Cuarteto Latinoamericano - David Stock: String Quartets Nos. 5, 6 & 7 (2012)

The Cuarteto Latinoamericano has a gift for finding appealing contemporary works, by no means restricted to those by Latin American composers. David Stock, although intermittently resident in Santa Fe, is based in Pittsburgh; this is the second album of his quartets that Cuarteto Latinoamericano has released. His style ultimately traces back to Bartók, with additive rhythms and short, intricately developed motifs, all leavened for the general listener with a variety of novel string effects. There are also touches of jazz, Stravinsky, and mid-20th-century American music in these three quartets, which are all different in shape and tonality (the three-movement Fifth String Quartet tends toward neo-Romantic harmonies), but are all recognizably the product of the same composer. The Cuarteto Latinoamericano's control over this often technically challenging material is noteworthy, as is the superb engineering at Mexico City's Sala Silvestre Revueltas; engineering has never been the strong suit of the small, composer-oriented Albany label, but that may be in the process of changing. Recommended for anyone interested in the long legacy of Bartók's chamber music.