Tippett Quartet - Lawrence Rose: String Quartets - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

These pieces, based largely on the compositional frameworks of great 18th-century chamber music including the string quartet and piano trio, have also been inspired by my love of more recent musical ideas and styles.My ideal is a fusion of old and new, where the music is both grounded in a definable structure and given the melodic, rhythmic and harmonic freedom to appeal to a broad spectrum of performers and listeners - I enjoy the challenge of fusing ideasand styles together into something that is both approachable and accessible.It's not about creating something entirely new, but about finding and sharing a voice that has become so much a part of me, and of my musical journey.Clive Osgood

Michael Tippett, who was 'invincibly drawn to the quartet medium' when he heard performances by the Busch and Lener Quartets during his student years in London, wrote five string quartets spanning his entire compositional life.

Penderecki wrote music for string quartet over a period of 56 years. His StringQuartetNo.1was written in the same year that he achieved international success with Threnody (Naxos8.554491), and includes a wide range of playing techniques reflective of the avant-garde. String Quartet No. 2 reveals the influence of Ligeti, while No.3is a personal, even autobiographical work. In No. 4 there are modal or even folk inflections, in writing that is both limpid and abrasive. The eventful Derunterbrochene Gedanke completes Penderecki's music for quartet, while the String Trio exemplifies his music's motoric energy.