Garland: String Quartets

For thirty years, composer Peter Garland’s music has been marked by a radical consonance and a simplification of formal structure. These two spirited and enticing quartets, entitled In Praise of Poor Scholars and Crazy Cloud, draw on his well-traveled ear and great sense of personal vision. Both works move with a unique sense of grace and a sincerity of expression that is purely Garlandesque and receive sensitive performances by the celebrated British ensemble Apartment House, led by new-music cellist Anton Lukoszevieze. “[Garland] is an avatar of an experimental American tradition...a composer of mesmerizing music; and in many ways, the musical conscience of my generation…. Garland’s work always brings increasing cognitive involvement; it is much more intricate than it sounds at first.” [Kyle Gann, Chamber Music magazine] “Elegantly balancing sensuous melodicism and spacious austerity of form, Peter Garland’s string quartets are alluring and inviting, their carefully-wrought complexity often hidden within a luminous transparency.” [Dusted magazine] “While it is not stark or simplistic, the music has been pared down to only the most efficient gestures, and Garland’s affinity for Harrison and John Cage is at least as prominent in these two quartets as his work with Budd and Tenney. Garland’s music has also been described as “post-minimalist” because it shares several characteristics with minimalism, but not minimalism’s usual forms or processes…. Apartment House…I can’t imagine any group presenting this repertoire more sympathetically or with greater technical prowess. There’s not a lot of vibrato here. I don’t know if that is by Garland’s request or by the musicians’ choice, but I don’t miss it. It complements the music’s central paradox: how can the ordinary sound so strange? The up-close engineering lends every stroke of the bow both character and color.” [International Record Review] “There is much to admire in these remarkable works.” [American Record Guide]