A quick glance at his discography reveals that Roger Sessions' chamber works are seriously under-recorded; while this 2006 Naxos album of works for strings appears to be a welcome addition to a lamentably meager catalog, it is really a reissue of the 1993 release by the Group for Contemporary Music on Koch International Classics. However, it is absolutely worth having, since the Koch CD is no longer available, and no other ensemble or label has brought as many of Sessions' chamber pieces together in one package. Listeners ...
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A quick glance at his discography reveals that Roger Sessions' chamber works are seriously under-recorded; while this 2006 Naxos album of works for strings appears to be a welcome addition to a lamentably meager catalog, it is really a reissue of the 1993 release by the Group for Contemporary Music on Koch International Classics. However, it is absolutely worth having, since the Koch CD is no longer available, and no other ensemble or label has brought as many of Sessions' chamber pieces together in one package. Listeners just beginning to explore his fascinating music may choose to start off with the String Quartet No. 1 in E minor (1938), since it bears some interesting resemblances to Beethoven's String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132, and is a product of Sessions' neo-Classical phase. Even though it is not tonal in the traditional sense (it only touches on key-like areas tangentially, and vaguely implies chromatic modulations in its active developments), this early quartet is not one of Sessions' more...
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