reviews

BRITISH INVASION:

"...thrilled with the results"
“How exciting to hear these new compositions arise from the broken fragments of my songs, unfettered by the necessity to avoid dissonance, and freed of the dictatorial chains of common time and rudimentary harmony, to soar like a flight of starlings into a limitless sky. Dušan Bogdanović has taken these songs into other worlds, into a more complex universe of the imagination, and at the same time retained the essential simplicity of these popular musical themes. I am thrilled with the results.”— STING (on "Prisms" by Dušan Bogdanović)

Gramophone Video of the Day — April 14, 2023:
“Penny Lane” for guitar and string quartet (Lennon/McCartney — Léo Brouwer)

BRAHMS STRING QUARTETS:

Top 4 Star Rating
“The subtlety and mutuality of purpose with which the members of the Alexander String Quartet approach Brahms’ three quartets are almost a perfect example of the conversational form of music-making of which string quartets have been exemplars since Haydn’s time. This ensemble’s sheer tonal quality is the first thing a listener will notice: there is purity, warmth, richness and elegance throughout. And there is precision, too: many quartets rely on vibrato to produce a larger, warmer sound, but the Alexander String Quartet is remarkably restrained in this regard, its vibrato as carefully controlled as its ensemble passages are tightly bound. This works exceptionally well in Brahms. ...these performers manage to make both the singing elements and the double-stopping clear through a sense of mutuality that approaches sleight of hand. Indeed, the third string quartet, which in some ways is the lightest of the three despite the considerable compositional elegance of the final Poco Allegretto con Variazoni, comes across with such pleasure and apparently casual playfulness here that it is easy to see why this work in B-flat was Brahms’ favorite of his three quartets. [...]
As an encore for this two-CD set, there is an interesting quartet setting of the late piano Intermezzo in A, created by the Alexander String Quartet’s first violinist, Zakarias Grafilo. The arrangement emphasizes the gentle tenderness of this little lullaby, and the fact that the recording ends with this Andante teneramente piece rather than something more virtuosic and intense shows clearly the sensitivity and care with which this ensemble’s members approach all the repertoire heard here.” — InfoDad.com (Nov. 24, 2021) (FCL2022 Brahms String Quartets)
...a stunning achievement!
“This recording...is the next-to-last to feature Paul Yarbrough—who had been with the group 40 years—on viola. In fact, he has already officially left the quartet, but will return one more time to record the Mozart Viola Quintets.  […]  
   It’s been quite a ride for the Alexander Quartet. From the first time I heard them, roughly 16 years ago, I was convinced that they were the premiere American string quartet and one of the best in the world.  […]  
   They play Brahms the way they played Beethoven, with brisk tempi and sharp attacks, which gives the music a much more exciting profile, and of course they still have that incredible tonal sheen that sets them apart from everyone else. Whatever their secret, the ASQ has the most sheerly beautiful sound of any string quartet I’ve ever heard, and it’s not because they use a lot of string vibrato. On the contrary, all four players have an even, tight vibrato, and although they occasionally use portamento it is not broad or mannered.  […]  
   One wonders why Alexander waited so long to record these works; perhaps they wanted to be sure that their interpretations matched the mental image that each player had of them, to make the recordings a lasting monument to their interpretations. If so, they made the right decision. There is not a note or phrase in the entire series that does not sound right in terms of musical structure.  […]  
   By any standard...this set is a stunning achievement of brilliant playing, gorgeous string sound, and exciting, dynamic interpretations. Really, not to be missed.”
— Lynn René Bayley, The Art Music Lounge (Oct. 15, 2021) (FCL2022 Brahms String Quartets)

BRAHMS & MOZART — CLARINET QUINTETS:

Nominated as a MusicWeb International Recording of the Year 
“Two of the great clarinet quintets in exemplary performances, full of subtle nuance, but tempered by a clear desire to communicate the quality of the music rather than the performers’ skills. The differences between the two works are similarly tempered by recognition of how important the Mozart quintet was to Brahms in the composition of his quintet. The recorded sound is exemplary too — the balance of the five instruments being perfectly presented.”
— Glyn Pursglove, MusicWeb International Recordings of the Year 2020 (FCL2021 Brahms and Mozart Clarinet Quintets)
Four-Star Performance and 4.5-Star Sonics rating!
“Set down with a matched quartet of instruments… the performances were recorded last year in hi-rez at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Belvedere, California, with an ideal mix of direct sound and natural reverberation. … The ASQ’s Mozart is sublime, Eban’s exceptionally warm and smooth sound blending with Paul Yarbrough’s viola and Sandy Wilson’s cello… ASQ and Eban’s rendition of the heavenly Larghetto, the wonderful Viennese lilt of their third movement, and the perfectly paced pullback to the surprise adagio toward the end of the finale make this a great modern performance. …this Brahms is seductive and…the sound is a joy.”
— Jason Victor Serinus, Stereophile Magazine (Sept. 2020) (FCL2021 Brahms and Mozart Clarinet Quintets)
Music Notes "Best of year" 
“There are times – either times of day or times in which we live – when music can provide healing, induce calm, soothe our troubled hearts, allay our fears, and for a moment dispel our cares. As I sat late one night, and let this music so exquisitely played and shared with us by five formidable artists create its magic, time stopped and all that mattered in that moment was Mozart and Brahms and the Alexander String Quartet and Eli Eban.
    Let me let the insightful liner notes by Eric Bromberger provide all the musicological background needed to accompany this music and let my message of gratitude go to Foghorn Classics, to the Alexander String Quartet, and to clarinetist Eli Eban for providing the healing and soothing and calm this listener was in need of in the midst of the turmoil of this troubled year.”
— Rafael de Acha, Music Notes (FCL2021 Brahms and Mozart Clarinet Quintets)
"scrupulous and nuanced musicianship"
“…if it’s Mozart and Brahms you want, then you will find that the Alexander Quartet and Eban provide readings of lyric warmth predicated on scrupulous and nuanced musicianship. … eloquently phrased qualities held in just balance by the musicians, who are always phrasally generous but never prepared to sacrifice musical good manners to force the issue, emotively speaking. … throughout this disc whilst the clarinetist maintains full body of tone across his range and his warmly aerated vibrato is under excellent control. … Eban’s subtle variation in variation usage, not least in the slow movement, ensures a refined sense of colour, warmly vibrated, and is always audible. And the sonority of the accompanying figures, top to bottom, remains admirable. … To add to the pleasure there are fine booklet notes and an excellently judged recording.”
— Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International (FCL2021 Brahms and Mozart Clarinet Quintets)
"the first recording of these works I will reach for"
“Immediately apparent in this new recording is the warmth and sweetness of Eban’s tone. … Where the clarinet needs to soar over the strings, Eban also accomplishes that in an unforced and natural-sounding manner that preserves his instrument’s integration with the strings. In other words, these performances never sound like the clarinet is an interloper that wandered by accident into a string quartet. … heartfelt singing of phrases by Eban in alliance with the Alexander’s uncommonly sensitive, responsive, and sinuous shaping of the line makes for the most meltingly beautiful readings of these works I can recall ever hearing. Listen, for example, to first violinist Zakarias Grafilo play the second theme in the first movement of the Mozart, beginning in the second half of bar 49. It’s marked p dolce. The beatific benevolence of it will take your breath away.
    But Grafilo isn’t the only one of the string quartet who should be singled out for special distinction. There isn’t a single bar, not even a single note, in either the Mozart or the Brahms to which violinist Frederick Lifsitz, violist Paul Yarbrough, and cellist Sandy Wilson don’t add the most expressive beauty. And all of this can be heard on an extraordinarily detailed and transparent recording made in June of 2019 at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Belvedere, California by recording maestro Matt Carr. …
    Without hesitation, this will now be the first recording of these works I will reach for on my shelf. Bravos all around!”
— Jerry Dubins, Fanfare (FCL2021 Brahms and Mozart Clarinet Quintets)
(Mozart)  “Eban’s variety of tone helps make the entire quintet sound wonderful...[and how the ASQ] manages to create a sound that is blended while still retaining an individuality of sound in each of the four voices is a miracle I have not yet figured out…”
(Brahms)  “Eban’s wonderfully nuanced clarinet playing brings a wealth of color to the proceedings, as does the Alexander Quartet’s sense of rhythm. In fact, the rhythmic elements of this work are brought off better than in any other recording I’ve heard, as is their penchant for nuance. In the first movement alone, the quintet creates an entire world of sound and feeling without ever overdoing it or trying to bring attention to themselves. This was a feature of their Brahms Piano Quintets with Joyce Yang, and they equal their playing in that recording here...
In toto, this is clearly one of the Alexander Quartet’s finest releases.”
— Lynn René Bayley, Art Music Lounge (June 2020) (FCL2021 Brahms and Mozart Clarinet Quintets)

DVORAK — LOCALE:

Dvořák / Locale named by MusicWeb International as one of the Recordings of the Year 2019!
“To my ear this [the ‘American’ quartet] is pretty much an ideal performance.... Somehow, the players have managed to return to a very standard work in the repertoire and play it with the bright-eyed brilliance of first acquaintance — genuinely a performance to cherish....Indeed, almost exactly the same can be said of the Piano Quintet performance that shares the disc....highest accolades.” — previous "Recording of the Month" review by Nick Barnard, Music-Web International (FCL2021 Dvořák – Locale)

FIVE STAR ALLMUSIC REVIEW!
“There is absolutely no shortage of recordings of these two popular Dvořák works, but this one is a standout. The Alexander String Quartet…continues to deliver.… Consider this pairing of the String Quartet in F major, Op. 96 ("American"), with the Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81. The latter work features Joyce Yang on piano, seamlessly adapting herself to the quartet's lively warmth. The "American" quartet is even better, with the group catching the dance rhythms that percolate throughout but are sometimes lost in the cool string quartet medium. Sample the Molto vivace Scherzo of the quartet, which has a lightness that has rarely been achieved elsewhere. Each movement of both works reveals original ideas…. Impressive work that adds to the sterling reputation of this ensemble.” — James Manheim, AllMusic Review (Nov. 2019) (FCL2021 Dvořák – Locale)

“…The Alexander String Quartet, joined by Joyce Yang in Dvořák’s Piano Quintet, has done it again. Hard on the heels of the ASQ’s recent release of Mozart’s last three string quartets, and the ensemble’s only slightly less recent release of Mozart’s two piano quartets with Joyce Yang, this exceptionally well-attuned group of players brings us two of Dvořák’s happiest, most inspired chamber works in what are quite possibly the happiest, most inspired performances of them I’ve ever heard. …overflowing with warmth, joyfulness, non-stop Czech-inflected melodies and rhythms, and their composer’s sense of delight in his own gifts for harmony and invention.
    The opening of the Piano Quintet, for example, is near the top of my Top-10 list of the most memorable and gloriously beautiful beginnings of a work ever written, and the playing of it, first by the ensemble’s cellist, Sandy Wilson, and then taken up in bar 61 by violinist Zakarias Grafilo, is of such nuanced phrasing, modulated dynamics, and emotional expressiveness that it will take your breath away. And Joyce Yang’s easeful triplets are the downy pillow on which the melody lays its head. … I find it so special that in the not too distant future, I hope to enter it in Fanfare’s Classical Hall of Fame.” — Jerry Dubins, Fanfare Magazine (Sept. 2019) (FCL2021 Dvořák – Locale)

“…the ‘American’ quartet is clearly one of the finest ever recorded” — Lynn René Bayley, Art Music Lounge (Aug. 2019) (FCL2021 Dvořák – Locale)

“…the Alexander String Quartet delivers profoundly beautiful readings of two Dvořák masterpieces with a remarkable feeling of freshness. No passage is played by rote, and you never feel the fatigue of years. For an ensemble founded in 1981, this is a gratifying achievement and a boon to the listener… The “American” Quartet wins over any listener, which tempts ensembles to coast. In this case, however, the Alexanders pay close attention to phrasing, modulations, and rhythm, with the result that the Scherzo, for example, feels bright and new… If the quartet performance is an unqualified success—including excellent, lifelike recorded sound—the Piano Quintet goes a step farther… Yang is at once a soloist and an ensemble player here… It’s hard to persuade collectors that a new arrival surpasses old favorites, but this Dvořák pairing rivals any past recording I’ve ever heard… If you value youthful verve, turn here. The fatigue factor has been banished entirely.” — Huntley Dent, Fanfare Magazine (Sept. 2019) (FCL2021 Dvořák – Locale)

“I first encountered the pairing of the Alexander Quartet with Joyce Yang in a release from 2014 of the Schumann and Brahms quintets which absolutely bowled me over and became one of my Records of the Year. … Since that release, she has joined the Alexanders, or at least three of them, in the Mozart quartets to acclaim. … I’m pleased to report that the partnership with Joyce Yang, so persuasive in Brahms and Schumann, is equally so in the Quintet. From the first, the effect is electric; the hairs on the back of my neck standing up almost throughout.”

BARTOK & KODALY:

"The Alexander Quartet sustains a fine balance between brio and intelligibility, and perhaps also in part because I listened intently again after a few years in between, but after hearing the Alexander versions a number of times I feel that the prosaic-poetic fluidity that may have evaded my musical ear has come together at last. These are not simple works. By now well into the new Millennium, both performers and listeners have grown up with the music and can make better sense of it than when the corpus was still so new. So my ears may be growing as are those who tackle the set for themselves, but also I think it's clear that the Alexander Quartet really understand the works and phrase them all in terms of the inner musical logic, in part because by now the modern idiom is no longer only semi-comprehensible when operating at such a high level, but also that the Alexander Quartet have really gotten inside the works and by now for them they seem like an extension of self, second nature
    At any rate that's how good these performances are. The Alexander Quartet make the Bartók cycle seem inevitable, natural. That is saying something. They have great spirit in the performance of all these works. But the Bartók especially is as good as it gets. I don't imagine I need say any more. These are outstanding versions, centerpieces of any modern quartet collection.”

"...the Alexander Quartet gave the Bartók a restrained and poised, even introverted, performance, without in any way neglecting the work’s varying moods. The march had the appropriate swagger, the Burletta (burlesque) a dry wit and a hint of the grotesque. The Mesto introductions provide each member of the quartet with a solo, and each played his beautifully. A tip of the hat to Zakarias Grafilo and Frederick Lifsitz, violins, Paul Yarbrough, viola, and Sandy Wilson, cello, for their lovely playing in this and in the Britten.”

CANO BRAHMS — THE CLARINET QUINTETS:

"The CD comes together with an excellent translation of Brahms’ quintet, in which the wind instrument achieves such an integration with the strings that it truly resembles a symphony. The members of the Alexander offer that atmosphere, and a truly delightful sound."

GERSHWIN & KERN:

“…Despite the light quality of the scoring, however, the Alexander Quartet plays them — as they did the Gershwin — with exceptional taste and feeling."

"An unusual, interesting disc … worth hearing for the high craft they bring to bear to these pieces—plus, the Porgy and Bess transcriptions are simply wonderful.”

REVIEWING ASQ's PERFORMANCE of Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor (part of a program with Joyce DiDonato and Jake Heggie):

"Bridging the two song cycles was Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor, in a lithe, agile performance by the Alexander String Quartet. The quartet, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, sounded especially lovely in the third movement (marked “Andantino doucement expressif”), with the strings producing richly colored, shimmering sound.”

"Then the Alexanders came onstage to perform Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor…they managed to uncover new tones within the familiar territory and delivered an impressively thoughtful performance. Cellist Sandy Wilson brought the morose tone of the first movement to the forefront and it colored everything in its wake. Violist Paul Yarbrough picked up the thread from Wilson in the second movement, adding a quizzical element, and the violins of Zakarias Grafilo and Frederick Lifsitz performed the pizzicato ending with exceptional finesse…every movement was performed with its own distinct emotional current, with the players cognizant of the themes occurring in each, yet treating each one as a unique entity.”