Lark Quartet - A Farewell Celebration (2019) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

The Lark Quartet brings its stellar 34 year career to a close with this celebratory album. On it, the Lark Quartet offers premiere recordings of works by John Harbison, Kenji Bunch, Anna Weesner and Andrew Waggoner, all composed for this occasion. Assisting Lark Quartet are Yousif Sheronick, percussion (Bunch), Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet (Weesner) and the Lark's four founding members (Waggoner). The Lark has performed in many of the world's great cultural centers including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Library of Congress, London's Wigmore Hall, LOpéra de la Bastille in Paris, and appeared at festivals including Lockenhaus, Schleswig-Holstein, Mostly Mozart, Istanbul Festival, Wolftrap and the Beethoven Festival in Moscow. The Lark is known for performances of "grace, proportion and burnished brilliance" (The Washington Post), and for offering audiences programs featuring the great standard quartet repertoire alongside recent music from the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

AllMusic Review by James Manheim
This release, the swan song from New York's Lark Quartet, offers no bravura grand finale. Instead, it continues with the artistic values that have informed the group's work since its founding in the mid-1980s, through several changes in personnel. The Lark Quartet has emphasized contemporary American music and has built relationships over the years with specific composers, from whom the group has commissioned new works. All the music here is new, and all of it was apparently composed for the Lark Quartet. The composers take Bartókian string quartet textures as a starting point but then go in different directions with the idea, and the program is both coherent and lively. The prestige name is John Harbison, whose String Quartet No. 6, given its premiere in 2016 at a concert marking the composer's 80th birthday, is given a fine, taut performance. Perhaps the biggest find here is Anna Weesner's The Eight Lost Songs of Orlando Underground; start with the delightful booklet note from the composer and proceed to sample this work, paying particular attention to the at once spectral and playful presence of clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois. Andrew Waggoner's Ce morceau de tissu for double quartet is marked by the presence of the Lark Quartet's original members, and it is an effective summing-up indeed. A small milestone in the history of American chamber music.

Tracklist:
1. Lark Quartet – String Quartet No. 6: I. Lontano (04:34)
2. Lark Quartet – String Quartet No. 6: II. Canto sospeso (06:16)
3. Lark Quartet – String Quartet No. 6: III. Soggetti cavati (02:40)
4. Lark Quartet – String Quartet No. 6: IV. Conclusioni provvisorie (05:30)
5. Lark Quartet & Yousif Sheronick – Megalopolis (11:54)
6. Lark Quartet & Romie de Guise-Langlois – The 8 Lost Songs of Orlando Underground: No. 1, Early Days (02:28)
7. Lark Quartet & Romie de Guise-Langlois – The 8 Lost Songs of Orlando Underground: No. 2, Music in Five Pulses (How You Broke My Heart) (03:22)
8. Lark Quartet & Romie de Guise-Langlois – The 8 Lost Songs of Orlando Underground: No. 3, Parenthetical Blues (Timing Is Everything) (01:18)
9. Lark Quartet & Romie de Guise-Langlois – The 8 Lost Songs of Orlando Underground: No. 4, A Few Questions for Arnold (02:32)
10. Lark Quartet & Romie de Guise-Langlois – The 8 Lost Songs of Orlando Underground: No. 5, Parenthetical Folk Song (01:28)
11. Lark Quartet & Romie de Guise-Langlois – The 8 Lost Songs of Orlando Underground: No. 6, Music in Five Pulses (How We Used to Dance) (02:42)
12. Lark Quartet & Romie de Guise-Langlois – The 8 Lost Songs of Orlando Underground: No. 7, Lament (03:15)
13. Lark Quartet & Romie de Guise-Langlois – The 8 Lost Songs of Orlando Underground: No. 8, Oh, to Live in a World Symphonic (07:20)
14. Lark Quartet, Kay Stern, Robin Mayforth, Anna Kruger & Caroline Stinson – Ce morceau de tissu (14:54)


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