György Kurtág
Kurtág, Lutoslawski, Gubaidulina
1994 release ** "The Arditti Quartet here performs all three of Kurtag's string quartets, along with Lutoslawski's one quartet, and Gubaidulina's second as well -- the recordings are from 1990. Kurtag's quartets are some of the finest of the 20th century, clearly fusing Webern and Bartok. What distinguishes Arditti's Kurtag from the Keller Quartet on ECM? (see my review). The AQ takes the tempos slightly faster. Not too fast, in fact I'd say if anything the KQ has slowed them down for dramatic e…
Duetti / Widmung / Huit Duos
1992 release **
Luciano Berio: DuettiBruno Maderna: WidmungGyörgy Kurtag: Eight Duos
Maryvonne Le Dizès (Violin)Christophe Poiget (Violin)Michel Cerutti (Cymbalum)Alain Damiens (Conductor)
Piano Duet
Before the epigones take over the stage we are given a chance to hear out Bach himself: the unfinished four-voice Contrapunctus XIV from the Art of the Fugue marks the starting point of Andreas Grau's and Götz Schumacher's remarkable exploration of the Bach cosmos. In the Berlin autograph of the Contrapunctus XIV the place where the score breaks off is marked by an inscription: "At the point where the name BACH is introduced in the countersubject to this fugue, the composer died." Even though fr…