MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Porter/Barber/Piston: String Quartets

"This is an imaginative coupling of three American quartets written between 1930 and 1936, all absorbing European influences but at a high level. The novelty is the Quincy Porter, who is represented in the British record catalogue but not by any of his nine string quartets. Both Piston and Porter studied in Paris: Piston with Boulanger and Dukas, Porter with d'Indy after working under Parker at Yale. Before that Porter studied at Yale and eventually returned there as Professor: Piston was a Harvard man from start to finish.....So this is Ivy League neo-classicism but none the worse for that when the result is such a polished kind of absolute music" Gramophone

"The Chester Quartet laid down their recording of Piston's work for Koch in the early 90s and, for me, this has a bit more edge to it than the (other recordings). Koch offer very good sound and this captures the more dynamic quartet very well." TalkClassical