Gubajdulina: Smyčcové kvartety - komplet - CD

This first complete recording of Sofia Gubajdulina’s string quartets presents the work of one of the most distinctive composers of the present day. She describes herself as “the daughter of two worlds, whose soul lives in the music of East and West.” Through her father, she encountered Islamic culture; through her mother, Christianity, in which she found her identity in the Orthodox faith. Her individual style developed under the influence of J. S. Bach, Webern and Shostakovich, who encouraged her to remain herself and to “continue along the mistaken path” for which guardians of aesthetic correctness had criticised her from the beginning. Her personal story is one of a struggle to exist in truth, pursued with calm, patience, perseverance and inner conviction. The five string quartets represent a distinctive search for a vision of freedom beyond every system. They move outside the world of major-minor tonality, using microintervals, serial techniques, aleatoric procedures and unusual playing methods, while revealing unexpected possibilities of the instruments and working with space and the movement of the musicians. The Stamic Quartet, representing the renowned Czech quartet tradition, is the attentive interpreter of this first complete recording.