Output details

Philip Glass- Complete String Quartets. CD recordings by Smith Quartet. Nic Pendlebury (viola).

This practice-led research output offers the only complete collection of the five Philip Glass quartets, representing a crucial part of the compositional output of one of the world’s leading minimalist composers. It is sometimes said that composers often reserve their very best writing for the string quartet medium, and it is no coincidence that in these works Glass exhibits intense introspection, delving deeply into all his historical influences. This album therefore represents in-depth musical survey of the career of Glass, something that was an important part of the quartet's research process, which examined the compositional development from his rarely performed early first quartet, through to his final fifth quartet, which features some of Glass’ most lyrical writing. Much rehearsal time was spent perfecting an appropriate sound quality to match the cyclical structures and rhythmic patterns that would develop into a style that is so distinctive to this composer. Separate performance methodologies were developed for the fifth quartet, which is occasionally reminiscent of certain passages from Debussy. Described by Gramaphone Magazine as “one of the ten most important albums of 2008, an album that everybody should own“, the recording is not only an interesting musical journey, but an important historical document tracking the compositional development of one of our most influential and important living composers.