The Solem Quartet’s debut CD ‘The Four Quarters’ is available to pre-order from today!
Released on the Orchid Classics label, the disc is built around music by Thomas Adès and also includes several arrangements by the Quartet members themselves.
Click here to read the full press release.
The concept of the disc is to chart the journey from early morning to the depths of night, through an eclectic mix of music ranging from the Baroque to the present day. Framing the whole disc is Thomas Adès’s 2010 string quartet The Four Quarters, a piece the quartet have worked on extensively with the composer himself.
The Solem Quartet explains:
Written in 2010, The Four Quarters describes the twenty-four hour-period in which the earth completes its rotation on its own axis – not, conventionally speaking, ‘a day’, but an expanse of time. Full of exquisitely imagined textures, beguiling harmonies, rhythmic games and extremes in both pitch and emotion, this seminal work is a giant of the string quartet repertoire.
In between the Adès movements sits a rich mix of music inspired by the passing of the day, including works by Henry Purcell, Cassandra Miller, Bela Bartók, Kate Bush and more, many of which are new additions to the string quartet repertoire thanks to the quartet’s own brand new arrangements. The Solems have also enjoyed working with living composers Aaron Parker and William Marsey, whose music forms an integral part of the disc.
‘The Four Quarters’ is due for release on 17th September on Orchid Classics — click here to pre-order now!
