Avalon String Quartet
Album
Illuminations
© 2015 Cedille Records/Cedille Chicago
Classical Playlist
By Corunna Da Fonseca-Wollheim, for The New York Times,published on September 2, 2015
The graceful lines and bold colors of the illuminated pages from the 15th-century Hours of Catherine of Cleves inspired Stacy Garrop’s String Quartet No. 4, which lent its title to this deeply satisfying recording. The Avalon String Quartet, playing with great warmth and tenderness, appears to have a special sensitivity for this sort of music, anchored in its own time even as it displays its ancient roots proudly. Osvaldo Golijov’s keening “Tenebrae,” based on source material from Couperin, is another such work, as is Britten’s Three Divertimenti. An elegant reading of Debussy’s String Quartet in G rounds out the program.