brought over my reviews of three recordings of Gavin Bryars’ three string quartets. Those works put the lie to those (ignorants) who claim that nothing of beauty has been composed since Britten and Shostakovich.
Three Viennese Dancers: Prologue (1986). String Quartet No. 1 “Between the National and the Bristol” (1985). First Viennese Dance (“M.H.”) (1985-6). Epilogue (1986). Pascal Pongy (French horn), Charles Fullbrook & Gavin Bryars (percussion), Arditti String Quartet. ECM New Series ECM 1323 and Japanese editions (1986)
“The Last Days”. String Quartet No. 1 “Between the National and the Bristol” (1985), Die Letzten Tage (“The Last Days”) for Two Violins (1992), String Quartet No. 2 (1990). Balanescu Quartet. Argo 448 175-2 (1995)
Three String Quartets: String Quartet No. 1 “Between the National and the Bristol, 1985), String Quartet No. 2 (1990), String Quartet No. 3 (1998). The Lyric Quartet. Black Box BBM1079 (2002)
Before that, finished my Balanescu Quartet transfers, with Alexander Balanescu’s Maria T., on Mute CDSTUMM242 (Europe), Mute 9286-2 (US) (2005), Universal Music Romania 4811723 (2015), and Michael Nyman’s String Quartets 1-3 on Argo 433 093-2 (1991) (reissues in 2002 on Decca and in 2012 on MN, Nyman’s own label)