"Glass weaves filigree tapestries given polished, finely detailed airings by the virtuoso Brits"
The Observer
"How long before the Kronos is labelled the 'American Smith Quartet'? ... they are ahead of the curve at generating new repertoire and taking the experimental back-catalogue seriously"
Classic FM Magazine
"If success was measured according to output and sales units alone, Glass would be head and shoulders above his contemporaries ... played with characteristic precision and projection by the ensemble"
Gramophone
The Observer, 9th March 2008
Sometimes described as Britain's answer to the Kronos Quartet, the Smiths are well-versed in the chamber music of Philip Glass, which thus far amounts to five works over 25 years (after his withdrawal of three earlier pieces). Drawing on influences from Bach to Shostakovich, as well as the worlds of dance, theatre and film so conspicuous throughout his output, Glass weaves filigree tapestries given polished, finely detailed airings by the virtuoso Brits. The third quartet, 'Mishima', offers an especially fine glimpse of distant horizons reduced to a minimalist perspective.
Anthony Holden
Classic FM Magazine, June 2008, *****
How long before the Kronos is labelled the 'American Smith Quartet'? The Smiths must be heartily narked at always being compared to their American colleagues when, arguably, they are ahead of the curve at generating new repertoire and taking the experimental back-catalogue seriously. A case in point is this fine survey of Philip Glass's string quartets. The first quartet, which was written shortly after the composer's student days, is rarely played but gives an intriguing early glimpse of his trademark repetitions emerging from behind a darkly expressionist soundworld. The second quartet, Company, is the Glass quartet everyone knows, but the rest are equally worthwhile: neo-Bachian purity and idiosyncratic harmonic shifts in abundance.
Philip Clark
Gramophone, June 2008
If success was measured according to output and sales units alone, Glass would be head and shoulders above his contemporaries. His compositions for conventional combinations, including the five string quartets included on this disc, have already appeared on recordings by the Kronos and Duke quartets, but the Smith Quartet have been the first to release the complete cycle.
Numbers 2 to 5, written between 1983 and 1991, form a neat and consistent set, from the enigmatic, introspective Second, via the expressive Third and quirkily bitonal Fourth, to the neo-romantic, almost Tchaikovskian opening gesture of the Fifth. The Smith Quartet's thoughtful and measured performance allows subtle metric, linear and textural features to rise unassumingly to the surface, enhanced on this recording by a clear, balanced stereo image, and played with characteristic precision and projection by the ensemble.
The First Quartet is something of an anomaly, however. Written soon after Glass's studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris during the mid-1960's, it had been viewed either as a transitional work of marginal interest or a potent symbol of Glass's emerging minimalist style. The most curious feature here is a pause of two minutes separating the two movements, partially observed by the Duke Quartet (Collins Classics, 1/94-nla) but omitted here. What connects this work with later Glass – at least more than the Cageian silence – is the work's obsessive preoccupation with cyclical repetition, although the accompanying atonally charged atmosphere seems light years away from the lush harmonies of the Fifth Quartet.
