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Bach Fugues
:Album Description:Following its most successful recording, The Art of Fugue, the Emerson String Quartet again dedicates its mastery to the music of J.S. Bach. The quartet, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2007, presents the world-premiere recording of the four-part fugues from the famous Well-Tempered Clavier as arranged for string quartet. The Emerson Quartet's 2003 release of The Art of Fugue was a critical and commercial success selling 50,000 units worldwide. Repertoire from this world-premiere recording will be included in the Emerson Quartet's touring program.
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Debussy, Ravel: Streichquartette
from: Deutsche Grammophon
:Album Description:Following its most successful recording, The Art of Fugue, the Emerson String Quartet again dedicates its mastery to the music of J.S. Bach. The quartet, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2007, presents the world-premiere recording of the four-part fugues from the famous Well-Tempered Clavier as arranged for string quartet. The Emerson Quartet's 2003 release of The Art of Fugue was a critical and commercial success selling 50,000 units worldwide. Repertoire from this world-premiere recording will be included in the Emerson Quartet's touring program.
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Dvorák, Tchaikovsky, Borodin: Quartets
: :The Emersons offer one of the very best accounts of the popular American Quartet on disc. It is dramatic, exuberant, persuasive, and right to the point--a well-paced reading full of ravishing details (like the dueting of the violins in the slow movement) that has been beautifully recorded. Originally made for Book-of-the-Month Club in 1984, the recording was later picked up by DG and first released in the U.S. in 1990. For this reissue, it has been coupled with equally well-played accounts of quartets by Borodin and Tchaikovsky, which makes for an ...
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Antonin Dvorak: Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81; Piano Quartet in E Flat Major, Op. 87
from: Deutsche Grammophon
: essential recording:The venerable pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio joins the Emerson Quartet for two memorable performances. To the uncommon clarity and rhythmic drive of the string players, Menahem Pressler adds some of his own expansive personality. The mix works beautifully. You can hear every note in the scores, and everything is played with great expression and enough rhythmic tension to keep the music flowing. If you don't know these gorgeous works, this is a great way to make their introduction; if you do know them, this superbly recorded disc ...
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Steve Reich: Octet; Music for a Large Ensemble; Violin Phase
from: Ecm Records
: essential recording:The venerable pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio joins the Emerson Quartet for two memorable performances. To the uncommon clarity and rhythmic drive of the string players, Menahem Pressler adds some of his own expansive personality. The mix works beautifully. You can hear every note in the scores, and everything is played with great expression and enough rhythmic tension to keep the music flowing. If you don't know these gorgeous works, this is a great way to make their introduction; if you do know them, this superbly recorded disc ...
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Intimate Voices
from: Deutsche Grammophon
: : Both Grieg and Sibelius composed only one string quartet; along with these, this recording features a brief work by Carl Nielsen entitled 'At the Bier of a Young Artist.' The Nielsen was originally a more elaborately scored work, but the Emersons have successfully reduced it. It's a fine study in dark, sentimental Romanticism. The Grieg is an easier-going piece than one might imagine given its minor key tonality, with plenty of melodies, a lovely dance in the second movement and a livelier one in the finale. The Emersons play it ...
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Schumann: Op. Nos. 44 & 47
from: Deutsche Grammophon
: :Schumann's Piano Quintet is one of the world's (and my) favorite pieces of chamber music. But the less-outgoing Piano Quartet eventually reveals its secrets, too, and it's another wonderful piece. These are fascinating performances. Menaham Pressler, on leave from the Beaux Arts Trio, blends his Old World charm with the New World energy of the Emerson Quartet. The result is a near-ideal balance of power and grace, and there is even some old-fashioned portamento (sliding between notes) to be heard in the strings. It's hard to think of anyone whose taste ...
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Complete Webern
: :Pierre Boulez's Complete Webern Edition appears just over two decades after his last traversal. Well, it's not literally complete, but does have enough early works to set the mature ones in the right context. These days, Webern is no longer seen so much as a new music guru as he is a major composer, pure and simple--his expression as concise as it is intense. Performancewise, there's a quality of musicianship here that few previous recordings have matched; familiarity with the idiom certainly plays its part, but so does Boulez's belief that ...
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American Originals - Ives & Barber: String Quartets
: :Barber's string quartet is the source of that famous Adagio for strings, popularized by the movie Platoon in its later arrangement for full string orchestra. It makes an even stronger impression in its original context, sandwiched between two thematically related quicker movements. Ives's two quartets represent the two opposing poles of his character: the early First Quartet is a lyrical work based on hymn tunes, while in the Second all hell breaks loose as the four players literally fling themselves at the music (and each other), until they finally decide--in the ...
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Beethoven: The String Quartets
from: Deutsche Grammophon
: :Barber's string quartet is the source of that famous Adagio for strings, popularized by the movie Platoon in its later arrangement for full string orchestra. It makes an even stronger impression in its original context, sandwiched between two thematically related quicker movements. Ives's two quartets represent the two opposing poles of his character: the early First Quartet is a lyrical work based on hymn tunes, while in the Second all hell breaks loose as the four players literally fling themselves at the music (and each other), until they finally decide--in the ...
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