Aeolus Quartet - Ariel & Other Poems - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Formed in Israel almost three decades ago and now based in the United States, the Ariel Quartet has earned international acclaim for performances that combine bold interpretive vision with exceptional technical mastery. This second volume in their complete Beethoven cycle focuses on the composer's heroic middle period, featuring the three expansive Razumovsky Quartets Op.59, the noble Harp Quartet Op.74, and the intense, compact Serioso Quartet Op.95. Written between 1806 and 1810, these works mark a decisive break from Classical models, embracing structural innovation, contrapuntal richness, and moments of profound lyricism. From the grandeur of the Op.59 set, with it's Russian folk melodies, to the lyrical intimacy of the Harp and the concentrated drama of the Serioso, the Ariel Quartet brings a rare combination of insight, energy, and unity born of over 25 years of shared music-making. Recorded by Grammy Award-winning producer Jesse Lewis, this captures both the scale and the intimacy of Beethoven's vision, offering a compelling portrait of a composer at the height of his creative powers.

Mozart was a freemason. While still a baby, he was gifted a magic !ute on which he wrote all his tunes. Some of them are still around. Even so, the best way to gift-wrap your head around The Secret Degree, the latest from Xentos Fray Bentos (guitars, keys, voice) and Ted 'Tebbs' Barrow (circuit-bending, percussion) is to picture it as a town. A town full of pity Five blocks long, forty miles north of nowhere, with an empty gas station, a closed up diner and the smoking remains of a Freemason's Hall, recently burnt to the ground by a pack of incensed villagers fresh out of a Universal Pictures' Frankenstein. In among the pitted ruins sit Ted and Xentos, plucking and slapping their instruments, busily exploring the folkish blue roots that underpin today's music making and trying to figure out how we got to where we're at. Feel free to roll up one leg of your pants, curl up a sleeve and join them on this nimble trip through an imaginary landscape of coltishly cultivated harmonies, mind-jingling melodies, all tempered by the occasional banshee wail of an untameable circuit. Two Square Why? Indeed. Why not?

John Beall - On Chestnut Ridge Appalachian Chamber Music [COMPACT DISCS] date 06/24/1997