Kronos Quartet - Peteris Vasks: String Quartet No. 4 (2003)

The contemporary Latvian composer Peteris Vasks has said "There has been so much bloodshed and destruction, and yet love's power and idealism have helped to keep the world in balance. I wanted to speak of these things in my new quartet; not from the sidelines, but with direct emotion and sensitivity," and, indeed, from the folksy melodies through to chaos and back again which he creates in this, his fourth quartet, we are taken through a myriad of feelings. His music is always intense and he knows how to build to a climax, relax, and return the listener to a heightened awareness of drama, and so forth. His meditative moments will remind listeners of Arvo Pärt; his disruptive passages bring Shostakovitch to mind. But the textures, so beautifully brought out by the great Kronos Quartet, are uniquely Vasks' and when, at the work's conclusion, after a return to the folk melody of the first movement, the strings fly up to their highest registers and simply disappear into the ethos, the effect is magical and, somehow, comforting. It's similar to the way he ends his violin concerto and it's just as effective. A fascinating release. –Robert Levine

Tracklist:

1. Elegy (07:24)
2. Toccata I (02:52)
3. Chorale (06:26)
4. Toccata II (03:52)
5. Meditation (11:35)

Musicians:
David Harrington, John Sherba - Violin
Hank Dutt - Viola
Jennifer Culp - Cello

Peteris Vasks - Composer (composed in 1999)

Recorded August, 2002 at Skywalker Sound, Nicasio, CA