The sparse music of György Kurtág and the precise, intense sound of the Parker Quartet are both ideally suited to the engineering world of the ECM label, and just looking at this release, one is reasonably sure of a satisfying experience of contemporary music, but it's even better than one might expect. The Parker Quartet constructs an intelligent program, united less by the fact that Kurtág once worked as a chamber music coach (as noted by Paul Griffiths in his great notes) than by strands of mentorship and memorial. Both ...
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The sparse music of György Kurtág and the precise, intense sound of the Parker Quartet are both ideally suited to the engineering world of the ECM label, and just looking at this release, one is reasonably sure of a satisfying experience of contemporary music, but it's even better than one might expect. The Parker Quartet constructs an intelligent program, united less by the fact that Kurtág once worked as a chamber music coach (as noted by Paul Griffiths in his great notes) than by strands of mentorship and memorial. Both of the Kurtág pieces are shot through with remembrances of figures important in the composer's life and creativity: the Six moments musicaux, Op. 44, refer to pianist György Sebok, to Messiaen, and to Leo? Janácek, while the Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky, Op. 28, consists of a series of fragments, as short as 20 seconds, that are like fleeting memories not only of composer Szervánszky but also of Anton Webern's Second Cantata, Op. 31. In the Parker Quartet's...
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