![Doric String Quartet – John Adams: Naïve and Sentimental Music – Absolute Jest (2018) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/01/16/007fc161.md.jpg)
Doric String Quartet – John Adams: Naïve and Sentimental Music – Absolute Jest (2018) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]
As part of his final year as Music Director and following a two-season celebration of the Orchestra’s 125th anniversary, Peter Oundjian and the RSNO here present their second recording of music by John Adams, with the exceptional participation of the Doric String Quartet. Written for a large orchestra including six percussionists, keyboard sampler, and amplified steel-string guitar, Naive and Sentimental Music is a sweepingly symphonic masterpiece, full of contrasts and clashes. It reflects the dichotomy between ‘naive’ and ‘sentimental’ poetry as analysed by Friedrich Schiller in his 1795 essay Uber naive und sentimentalische Dichtung, as well as the ‘bipolar’ musical life of Esa-Pekka Salonen, the dedicatee of this piece, who conducted the first performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1999. Absolute Jest is a large-scale scherzo for amplified string quartet and orchestra, heavily inspired by the music of Beethoven, which Adams has always deeply admired. The quartet of soloists, a late addition to the score, emphasises the echoes of Beethoven’s music (mainly his string quartets) and facilitates a ‘hyperspace rate’ of virtuosity, which the Doric String Quartet here perfectly demonstrates.
![Choir of St John’s College Cambridge, Andrew Nethsingha – Mozart: Coronation Mass, Ave Verum Corpus, Missa Brevis & Exsultate, Jubilate (2012/2022) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/06/21/009048e9.md.jpg)
Choir of St John’s College Cambridge, Andrew Nethsingha – Mozart: Coronation Mass, Ave Verum Corpus, Missa Brevis & Exsultate, Jubilate (2012/2022) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]
On this album, the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge performs alongside four soloists and the period instrument ensemble St John’s Sinfonia. The tenor Sam Furness and bass George Humphreys both started their careers as Choral Scholars with this very choir. The mezzo-soprano Frances Bourne is in great demand on the concert platform and has sung with many of Europe’s leading conductors; the soprano Susan Gritton has amassed a vast discography that has earned her two Grammy nominations and includes, for Chandos, recordings of works by Haydn, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Vaughan Williams.
![Brodsky Quartet, Michael Collins – Brahms: String Quartet in A Minor & Clarinet Quintet (2014/2022) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/06/21/0095115181720_600.md.jpg)
Brodsky Quartet, Michael Collins – Brahms: String Quartet in A Minor & Clarinet Quintet (2014/2022) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]
The Brodsky Quartet present the first of two albums that will feature Brahms’s complete string quartets. This recording includes the String Quartet Op. 51 No. 2 with the Clarinet Quintet in B minor. The second string quartet was written alongside its contrasting companion, the String Quartet Op. 51 No. 1. They were both finally published in 1873 after being held back for years by a typically self-doubting Brahms until he had brought them to his own standards of perfection. Of the two, the second is warmer, more affirmative and relaxed, with few extremes of tempo or mood. It is a work that often looks backward, incorporating hints of baroque devices in his lyrical writing.
![Barry Douglas – Brahms: Works for Solo Piano, Volume 3 (2014) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/10/ag13q380newza_600.md.jpg)
Barry Douglas – Brahms: Works for Solo Piano, Volume 3 (2014) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
Barry Douglas returns for the highly anticipated third volume in his series devoted to Brahms’s solo piano music, the first two volumes having been met with widespread critical acclaim. Of Vol. 2, International Record Review wrote, ‘this is indeed Brahms playing of the utmost integrity and authority… this cycle looks set to become a benchmark’.
The selected Intermezzi performed here come from the collections of short piano pieces which Brahms published in 1892 – 93, his last works for piano. A sense of wistful, melancholic reflection pervades these exquisitely crafted masterpieces of Brahms’s late maturity.
![Brodsky Quartet – New World Quartets (2014/2022) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/06/21/0095115180129_600.md.jpg)
Brodsky Quartet – New World Quartets (2014/2022) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]
The Brodsky Quartet, continuing to pioneer unique repertoire on Chandos Records, presents a programme of works from the ‘New World’ that explores an American sound in the string quartet. The earliest piece on the disc is the American String Quartet, in F major by Antonín Dvořák, the only non-American composer in the release.