Borusan Quartet - Company: Glass, Part, Ucarsu, Vasks (2017) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Taking its title from the 2nd String Quartet by Philip Glass, the Borusan Quartet's exciting new album focuses on contemporary repertoire, embracing the spiritual minimalism of Arvo Pärt's 'Summa', to the expansive 4th Quartet of Peteris Vasks. This work, with its multi-faceted emotions swings from the contemplative to the combative: "I saw an angel flying over the world; the angel looks at the world’s condition with grieving eyes, but an almost imperceptible, loving touch of the angel’s wings brings comfort and healing", wrote the composer of the quartet's finale. The work has moments of conflict reminiscent of Shostakovich in places: a depiction of the condition of the world today perhaps?

The world of theatre is the background to the Glass. The source of this Quartet was a 1983 dramatisation of Samuel Beckett's prose poem 'Company'.

Traditional music from the Borusan Quartet's homeland and in particular Anatolia is to be found in the String Quartet No.2 'The Untold’ by Turkish composer Hasan Ucarsu. It draws on Turkish folk music and traditions, especially the festival of 'Hidrelliz' which celebrates the coming of Summer. The songs of Neset Ertas were in the composer's mind when writing this quartet, especially in the 2nd movement. Rhythmically complex it is a colourful and dramatic work influenced by the music of the composer’s country in the same way as Hungarian folk music colours Bartok's Quartets and Balkar and Kabardinian folk music does in Prokofiev's F major Quartet. Born in 1965, Hasan Ucarsu studied in Turkey with Ahmed Adnam Saygun and then in the USA with George Crumb.

TRACKLIST

Arvo Pärt (1935- )

1 Summa 04:38

Hasan Uçarsu (1965- )

2 String Quartet No. 2 "The Untold": I. Prologue 02:14
3 String Quartet No. 2 "The Untold": II. Bozlak (In Memory of Neşet Ertaş) 07:53
4 String Quartet No. 2 "The Untold": III. Karşılama 05:17
5 String Quartet No. 2 "The Untold": IV. Epilogue (In Memory of Reyent Bölükbaşı) 03:25

Philip Glass (1937- )

6 String Quartet No. 2 "Company": I. 02:28
7 String Quartet No. 2 "Company": II. 01:45
8 String Quartet No. 2 "Company": III. 01:44
9 String Quartet No. 2 "Company": IV. 02:13

Peteris Vasks (1946- )

10 String Quartet No. 4: I. Elegy 07:34
11 String Quartet No. 4: II. Toccata I 02:57
12 String Quartet No. 4: III. Choral 06:38
13 String Quartet No. 4: IV. Toccata II 04:09
14 String Quartet No. 4: V. Meditation 10:41

The Borusan Quartet:
Esen Kivrak, 1st violin
Olgu Kizilay, 2nd violin
Efdal Altun, viola
Çag Ercag, cello