Horatiu Radulescu

CD version. The first volume in a projected series combining Radulescu’s complete Piano Sonatas and String Quartets, there are six of each, on Mode performed by the superb JACK Quartet and Stephen Clarke (piano). In the 1970s, Horatiu Radulescu (1942-2008) began exploring and composing what he called “plasmatic music,” in which sound was conceived as an “endless ocean of vibrations,” as opposed to the traditional way in which music treats sound as a fabric of discrete scale steps. His music is linked to the “spectral music” school.

Radulescu’s Fifth String Quartet is one of the key works in his output. It is in some ways the richest manifestation of the body of string techniques he had developed for his music. It consists of 29 sections/pages with richly evocative titles, each lasting about 1 minute.

The Second Piano Sonata is inspired by the Tao of Chinese philosopher Lao tzu (6-5 BC). The first movement, “Immanence,” opens with a powerful sonority built from spectral functions which gives a sense of immensity and strength.

The Fifth Piano Sonata makes abundant use, more so than any of the other sonatas, of Romanian folk material, which is absorbed and integrated into Radulescu’s spectral language.

Liner notes by Bob Gilmore.

Piano Sonata No. 2, op. 82, "being and non-being create each other" (1991)
String Quartet No. 5, op. 89, "before the universe was born" (1990-95)
Piano Sonata No. 5, op. 106, "settle your dust, this is the primal identity" (2003)
First recordings of String Quartet No. 5 and Piano Sonata No. 5

JACK Quartet
Stephen Clarke, piano