Escher String Quartet - String Quartets - SUPER-AUDIO CD [Super Audio CD (SACD)]

Previous releases from the New York-based Escher Quartet include an acclaimed set of Mendelsohn's six string quartets as well as an album with works by Dvorák, Tchaikovsky and Borodin. For their latest offering the members have looked closer to home, however, choosing to combine the quartets by Samuel Barber and Charles Ives. The disc opens with Barber's String Quartet in B minor, containing the music for which the composer remains best-known the second movement which he two years later expanded into Adagio for Strings. Recognizing it's potential already while composing it, Barber described the piece as 'a knock-out' - which made it all the more difficult to come up with a third movement worthy to follow it. In the end he decided to make the quartet a two-movement work, but the Eschers have here included the lively third movement that the composer discarded, offering the opportunity to hear the work as it was once planned. Barber is followed by the two full-scale quartets by Charles Ives, as well as a brief Scherzo. Like many other compositions by Ives, his First Quartet makes extensive use of revival and gospel hymns, quoting them in all four movements in a highly accessible tonal idiom. Far more challenging, the Second Quartet is a portrayal of 'four men / who converse, discuss, argue... fight, shake hands, shut up / then walk up the mountainside to view the firmament' - a programme which invites a liberal use of dissonance, but also - towards the end - a particularly fulfilling resolution.

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing. Details 1. String Quartet No. 13 in B Flat Major, Op. 130 - I Adagio Ma Non Troppo - Allegro 2. II Presto 3. III Andante Con Moto Ma Non 4. IV Alla Danza Tedesca Allegro Assai 5. V Cavatina Adagio Molto Espressivo 6. VI Finale Allegro 7. Grosse Fuge in B Flat Major, Op. 133

The British-Brazilian duo Cherry Pickles return with their second full-length The Juice That's Worth The Squeeze, out October 23 on the Swedish indie tag PNKSLM Recordings (ShitKid, Hollow Ship, Chemtrails etc). Following on from last year's break-through debut album, the Birmingham based duo quickly set to work on the follow-up, offering up another set of disjointed and delicious tracks that ranges from noisy garage rock in the vein of the Oblivians to something more akin to the much-missed surfy indie rock of Girls. Album Tracks 1. They Call Us Cherry Pickles 2. Blackhole 3. Little Black Book 4. My Ufo 5. Mopkins 6. Don't Waste My Time 7. Laura 8. Out of This World 9. Things in the Sky 10. Good Girl Bad Seeds 11. Oh Well 12. Subway Jane