Heard together, the differences between Penderecki’s First and Fourth quartets map an epic journey in 20th-century music Krzysztof Penderecki’s four numbered string quartets do not trace the course of ...

The Carduccis maintained astonishing intensity throughout the complete cycle of Shostakovich’s 15 string quartets – performed in a single day Most ensembles gung-ho enough to attempt a complete cycle ...

You might suspect that after more than three decades together, the men of the Emerson String Quartet — violinists Philip Setzer and Eugene Drucker, who alternate their chairs, violist Lawrence Dutton ...

Listening to Quartets for Plucked Strings without knowing its backstory poses no obstacle. The music invites you to follow your imagination. Sean Ali, best known as a bassist, composer, and improviser ...

Moving through the stories of many lives told in myriad ways: This is what it feels like to spend time with Steve Reich's three innovative and profound string quartets. It's even more powerful to hear ...

Inspired by TS Eliot, the young Tippett dreamt of writing four quartets. In fact, he went on to compose five. Three are relatively early, dating from the second world war, two are from his later years ...

Two distinguished quartets go head-to-head in works that are among the composer’s most traditional in tone and formal in construction Britten: String Quartets 1, 2, 3 and Three Divertimenti; String ...