Price & Sowerby: Music for String Quartet Avalon String Quartet

• Florence Beatrice Price (1887 - 1953): String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor:
• 1 Price: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor: I. Moderato 10:00
• 2 Price: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor: II. Andante cantabile 05:50
• 3 Price: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor: III. Juba. Allegro 04:02
• 4 Price: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor: IV. Finale. Allegro 05:53
• String Quartet in G Minor, H. 226:
• 5 Price: String Quartet in G Minor, H. 226: I. Languidly, darkly - Fast, with dash 13:47
• 6 Price: String Quartet in G Minor, H. 226: II. Very fast 06:03
• 7 Price: String Quartet in G Minor, H. 226: III. Slowly, rhapsodically 05:43
• 8 Price: String Quartet in G Minor, H. 226: IV. Broadly - Moderately fast, yet with broad sweep 05:55
• 5 Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet:
• 9 Price: 5 Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet: No. 1, Calvary. Adagio vigoroso 03:54
• 10 Price: 5 Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet: No. 2, Clementine. Andantino 02:47
• 11 Price: 5 Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet: No. 3, Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes. Andantino cantabile 04:03
• 12 Price: 5 Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet: No. 4, Shortnin' Bread. Allegro 01:17
• 13 Price: 5 Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet: No. 5, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Andantino 05:00
• Total Runtime 01:14:14

Info for Price & Sowerby: Music for String Quartet

Florence Price und Leo Sowerby waren beide prominente Mitglieder der Chicagoer Musikszene in den 1930er und 1940er Jahren, und es ist bekannt, dass sie die Arbeit des jeweils anderen respektierten. Die meisten Kompositionen von Florence Price blieben bei ihrem Tod unveröffentlicht, und ihr Streichquartett in a-Moll wurde zu ihren Lebzeiten nicht aufgeführt. Die afroamerikanische Mundart und die farbenfrohe harmonische Sprache des Quartetts sind Merkmale, die auch die berühmten Melodien der späteren Five Folksongs in Counterpoint aufweisen. Von der grüblerischen Eröffnung über die treibenden Rhythmen, die ausdrucksstarken lyrischen Melodien und das fugierte Finale offenbart diese Ersteinspielung von Sowerbys Streichquartett in g-Moll ein Werk, das seine jahrzehntelange Unbekanntheit nicht verdient hat.

Florence Price und Leo Sowerby verbrachten die meiste Zeit ihrer Karriere in Chicago und wurden in den 1930er und 1940er Jahren zu prominenten Mitgliedern der dortigen Musikszene.

Obwohl das Ausmaß ihrer Interaktion unklar ist, respektierten und korrespondierten die beiden miteinander. Diese Aufnahme enthält zwei ihrer Streichquartette, beide aus dem Jahr 1935, die unverdientermaßen in Vergessenheit geraten sind, und schließt mit einem späteren und etwas bekannteren Price-Quartett ab.

Avalon String Quartet

Avalon String Quartet
Described by the Chicago Tribune as an ensemble that invites you ears, mind, and spirit into its music, the Avalon String Quartet has established itself as one of the country's leading chamber music ensembles.

The Avalon has performed in major venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd St Y, Merkin Hall, and Bargemusic in New York; the Library of Congress and National Gallery of Art in Washington DC; Wigmore Hall in London; and Herculessaal in Munich. Other performances include appearances at the Bath International Music Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Caramoor, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, NPR's St. Paul Sunday, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Dame Myra Hess Concerts, Los Angeles Music Guild, and the Ravinia Festival. The quartet performs an annual concert series in historic Fullerton Hall at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it has presented the complete quartet cycles of Beethoven, Bartok, and Brahms in recent seasons.

The Avalon is quartet-in-residence at the Northern Illinois University School of Music, a position formerly held by the Vermeer Quartet. Additional teaching activities have included the Icicle Creek Chamber Music Institute, Interlochen Advanced Quartet Program, Madeline Island Music Camp, and the Britten-Pears School in England, as well as masterclasses at universities and conservatories throughout the United States. Additionally, they have given numerous performances and presentations to young audiences in under-resourced schools and communities.

In summer 2015, the quartet will be releasing Illuminations, it's first recording for Cedille Records. This follows a critically acclaimed CD of contemporary American works on the Albany label in 2010. The Avalon String Quartet's debut CD, Dawn to Dusk, featuring quartets by Ravel and Janacek, was honored with the 2002 Chamber Music America/WQXR Record Award for best chamber music recording.

The quartet's live performances and conversations are frequently featured on Chicago fine arts radio station WFMT. They have also been heard on New York's WQXR and WNYC, National Public Radio's Performance Today, Canada's CBC, Australia's ABC, the ARD of Germany, and France Musique.

The Avalon captured the top prize at the ARD Competition in Munich (2000) and First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York (1999). In its early years, the ensemble trained intensively with the Juilliard Quartet at The Juilliard School, the Emerson Quartet at the Hartt School of Music, and the Vermeer Quartet at Northern Illinois University.

Booklet for Price & Sowerby: Music for String Quartet