Highlights include George Rochberg's humanistic progression from the Second String Quartet (1959-61) to Tableaux (1968), and Gregg Smith's setting of Frank O'Hara's outrageous 'Steps.' Texts and intelligent program notes are included. These are high-quality performances of some very interesting (albeit challenging) music for voice with solo guitar or small ensemble most of it has not been recorded elsewhere. Fortunately, it also sounds like the work of Bridge Records. '20 th-century Voices in America' looks like it could have been released on Bridge Records: it includes three of that label's favorite composers (George Crumb, Elliott Carter, and Shulamit Ran), one of its favorite singers (the late Jan De Gaetani), and Bridge Records's president David Starobin playing the guitar. They include an entertaining gaffe: 'The basic plan of one-movement string quartet is revealed in the little sketch shown below,' which isn't shown, in spite of a note that says, 'ed: don't forget to include sketch.' Oops! Composer Lejaren Hiller's original notes accompany this release. Still, most of the works in this set are enjoyable, and you don't have to be an expert on modern music (or a rocket scientist) to enjoy them. Kirchner's quartet incorporates plenty of sounds from the Bloopity-Bleep School of Electronic Music (a school no doubt founded by the Krell from 'Forbidden Planet'), and Druckman's quartet is an arid memento of what was going on in academia in the mid-1960s. Some of the other works on this disc are souvenirs of times gone by.

Similarly, the LaSalle Quartet's recording of John Cage's String Quartet in Four Parts, while paced almost the same as the CSQ's, shows that the group is not as sensitive to the composer's requests for unusual string timbres. The Kronos Quartet recorded George Crumb's Black Angels several years ago, and confrontational as the Kronos's reading is, the Concord String Quartet's more expansive reading (more haunting, less horrifying) is even better. The Concord String Quartet yields nothing to the competition. Both were recorded between 19, and most of the recordings are by the team of Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz at Elite Recordings - a guarantee of high sonic values. However, budget labels have largely ignored modern classical music, which is why these two VoxBoxes are so unusual and valuable. Next, Naxos came along and started making less familiar music available at lunch hour prices. First, there were plenty of bargain CDs of music in the standard repertoire.

Black angels crumb review