello
Produced by Judith Sherman
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz
String Quartet (1964)
Released by Nonesuch Records
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