The Five String Quartets

Juilliard String Quartet
Elliot Carter: The Five String Quartets
2 CD-Set

Elliott Carter's five string quartets are landmarks in the American composer's rich, visionary body of work. And no ensemble has been as essential in bringing these works to life as the Juilliard String Quartet. The members of the quartet were not merely Carter's able executors they premiered the Second and Third Quartets they were his Manhattan neighbors and Juilliard School colleagues. Their performances grew out of a friendship that spanned over half a century. In many ways, the music reflects the personalities and playing styles of the quartet's personnel.

Elliott Carter's kaleidoscopic, rigorously organized works established him as one of the most important and enduring voices in contemporary music. The recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes in Music, he continued to compose into his eleventh decade, completing his final work only months before his death at 103.

Brand new landmark recording of String Quartet #5 that, along with the 1990-91 recordings of String Quartets 1 thru 4, completes the full cycle

Authentic interpretation prepared in collaboration with Elliott Carter

Produced by Steven Epstein

Includes essays by David Schiff (author of The Music of Elliott Carter) and quartet members Samuel Rhodes and Joel Krosnick

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