"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.
Pwyll ap Siôn
Musicweb.com, August 2008
The success of Philip Glass outstripped the first flush of celebrity in the 1980s and 1990s. This logical set serves further to consolidate his reputation in a world in which no single style has monopoly or ascendancy.
The Third Quartet owes its existence to a commission for the music for Paul Schrader's film of the life of Yukio Mishima. Mishima’s samurai life and death by seppuku made him almost as much of an iconic figure in the 1960s as Che Guevara. The music moves between a lulling iterative murmur (II) and a sense of rise and uplift (IV). The finale (V) is almost Schubertian or may remind you of a fragment from Smetana’s bustling Aus Meinem Leben. I have heard Company in two other different orchestral version recordings recently: the Naxos Glass set and the EMI ‘American Classics’ disc. The first and third movements are suggestive of a melancholic slowed fanfare. The third is chaffingly Sibelian. The finale is shot through with urgently propulsive power; angst and exhilaration meet and mediate. The early death of the artist Brian Buczak from HIV/AIDS was the spur for the Fourth Quartet. It is one of the longer quartets and has only three movements. It's a work of more complexity than its mates on CD1. There is a great tenderness here and the slow-rocking and piercing poignancy of the second movement is memorable. In the finale it is as if the lock-gates have been raised to release a surge of Schubertian melody.
The First Quartet is from the mid-1960s; pretty early for Glass. It dates from shortly after he had completed his not entirely comfortable studies in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and Pierre Boulez. The work has some of his trademark iterative cell-patterning but the world he creates is more involved, varied, troubled and dissonant. The Fifth Quartet - so far his last - is contemporary romantic. Its second movement is launched with a typical sombre ostinato but other figures of passionate and sanguine weight are interleaved. Passion too drives the third movement which is thrillingly empowered. The fourth carries reminiscences, in Schubertian cotton wool, of those unhurried fanfares of Company. In a flighty finale high-pitched bustle and wonderfully inventive optimistic writing lead to a triumphantly winged episode. There's just a hint of Tippett at full throttle in this music which at the close moves into tender reflection.
As with the other performances you feel that the Smith Quartet have lived and breathed this music.
The set is well presented and the whole effect is very pleasing prompting curiosity about the other Signum/Smith collaborations - Different Trains (Reich) SIGCD 064 and Ghost Stories SIGCD 088.
Rob Barnett
Musician Magazine, 2008
This superb foursome - Ian Humphries and Darragh Morgan (violins) , Nic Pendlebury (viola) and Deirdre Cooper (cello) - celebrate their 20th year with the release of another excellent portfolio from Philip Glass. The highly respected Quartet is well-known for its championing of new works and ongoing collaborations with a wide range of artists. CD1 here, however focuses on three principle quartets; the soundtrack-based Mishima, the dramatic Company and the tribute to artist Brian Buczak. CD2 contains stirring cyclical movements from String Quartet No. 1 and standout String Quartet No. 5. Simply timeless, emotive and brilliant in execution from start to finish.
