Ligeti: String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2, Andante and Allegretto

Parker Quartet

8.570781

Critical acclaim has followed the Parker Quartet around the world, this disc endorsing the New York Times comment that they are “something extraordinary”. Ligeti’s many technically challenges simply vanish in their hands, and as they tear into the opening movement of the first quartet, you can well imagine that the brilliance they create could even find favour among music’s conventionalists. Given the subtitle, Métamorphoses nocturnes, Ligeti owes a debt to his compatriot, Bartók, not least in its volatile nature, the interplay between instruments here finding pinpoint accuracy, the second movement prestissimo a exhibition of outgoing brilliance.
Surprisingly the strongly rhythmic finale ends in peaceful resignation. Fourteen years later, in 1968, Ligeti used these wide mood swings and extended dynamics to an even greater degree. It is a work dominated by drama, those fast degenerating dynamics and flashes of light creating moments of contained musical chaos. It contrasts with the exactitude that characterises the third movement, Come un meccanismo di precisione, the Parker’s quiet moments becoming a mere whisper.
A brutal Presto furioso and a following Allegro—marked to be delicate—complete the score. They were the only completed quartets, but he later agreed to publish an early Andante and Allegretto, a melodic piece from a bygone era. There has long been an essential recording from the Arditti Quartet who were closely linked with Ligeti’s music, but they cannot be preferred to the Parker’s magnificent performances, the church acoustic helping the explosive moments. One of Naxos’s finest chamber music issues. • David Denton, David's Review Corner, December 2009

CD x 1

Naxos

07.12.09

747313078172

Grammy Award: 'Best Chamber Music Performance' (2011)
MusicWeb International: 'Bargain of the Month' (2011)
MusicWeb International: 'Nominee for Recording of the Year' (2011)