It is for the Kronos Quartet rather than Phil Glass that I bought this CD. I usually don't warm up too much for the repetitive minimalism of Glass. It isn't the repetition I mind (like everybody I love Ravel's Bolero; and more seriously, there is some repetitive music that I do like. See my review of Ten Holt's Complete Music for Multiple Pianos), it is the predictable and saccharine harmonies, the endless scales and trite harmonic progressions. I wonder if there is something to minimalism that imposes those gooey harmonies, or if it is just laziness and pandering to a certain audience's tastes.

But I've enjoyed some of the collaborations of the Kronos Quartet with some composers more or less associated with minimalism. I consider the quartets composed for them by Terry Riley (Cadenza on the Night Plain, Salome Dances) and Kevin Volans (Kevin Volans: Hunting: Gathering (String Quartet No. 2) (1987) - Kronos Quartet, String Quartets 2 & 3) to be among the masterpieces in the genre composed in, say, the last 30 years of the 20th Century. There are some elements of repetition in these works, but they aren't really repetitive in the way the music of Glass usually is, or like Riley's ground-breaking "In C". They are more indebted to World-music, but a World-music entirely metabolized by each composer and transformed into compositions that are uniquely personal, and highly appealing.

So I picked up that Glass for a try. The disc features his Quartets No. 2 to 5. They were composed in relatively close succession, from 1983 to 1991. I've checked on Glass' Website: so far, he's stopped at 5 (the liner notes mention three discarded youthful essays, which sums up to 8 quartets). The liner notes also refer to the 1st numbered quartet, composed in 1966 as Glass was just finishing his studies with Nadia Boulanger, and apparently one of his first essays at repetitive minimalism. Too bad Kronos didn't choose to record it, since they premiered it (as late as 1986; it must have been gathering dust in Glass' bottom drawer), and since they had already recorded the 2nd Quartet, "Company", on Kronos Quartet: Sculthorpe, Sallinen, Glass, Nuncarrow, Hendrix.

Anyway, the quartets are pure Glass (although the slow movement of the 4th Quartet stands out, see anon), without the fireworks of colors the he elicits from his Philip Glass Ensemble, but with the motoric and obsessive energy, the typical jumps of dynamic levels and, in the moments of repose, the sentimental harmonies that evoke a repetitive Dvorak or Brahms. The high-strung lyricism of the 5th Quartet's third movement - particularly effective - even brought Janacek to mind.

"Company"/SQ No.2 was written as incidental music to a Becket Play and its four short movements are mostly meditative and hushed. Quartet No. 3 also began as Gebrauchsmusik - music for a use: here, part of the soundtrack for Paul Schrader's film on Mishima; it is on that occastion that's Kronos initiated their collaboration with Glass, premiering quartets 1, 2 and 3 and having 5 commissioned for them.

The 4th Quartet, "Buczak", was written in the memory of the artist Brian Buczak, who had died of AIDS in 1988. Not surprisingly, its repetitions develop a more somber and sorrowful mood than your run-of-the-mill Glass. The second movement is not even all that repetitive, but it is beautifully lyrical, mournful in a hushed and sensuous way, bringing to mind the quartets of Szymanowski and Ravel - so unexpected from Glass, it immediately caught back my attention (which, I confess, subjected to so much repetition - even Glass' subtly evolving one - had been prone to drifting).

There is 68 minutes of repetition repetition repetition repetition for string quartet on this well-filled CD, and hearing it all in one intake may be too much of the same sweet thing. But taking it in smaller - shall I dare? - glasses, one or two quart(et)s at a time, has procured enjoyment.

I see that competing recordings have been cropping up like greenery after the shower in the desert: the Carducci Quartet recorded 1 to 4 on Naxos (Glass: String Quartets, Nos. 1-4), the Smith Quartet did the complete series (but on two discs, Philip Glass: Complete String Quartets), and you can find on the German sister company another complete set squeezed on a single disc, by an ensemble that goes by the amusing name of "Paul Klee 4tet", ASIN B002X66S3W. There is also, refered to on Glass' website and listed by the same provider, a recording of Quartets 4 & 5 (paired with Michael Nyman's 3rd), ASIN B00004D3I7. I'd go for them for the sheer sake of completedness, but then, reason commands that I stop the repetition here.

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Price	$16.41
Category	Avant Garde & Free Jazz

GLASS, PHILIP: String Quartets Nos. 2, 3, 4 & 5

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