I’ve been in rehearsals with the Giannini String Quartet this past week preparing for their Spain tour, where they will be playing my String Quartet No. 3: Air (2004). Air is an eleven-minute homage to Italian aria, our fragile atmosphere, and our lifelong reliance on the peaceful undulation of our lungs. There is a wonderful recording of it by the Daedalus String Quartet online in all the usual places.
It’s always a delight for me to hear excellent musicians hone in on a composition, polishing every detail until everything sparkles. Giannini hasn’t disappointed: their musicianship, focus and skill are an inspiration.
We have a preview performance this Thursday evening at Arbor Acres in Winston-Salem. Other works on the program by Boccherini, Gershwin and Sheng. Then we head to Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia next week. More about that later, hopefully.
I just listened to the Daedalus recording of your String Quartet #3 on Spotify. It is very lovely. I would like to hear a live performance. Thank you.
I think this aspect of Spotify (and other streaming services) is underappreciated. It often happens that I will read about a piece and find it on Spotify and listen to it immediately. In the past, that would have been difficult, expensive, or impossible. Not all change is bad.
Thanks for the kind words, BobG, and you are right about our instant access to whatever interests us. Believing all change is bad makes no more sense than believing that all change is good.