GYORGY LIGETI (1923-2006)

 

String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2

 

String Quartet No. 1 ‘Metamorphoses nocturnes’ (1953-54)

String Quartet No. 2 (1968)

Andante and Allegretto

 

Parker Quartet:

Daniel Chong - violin I

Karen Kim - violin II

Jessica Bodner - viola

Kee-Hyun Kim - cello

 

Gyorgy Ligeti’s choral and orchestral music hit the mainstream when it was featured in the soundtrack of 2001: A space Odyssey, but his equally remarkable chamber works remain less well known. While indebted to his compatriot Bartok for its folk-inflected passages, Ligeti’s First Quartet, subtitle ‘Metamorphoses nocturnes’ is nonetheless a work of striking originality. The Second Quartet, composed around fifteen years later, abounds in contrasts between glacial stillness and manic activity, mechanistic pizzicatos and gentle oscillations. His early Andante and Allegro is richly expressive and easily accessible.

 

“The Parker Quartet is equally persuasive at both extremes… in Ligeti’s two full-fledged quartets, these musicians brought considerable warmth and richness of tone to sweetly accented themes and gentle chordal writing, and unbridled textural brashness to the more volatile passages.” The New York Times

 

Naxos 8570781