Parker Quartet - Ligeti, G.: String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 - Andante and Allegretto (2009)

Tracklist

01. String Quartet No. 1, Metamorphoses Nocturnes: Allegro Grazioso - Presto
02. String Quartet No. 1, Metamorphoses Nocturnes: Prestissimo - Andante Tranquillo -
03. String Quartet No. 1, Metamorphoses Nocturnes: Tempo Di Valse, Moderato, Con Eleganza, un Poco Capriccioso - Allegretto, un Poco Gioviale -
04. String Quartet No. 1, Metamorphoses Nocturnes: Subito Allegro Con Moto - Prestissimo
05. String Quartet No. 2: I. Allegro Nervoso
06. String Quartet No. 2: II. Sostenuto, Molto Calmo
07. String Quartet No. 2: III. Come un Meccanismo Di Precisione
08. String Quartet No. 2: IV. Presto Furioso, Brutale, Tumultuoso
09. String Quartet No. 2: V. Allegro Con Delicatezza
10. Andante cantabile
11. Andante and Allegretto: Allegretto Poco Capriccioso

György Ligeti’s choral and orchestral music hit the mainstream when it was featured in the soundtrack of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but his equally remarkable chamber works remain less well known.

While indebted to his compatriot Bartók for its folk-inflected passages, Ligeti’s First Quartet, subtitled Métamorphoses nocturnes, is nonetheless a work of striking originality.

The Second Quartet, composed around fifteen years later, abounds in contrasts between glacial stillness and manic activity, mechanistic pizzicatos and gentle oscillations.

His early Andante and Allegro is richly expressive and easily accessible.

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