Summer With The Juilliard String Quartet

[JSngry]

The Carter set is only 2 CDs, which allow for extra listens. I normally do two listens to a disc before moving on, but sometimes something get stuck in the head and stays in for a while.

This one definitely is sticking, just because there's so much MUSIC in each quartet. So as an adjunct, I downloaded the Walden Quartet's recording of #1, a landmark 1st recording in my opinion, from the Internet Archive and mix it in with my Juilliard listening.

Very "helpful" actually, because the Walden recording is in glorious old-school Mono, so the soundstage is VERY flat (and full). This allows for full, almost immediate, discernment of everything that's going on. So when returning to the Juilliard takes, which are totally Modern Digital, the ear is more attuned to the multi-level reality of the music.

Probably going to stay on the Carter for the rest of this week. It's certainly not boring music!

[JSngry]

Ok, I'm not about to claim that the Carter set is anything even remotely like "the only Carter Quartets set you'll ever need" or anything like that. But it's still a good rewarding listen if you can get past the horrid (imo) early-digital sound. The group had a history with Carter, and they worked with him directly on these recordings. So...attention should be paid, imo.

Summer With The Juilliard String Quartet will be concluding with the Ergo collection of the Hindemith Quartets.  Totally uncharted territory for me, should be fun!

[JSngry]

The Wergo is a 3-CD set that presents the quartets non-sequentially  which is not my preference. So I'm ripping and rebuilding to have it my way.

Performances seem really frisky, so this is going to be fun!,

[JSngry]

Ok, I still got all of the quartets, in order, on to three CDs (1-2, 3-4, 5-7). Maybe they didn't program it like that because 1 & 2 are sort of "student-y", relatively speaking? I get it, but still...

[MomsMobley]

On 6/11/2025 at 10:30 PM, JSngry said:

Virgil Thomson was apparently an important figure at one time. My personal jury is still out on that importance, although I've only heard a few things. This String Quartet is "nice enough"...but the Quartet is in great form. And the last movement does take it up a notch.

 

 

 

Plow That Broke The Plains (the film & the score)

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modern recording

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Mother of us All opera

 

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writer / critic (cranky but not a crank)

https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/671-virgil-thomson-the-music-critic-who-managed-to-demystify-an-art-that-was-often-regarded-as-otherworldly/

[JSngry]

The Hindemith Quartets are a gas! Especially listened to in order. The basic premises don't change so much, but the fleshing out of them REALLY does.

These are not really a "celebrated" body of work, and I kinda get it. There was enough going on at the time (and after) that these can maybe have gotten lost in the shuffle. But enough time has passed, a lot of dust has settled, and here these things still are, none the worse for wear, still looking us dead in the eye and not blinking. Maybe the really "heavy" stop doesn't become fully engaged until #4, but, really, with the possible exception of #1, they all areat the very least, engaging, and eventually engrossing.

Check them out, by the JSQ or by anybody.

School starts for my granddaughter tomorrow, so that means it's the end of summer, and also the end of 
Summer With The Juilliard String Quartet. It has been a total blast. Once I got started, this was pretty much all I listened to, and to be honest, I'm not in any big hurry to stop.

Onward!

[MomsMobley]

On 8/11/2025 at 9:24 PM, JSngry said:

 

The Hindemith Quartets are a gas! Especially listened to in order. The basic premises don't change so much, but the fleshing out of them REALLY does.

 

+ the essential Overture to the Flying Dutchman as Sight-read by a Bad Spa Orchestra at 7 in the Morning by the Well 

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Clarinet Quintet has fewer yuks but still great