Arditti String Quartet, Christina Daletska & Consuelo Giulianelli - Daniel Glaus: Works for and with String Quartet (2025) Hi-Res

These recordings offer an impressive panorama of Daniel Glaus's compositional work, which explores the interplay between sound, structure, and spirituality. They bring together three string quartets from over four decades, as well as the moving cantata Chammawet Ahawah for soprano, harp, and string quartet.

Glaus' approach to the string quartet is characterized by continuous experimentation with playing techniques, timbres, and compositional models. Even his String Quartet 1980, written during his student days, reveals a search for the original, an acoustic self-questioning, in its contrasting four movements – from the almost silent beginning to the Webern-inspired fugue to the fragile, mystical chorale.

In his Third Quartet, “Naezach,” Glaus takes up themes of Jewish mysticism: in the tension between structure and sound, a musical web of articulations unfolds, opening up a whole cosmos of expressive possibilities through precisely staggered formal elements, percussive effects, and microtonal nuances.

The Fourth String Quartet, premiered by the Arditti Quartet in 2023, breaks new ground: in a continuous stream of sound, a widely ramified monody cosmos develops, oscillating between Gregorian-like chants, sonic surges, and quiet microintervals—a work of intense density and touching transparency.

The recording is rounded off by Chammawet Ahawah (1988–2023), a work of profound poetic power. Based on texts from the Song of Songs, it blends language, singing, harp colors, and string textures into a musical reflection on love, closeness, and longing. Glaus uses synaesthetic color harmonies and microtonal melodies to create a sensually charged, contemplative sound space.