The members of the Calidore String Quartet on the cover of their latest album
Having released their box set of the complete string quartets composed by Ludwig van Beethoven last year, the Calidore String Quartet has entered the new year with the release of an all-American album. The title of the new album is American Tapestry, and it will be released this coming Friday. However, as at least some readers probably already know, Amazon.com has already created a Web page for processing pre-orders.
The press release for this new album describes the content as “a panoramic portrait of American musical expression across the 20th and 21st centuries.” The earlier century is represented by the “bookends” of the album. It begins with Samuel Barber’s Opus 11, his first string quartet, whose second movement was subsequently arranged for string orchestra under the title “Adagio for Strings.” The “program” concludes with Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Opus 34, his third string quartet in D major, composed in Los Angeles after the end of World War II. This is preceded by “With Malice Toward None,” composed by John Williams for the biographical film Lincoln. Barber’s quartet is followed by Wynton Marsalis’ three-movement suite, At the Octoroon Balls.
This is clearly an ambitious undertaking, but the Calidore players serve up a convincing performance, particularly for those inclined to listen to an album from start to finish. One reason may be that the ensemble has maintained its membership. Violinists Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan are still performing with Jeremy Berry on viola and cellist Estelle Choi. Having enjoyed their approaches to Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven, I definitely appreciate their “great leap forward,” having already whetted my appetite when they performed the Korngold quartet in Herbst Theatre in March of last year.
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