Iannis Xenakis

CD version. The first complete recording of Xenakis’ string quartets. The first new recording of Xenakis’ first three quartets since 1994. The only available recording of Xenakis’ last quartet, “Ergma”, from 1994. The first commercial release by the JACK Quartet, a young New York/Boston based group that has been garnering high praise for their performances of complex and challenging new music. The members of the quartet met while attending the Eastman School of Music, New York. The quartet has since studied closely with the Arditti Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Muir String Quartet, and members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. “The Jack Quartet, an ensemble of young string players devoted to contemporary music, played the Le Poisson Rouge in October. I would never have expected to see a crowd at a downtown nightclub erupting with whoops after performances of four hypercomplex, cutting-edge string quartets by Iannis Xenakis. But in this setting these dense and kinetic works came across to this open-minded audience as just more hip, wild, out-there contemporary music.”, Anthony Tommasini, “Classical Music That Dared To Be Different”, The New York Times, Sunday, December 21, 2008

Tetras (1983)
Tetora (1990)
ST/4-1,080262 (1956-62)
Ergma (1994)

The JACK Quartet: Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violins; John Pickford Richards, viola; Kevin McFarland, cello
Liner notes by James Harley