Discography

Brahms: String Sextets Op.18 and Op.36 AV2294

The year 2016 heralded both the Cypress String Quartet’s 20th anniversary and the group’s valedictory season. With this final album, the CSQ completes its remarkable legacy in an innovative flourish, recording the two Brahms Sextets in both high-resolution digital and analogue formats, live before a studio audience at Skywalker Sound, where they share the Scoring Stage with long-time friends and collaborators Barry Shiffman (viola) and Zuill Bailey (cello). CD booklet includes original Program Notes by Jan Swafford. Available January 6, 2017.

Check the "Buy Album" drop-down menu below the cover art at right for purchase options.

TRACK LISTING -- Click "Play" Buttons to Stream Samples
For Press/Reviewers: Full Album Preview Page Available Here (password protected)

Beethoven: The Late String Quartets AV2356

Disc 1
String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Opus 127
String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132

Disc 2
String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Opus 130
Große Fuge, Opus 133
and Alternate Finale

Disc 3
String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Opus 131
String Quartet in F Major, Opus 135

When people discuss the greatest contributions to the arts in Western civilization, names such as Shakespeare, da Vinci, and Beethoven inevitably arise. Proponents for Beethoven cite his five late quartets, which were the final works that he completed. In this three-disc set, reissued here on Avie Records, May 6 2016, the Cypress String Quartet brings a fresh voice of humanity and clarity to these monumental works.

The final disc completed for this set includes Beethoven's String Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus. 127 and his String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132. These performances were recorded at Skywalker Sound by engineer Mark Willsher and produced by Cypress first violinist, Cecily Ward.

Read Fanfare Magazine's review of this box set

Included in the box set are program notes written by Joseph Kerman, the author of The Beethoven Quartets (W. W. Norton & Company).

In addition to the physical CD, high-resolution, audiophile-quality versions of this album are available for purchase in both 44khz/16-bit and 96khz/24-bit uncompressed .WAV audio formats via artistconnex, powered by Downloads NOW!

Purchase this album direct from the artists at cypressquartet.bandcamp.com

SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING

    Disc 1 [Opus 127 and Opus 132]


  • Beethoven 127-1 1. String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Opus 127: Maestoso - Allegro 6:05
  • Beethoven 127-2 2. String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Opus 127: Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile 14:44
  • Beethoven 127-3 3. String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Opus 127: Scherzando vivace 8:54
  • Beethoven 127-4 4. String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Opus 127: Allegro 6:47
  • Beethoven 132-1 5. String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132: Assai sostenuto - Allegro 9:49
  • Beethoven 132-2 6. String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132: Allegro ma non tanto 8:32
  • Beethoven 132-3 7. String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132: Molto Adagio - Andante 16:12
  • Beethoven 132-4 8. String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132: Alla marcia, assai vivace 2:14
  • Beethoven 132-5 9. String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132: Allegro appassionato - Presto 6:31

    • Disc 2 [Opus 130 and Opus 133]


  • Beethoven 130-1 1. String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Opus 130: Adagio ma non troppo - Allegro 14:18
  • Beethoven 130-2 2. String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Opus 130: Presto 2:07
  • Beethoven 130-3 3. String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Opus 130: Poco scherzoso: Andante con moto ma non troppo 7:25
  • Beethoven 130-4 4. String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Opus 130: Alla Danza tedesca: Allegro assai 3:57
  • Beethoven 130-5 5. String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Opus 130: Cavatina: Adagio molto espressivo 6:34
  • Beethoven 133 6. String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Opus 130: Original finale (1825): Grosse Fuge: Overtura - Fuga (Opus 133)15:15
  • Beethoven 130-6 7. String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Opus 130: Alternate finale (1826): Finale: Allegro 10:48

    • Disc 3 [Opus 131 and Opus 135]

  • Beethoven 131-1 1. String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Opus 131: Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo 5:44
  • Beethoven 131-2 2. String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Opus 131: Allegro molto vivace 3:06
  • Beethoven 131-3 3. String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Opus 131: Allegro moderato 0:43
  • Beethoven 131-4 4. String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Opus 131: Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile-Piu mosso-Andante moderato e lusinghiero-Adagio-Allegretto-Adagio ma non troppo e semplice-Allegretto 14:27
  • Beethoven 131-5 5. String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Opus 131: Presto 5:19
  • Beethoven 131-6 6. String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Opus 131: Adagio quasi un poco andante 2:13
  • Beethoven 131-7 7. String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Opus 131: Allegro 6:58
  • Beethoven 135-1 8. String Quartet in F Major, Opus 135: Allegretto 6:41
  • Beethoven 135-2 9. String Quartet in F Major, Opus 135: Vivace 3:20
  • Beethoven 135-3 10. String Quartet in F Major, Opus 135: Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo 7:17
  • Beethoven 135-4 11. String Quartet in F Major, Opus 135: Grave ma non troppo tratto - Allegro 6:56

Fanfare Magazine Review
Sep.4, 2012
First, bravo! Another modern-day ensemble acknowledges the importance of placing the B♭-Major Quartet’s Grosse Fuge ahead of the alternate finale. The resisters, like the recently reviewed Shanghai Quartet, are in an ever-growing minority, one that, in my opinion, deserves to be discredited.

Second, bravissimo! The Cypress String Quartet’s traversal of Beethoven’s late quartets is the best, bar none, I’ve yet to encounter. These are performances of a technical perfection and keenness of interpretive insight that one is apt to hear only in the mind’s inner ear. Tiny details seen in the score but almost never heard are revealed with crystalline clarity. For example, in the opening Adagio measures of the B♭-Major Quartet, how often does one actually hear the C-G double-stop in the viola part on the upbeat to the sixth full bar? Yet here it is, as clear as can be, to no small degree the result of the Cypress Quartet players’ scrupulous observance of every one of Beethoven’s crescendo swells to a p and a recording of unusual penetrability.

But there’s something that goes way beyond following the composer’s dynamic and phrasing instructions or taking the lengthy exposition repeat, and it has to do with a musical intuition and vision of the work that, frankly, strikes me like a bolt of lightning. Every one of the quartet’s six movements, including the Grosse Fuge (seven if you count the alternate finale), and not just the Alla Danza , is played as if it were a dance. As many times as I’ve heard this quartet, it never before occurred to me that it’s as much an “apotheosis of the dance” as is the composer’s Seventh Symphony. Each of the quartet’s movements is informed by a stylized dance form of one type or another. The first movement opens with a stately entrée grave in 3 and then proceeds to alternate with a lively, vigorous, bounding type of dance in 4, perhaps a galliard. The second movement (Presto) in cut time might easily have its roots in the tarantella. The third movement (Poco scherzoso) bears certain characteristics of a gavotte. The fourth movement (Alla Danza) is a sad little Viennese waltz. The fifth movement (Cavatina) is, of course, the quartet’s sarabande, and the alternate finale could well be a rigaudon or tambourin. That leaves the Grosse Fuge , which in this context now becomes all important and lays claim to its hierarchical position as the quartet’s rightful conclusion, for it embodies all of the dance impulses that precede it. When you listen to the Cypress Quartet play this work, you will hear Beethoven’s B♭-Major Quartet as the dance suite it probably is, and you will quite literally hear the music dancing.

This is a very special performance, but it’s not the only one. The A-Minor Quartet’s great “Heiliger Dankegesang” is of a transfixing concentration and intensity that will melt your heart and bore a hole through your soul. And again, the combination of the ensemble’s clarity of voicing and the transparency of the recording expose every tiny scrap of filigree in the contrasting andante sections of the movement. This is music-making that will hold you absolutely spellbound in its thrall.

If reverence and awe, then joyful embrace, are Beethoven’s vision of a personal God in the “Heiliger Dankegesang,” what vision does he impart in the cold, impersonal, remote, and alien cosmogony of the C♯-Minor Quartet’s opening fugue? Is it that of Schubert peering into the dark, fathomless abyss? No, it’s the vision, rather comforting in its own way, of a universe neither benevolent nor malevolent, but unmindful of us and unfolding as it should. The key to capturing the essence of this music is not to play it devoid of expression but to play it with an expression that expresses expressionlessness. This the Cypress Quartet achieves with a feeling of aloofness and detachment conceived most immaculately.

Exothermic vs. endothermic—all-embracing warmth vs. calculated cold in the two preceding quartets. Where does Beethoven go from here? To foppery and tomfoolery in the final F-Major Quartet, a work filled mostly with good-natured humor and a generosity of spirit. But there remains the quartet’s Lento assai, a movement that, with its concluding autistic suspensions repeated over and over again, foretells the Mahlerian leave-taking—“ewig … ewig … ewig”—at the end of Das Lied von der Erde.

Read the complete review here

From my very first encounter with the San Francisco-based Cypress String Quartet in 33:2, I knew this was not just another string-quartet ensemble, that this was a group of special talent that was marked for greatness. I noted then the awesome technical resources and communicative expressiveness of these players and singled them out as my then current favorites in this repertoire. Nothing has changed since I made those statements. If anything, the completion of this set of Beethoven’s late quartets with the Nos. 12 and 15 has only reinforced my feelings. I would now pick the Cypress String Quartet over the Cleveland, Emerson, Artemis, Endellion, and Takács quartets and the Tokyo Quartet’s recent remake. It will now be a shame, and a major disappointment, if the Cypress String Quartet does not complete its Beethoven cycle with the early and middle quartets. This is potential Want List material and urgently recommended.

Jerry Dubins

Back to Discography

Beethoven: The Early String Quartets AV2348

String Quartet Op.18 No.1
String Quartet Op.18 No.2
String Quartet Op.18 No.6

Disc 2
String Quartet Op.18 No.3
String Quartet Op.18 No.4
String Quartet Op.18 No.5

Included in this new 2-CD set - released internationally on May 6, 2016 on Avie Records - are original, extensive and insightful program notes written by Jan Swafford, author of "Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph." Jan Swafford's biographies of composers Charles Ives and Johannes Brahms have established him as a revered music historian, capable of bringing his subjects vibrantly to life. His magnificent new biography of Ludwig van Beethoven peels away layers of legend to get to the living, breathing human being who composed some of the world's most iconic music. Swafford mines sources never before used in English-language biographies to reanimate the revolutionary ferment of Enlightenment-era Bonn, where Beethoven grew up and imbibed the ideas that would shape all of his future work. Swafford then tracks his subject to Vienna, capital of European music, where Beethoven built his career in the face of critical incomprehension, crippling ill health, romantic rejection, and 'fate's hammer', his ever-encroaching deafness. At the time of his death he was so widely celebrated that over ten thousand people attended his funeral.This book is a biography of Beethoven the man and musician, not the myth, and throughout, Swafford - himself a composer - offers insightful readings of Beethoven's key works. More than a decade in the making, this will be the standard Beethoven biography for years to come.

More Information on CSQ-AVIE releases: Avie Records website
30 second samples coming soon
SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING
2:38:29 total running time

Beethoven: The Middle String Quartets AV2318

Disc 1
String Quartet Op.59, No.1

Disc 2
String Quartet Op.59 No.2
String Quartet Op.59 No.3

Disc 3
String Quartet Op.74 'Harp'
String Quartet Op.95 'Serioso'

Following three acclaimed releases for AVIE surveying works by Dvořák, Schubert and contemporary Americans, the San Francisco-based Cypress String Quartet turns to the seminal string quartets of Beethoven, performing the five quartets from the composer’s middle period. Formed in 1996, the Cypresses added Beethoven to their repertoire early on. Their signature sound, which is clear and transparent, built up from the bottom register and layered like a pyramid, lends itself beautifully to the Middle String Quartets – the three “Rasumovskys,” the “Harp,” and the “Serioso.”

Included in this new box set - released internationally on November 11, 2014 on Avie Records - are original, extensive and insightful program notes written by Nicholas Mathews, professor at UC Berkeley.
Download Liner Notes Here (.pdf) / (.doc)

Check the Avie Records website for more information about this album and other recent Cypress Quartet releases.

SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING

    Disc 1 [Op. 59 No.1] 40:31 total

     
  • Beethoven 59-1-1 1. String Quartet Op.59 No.1, I: Allegro 10:18
  • Beethoven 59-1-2 2. String Quartet Op.59 No.1, II: Allegro vivace e sempre scherzando 9:24
  • Beethoven 59-1-3 3. String Quartet Op.59 No.1, III: Adagio molto e mesto - 12:36
  • Beethoven 59-1-4 4. String Quartet Op.59 No.1, IV: Allegro (Theme Russe) 8:12

    • Disc 2 [Op.59 Nos. 2 and 3] 66:31 total

     
  • Beethoven 59-2-1 1. String Quartet Op.59 No.2, I: Allegro 9:14
  • Beethoven 59-2-2 2. String Quartet Op.59 No.2, II: Molto adagio 12:30
  • Beethoven 59-2-3 3. String Quartet Op.59 No.2, III: Allegretto 7:08
  • Beethoven 59-2-4 4. String Quartet Op.59 No.2, IV: Finale: Presto 5:38
  • Beethoven 59-3-1 5. String Quartet Op.59 No.3, I: Introduzione: Andante con moto - Allegro vivace 11:03
  • Beethoven 59-3-2 6. String Quartet Op.59 No.3, II: Andante con moto, quasi allegretto 9:36
  • Beethoven 59-3-3 7. String Quartet Op.59 No.3, III: Menuetto: Grazioso - Trio 5:03
  • Beethoven 59-3-4 8. String Quartet Op.59 No.3, IV: Allegro molto 6:04

    • Disc 3 [Op.74 and Op.95]

    51:46 total
  • Beethoven 74-1 1. String Quartet Op.74, I: Poco adagio - Allegro 9:36
  • Beethoven 74-2 2. String Quartet Op.74, II: Adagio ma non troppo 9:01
  • Beethoven 74-3 3. String Quartet Op.74, III: Presto 5:10
  • Beethoven 74-4 4. String Quartet Op.74, IV: Allegretto con variazioni 6:50
  • Beethoven 95-1 5. String Quartet Op.95, I: Allegro con brio 4:30
  • Beethoven 95-2 6. String Quartet Op.95, II: Allegretto ma non troppo 7:13
  • Beethoven 95-3 7. String Quartet Op.95, III: Allegro assai vivace, ma serioso 4:30
  • Beethoven 95-4 8. String Quartet Op.95, IV: Larghetto espressivo - Allegretto agitato - Allegro 4:47
2:38:47 total running time

Schubert: Quintet and Quartettsatz AV2307

2012-2.250x150 GaryHoffman PressPhoto

The Cypress String Quartet (Cecily Ward, violin; Tom Stone, violin; Ethan Filner, viola; and Jennifer Kloetzel, cello) is pleased to announce that on May 13, 2014 AVIE Records will release their new album Schubert: String Quintet and Quartettsatz, recorded in collaboration with the Quartet's good friend and renowned cellist Gary Hoffman in January 2013 at Skywalker Sound.

Read the complete press release here

Check the "Buy Album" drop-down menu below the cover art at right for available purchase options.

TRACK LISTING: Click to Stream Samples
  • Schubert Quintet 1 1. Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D.956- I. Allegro ma non troppo 19:57
  • Schubert Quintet 2 2. Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D.956 - II. Adagio 13:49
  • Schubert Quintet 3 3. Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D.956 - III. Scherzo (Presto) - Trio (Andante sostenuto) 10:48
  • Schubert Quintet 4 4. Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D.956 - IV. Allegretto 9:33
  • Schubert Quartettsatz 5. Schubert: String Quartet No. 12 Quartettsatz in C Minor, D.703 - Allegro 8:57

The American Album (2013) AV2304

The Cypress String Quartet debuted on AVIE with a recording of their namesake work, Dvořák’s “Cypresses” coupled with the composer’s expansive G major Quartet, No. 13 (AV 2275), “a lovely performance,” according to International Record Review. The Czech composer features again in the ensemble’s American Album with his beloved “American” Quartet, which shares the program with Barber’s String Quartet, featuring the famous Adagio central movement,”Two Sketches Based on Indian Themes” by Charles Griffes, and the single-movement Lento assai by Pulitzer-prize winning composer Kevin Puts. This recording is a stunning appreciation of the American spirit from 1893 to the present. - See more at: www.avie-records.com

SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING
  • Dvorak 1 1. Dvorak: String Quartet No.12 in F Major, Op.96 "American" - Allegro ma non troppo 8:58
  • Dvorak 2 2. Lento 6:19
  • Dvorak 3 3. Molto vivace 3:43
  • Dvorak 4 4. Vivace ma non troppo 5:26
  • Griffes 1 5. Griffes: Two Sketches Based on Indian Themes - Lento e mesto 6:29
  • Griffes 2 6. Allegro giocoso 3:32
  • Puts 7. Kevin Puts: Lento Assai 12:44
  • Barber 1 8. Barber: String Quartet in B Minor, Op.11 - Molto allegro e appassionato 7:45
  • Barber 2 9. Molto adagio 7:18
  • Barber 3 10. Molto allegro (come prima) - Presto 2:14
Reviews

Examiner.com
11/16/2011
by Stephen Smoliar, Classical Music Examiner

Last week saw the release by the Cypress String Quartet (violins Cecily Ward and Tom Stone, viola Ethan Filner, and cello Jennifer Kloetzel) of their latest CD on their own label. The recording is entitled The American Album; and it provides three markedly different perspectives on what we might call “American” music from three decidedly different eras of our country’s history. What makes those perspectives interesting, however, is that each of them has its own form of European connection. Read more...

Dvorak: Cypresses & Op.106 (2013) AV2275

Antonín Dvořák: Cypresses | String Quartet No.13 in G Major, Op.106

The acclaimed Cypress String Quartet plays the cycle of miniatures, inspired by unrequited love, from which the ensemble takes its name. More than three decades after writing Cypresses, Dvořák had turned from lovesick to homesick; a masterful demonstration of the intimate conversation of chamber music, the G major Quartet is also a song of thanksgiving for the composer’s return from the US to his native land. Previous discs from the CSQ have been praised by Gramophone for the ensemble's "intoxicating and lyrical" playing and "sheer instrumental mastery."

Available February 26, 2013
on Avie Records

SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING
  • Dvorak 1 1. Cypresses - No.1 "I know that in my love" 3:29
  • Dvorak 2 2. Cypresses - No.2 "The dead heart awakes again" 2:30
  • Dvorak 3 3. Cypresses - No.3 "When your sweet glances on me fall" 2:13
  • Dvorak 4 4. Cypresses - No.4 "Our love will never reach its aim" 3:35
  • Dvorak 5 5. Cypresses - No.5 "The old letter in my book" 2:51
  • Dvorak 6 6. Cypresses - No.6 "You are my glorious rose" 1:59
  • Dvorak 7 7. Cypresses - No.7 "There lived once my sweetheart" 1:51
  • Dvorak 8 8. Cypresses - No.8 "On the shore of the brook" 2:45
  • Dvorak 9 9. Cypresses - No.9 "My dearest one" 2:33
  • Dvorak 10 10. Cypresses - No.10 "There stands an ancient rock" 2:06
  • Dvorak 11 11. Cypresses - No.11 "Nature lies peaceful in slumber and dreaming" 2:27
  • Dvorak 12 12. Cypresses - No.12 "You ask why these songs of mine" 2:47
  • Dvorak 13 13. String Quartet No.13 in G Op.106 - I. Allegro moderato 9:33
  • Dvorak 14 14. String Quartet No.13 in G Op.106 - II. Adagio ma non troppo 10:14
  • Dvorak 15 15. String Quartet No.13 in G Op.106 - III. Molto vivace 7:03
  • Dvorak 16 16. String Quartet No.13 in G Op.106 - IV. Andante sostenuto - Allegro con fuoco 10:46
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Beethoven Late Quartets, Volume 3

String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Opus 127
String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132

The Cypress String Quartet has finished recording the final late quartets written by Beethoven between 1822 and 1826 (historically known as Beethoven's Late Period) for commercial release. The final disc of this three-volume set includes Beethoven's String Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus. 127 and his String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132. The complete set, as well as a separate Volume 3, will be available in March 2012. The entire Beethoven cycle was produced by Cypress first violinist Cecily Ward, engineered by Mark Willsher, and recorded at Skywalker Sound.

Purchase this album direct from the artists at cypressquartet.bandcamp.com

SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING
  • Beethoven 127-1 1. String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Opus 127: Maestoso - Allegro 6:05
  • Beethoven 127-2 2. String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Opus 127: Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile 14:44
  • Beethoven 127-3 3. String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Opus 127: Scherzando vivace 8:54
  • Beethoven 127-4 4. String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Opus 127: Allegro 6:47
  • Beethoven 132-1 5. String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132: Assai sostenuto - Allegro 9:49
  • Beethoven 132-2 6. String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132: Allegro ma non tanto 8:32
  • Beethoven 132-3 7. String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132: Molto Adagio - Andante 16:12
  • Beethoven 132-4 8. String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132: Alla marcia, assai vivace 2:14
  • Beethoven 132-5 9. String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132: Allegro appassionato - Presto 6:31

The 15th Anniversary Album

Claude Debussy: String Quartet in G Minor, Op.10
Maurice Ravel: String Quartet in F Major
Ervin Schulhoff: Five Pieces for String Quartet

To commemorate their 15th Anniversary, Cypress String Quartet is releasing a compilation disc of favorite recordings. Celebrate with us!

Purchase this album direct from the artists at cypressquartet.bandcamp.com


SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING
  • Debussy 1 1. Debussy String Quartet in G Minor, Op.10 - Anime et tre decide 6:07
  • Debussy 2 2. Assez vif et bien rythme 3:45
  • Debussy 3 3. Andantino doucement expressif 6:60
  • Debussy 4 4. Tres modere 7:15
  • Ravel 1 5. Ravel: String Quartet in F Major - Allegro moderato, Tres doux 7:47
  • Ravel 2 6. Assez vif, Tres rythme 6:01
  • Ravel 3 7. Tres lent 8:16
  • Ravel 4 8. Vif et agite 5:25
  • Schulhoff 1 9. Schulhoff: Five Pieces for String Quartet - Alla Valse Viennese: Allegro 2:13
  • Schulhoff 2 10. Alla Serenata: Allegretto con moto 3:02
  • Schulhoff 3 11. Alla Czeca: Molto allegro 1:40
  • Schulhoff 4 12. Alla Tango Milonga: Andante 4:01
  • Schulhoff 5 13. Alla Tarantella: Prestissimo con fuoco 2:43
Back to Discography

How She Danced: String Quartets of Elena Ruehr

String Quartet #4 (2005) Commissioned by the Cypress String Quartet
String Quartet #3 (2001) Commissioned by the Rockport C.M.S.
String Quartet #1 (1991) Winner, ASCAP Award

The Cypress String Quartet released How She Danced: String Quartets of Elena Ruehr on Tuesday, February 23, 2010. The album includes acclaimed Boston-based composer Elena Ruehr's String Quartets No. 1 (1991), No. 3 (2001), and No. 4 (commissioned by the Cypress Quartet in 2005), and will be available on iTunes, CDBaby.com, Amazon.com, and other major retailers. The disc was produced by Cypress first violinist Cecily Ward and Mark Willsher, and recorded at Skywalker Sound.

Included program notes feature an interview with the artists by Bill McGlaughlin, host of Saint Paul Sunday and Exploring Music.

Purchase this album direct from the artists at cypressquartet.bandcamp.com


SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING
  • Ruehr 4-1 1. String Quartet #4 - Sonata: Introduzione; Andante con moto 7:26
  • Ruehr 4-2 2. String Quartet #4 - Aria: Andante 7:03
  • Ruehr 4-3 3. String Quartet #4 - Minuet: Grazioso 7:56
  • Ruehr 4-4 4. String Quartet #4 - Finale: Allegro molto 8:03
  • Ruehr 3-1 5. String Quartet #3 - Clay Flute 3:54
  • Ruehr 3-2 6. String Quartet #3 - The Abbey 8:55
  • Ruehr 3-3 7. String Quartet #3 - How She Danced 4:11
  • Ruehr 3-4 8. String Quartet #3 - Bell Call 6:30
  • Ruehr 1-1 9. String Quartet #1 - Patterns 7:39
  • Ruehr 1-2 10. String Quartet #1 - Interlude 3:35
  • Ruehr 1-3 11. String Quartet #1 - Let's Sit Beneath the Stars 5:26
  • Ruehr 1-4 12. String Quartet #1 - Estampie 4:09

REVIEWS

For How She Danced: String Quartets of Elena Ruehr
"It's a brave move by the San Francisco-based Cypress Quartet to devote its new disc entirely to a contemporary composer, and a little-known name at that. But the music of Elena Ruehr, raised in Michigan and now teaching at MIT, is so appealing, and the performances by the Cypress players so persuasive, that the project brings rich rewards.Ruehr's music hovers between a resonant neo-Romanticism and more cerebral contrapuntal techniques, and it's full of rhythm, life and colour, immediately accessible to the listener but rich enough to repay repeated listenings. It's hard to imagine it being given more committed performances than these by the Cypress players."
Strad Magazine Review (April 2010 by David Kettle)
"Here is the fine young Cypress Quartet's cellist Jennifer Kloetzel explaining to Saint Paul Sunday’s Bill McGlaughlin how the San Francisco Quartet's close relationship to 46-year-old MIT composer Elena Ruehr came about: "A few years ago we decided to champion the composers whose music we like—by playing their music a lot and playing a lot of their music. We commission and recommission them and really get into their world, that's become something that's very important to us— Elena's become a real part of our musical lives." Her music is "infectious," says the ensemble's violist, Ethan Filner. You can say that again many times over after hearing the Cypress Quartet's recordings of Ruehr's Quartets Nos. 1, 3 and 4. The result of the quartet's immersion in Ruehr's musical world is one of the most appealing contemporary quartet discs in a very long time. The disc's title, "How She Danced," (Ruehr is a trained dancer as well as musician and composer) comes from the allegro third movement of Ruehr's Third Quartet and, as with so much of this, it sounds like the strongly tonal meeting point of Philip Glass' minimal-ism and the pan-ethnic folk-influenced music of the great early 20th century experimentalist Henry Cowell. In other words, it's where country reels and hoedowns and Hindu ritual and Balinese gamelan all somehow come together with the restless unison ostinatos of what was once "downtown" new music. A beautiful disc. ★★★ 1/2"
Buffalo News - Listening Post (March 2010 review by Jeff Simon)
"I was enchanted with this, my first acquaintance with the music of American composer Elena Ruehr, and I think you will be, too. A strong, engaging personality suffuses her music. She was born and spent her early years in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, an area of much natural beauty that is said to have the most beautiful fall colors in America. Her music reflects a variety of traditional and world influences in addition to her formal education under mentors William Bolcom, Milton Babbitt and Vincent Persichetti. The daughter of a mathematician, she admits to a fondness for solving intellectual puzzles such as 12-tone rows, but she decided at an early stage in her career to leave the complicated stuff beneath the surface of what people hear, incorporating it into the musical form (For the record, Mozart did much the same thing).As a result, her music, of which we get a good sampling here from String Quartets 1, 3 and 4, written between 1991 and 2005, is both accessible and challenging. We sometimes forget, in analyzing the art of the string quartet, how sensually beautiful the sound of these four strings can be. Ruehr reminds us. Her art consists in large part of long melodies, long intonations and exhalations, gorgeously swelling tones and smartly struck pizzicati. The members of the Cypress Quartet – Cecily Ward and Tom Stone, violins; Ethan Filner, viola; and Jennifer Kloetzel, cello – attest to the challenges they encountered in performing these works in an interview with radio host Bill McGlaughlin, excerpted in the program notes. They speak from experience of the 17-bar melody with a canon in 3 parts, with all four players playing fragments of it here and there, in the slow movement of Quartet No. 3. In this movement, entitled "The Abbey" and taking its inspiration from the style of 12th Century Abbess Hildegard von Bingen, the chant-like melody is supported by a catchy rhythm derived from it. The trick, which the Cypresses bring out with deceptive ease, is to make the music sound as simple and natural as possible."
Sequenza21.com Review (Feb 2010 by Phil Muse)

Beethoven: Late String Quartets, Vol. 2

String Quartet in Bb Major, Opus 130
Große Fuge, Opus 133

The Cypress String Quartet is recording the six quartets written by Beethoven between 1822 and 1826 (historically known as Beethoven's Late Period) for commercial release. The second disc of this three-volume set includes Beethoven's String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130 and the Große Fuge, Op. 133. It will be available on iTunes, CDbaby.com, Amazon.com, and other major retailers on August 3, 2010. The disc was produced by Cypress first violinist Cecily Ward, engineered by Mark Willsher, and recorded at Skywalker Sound. Volume 1 of the Cypress's Late Beethoven set was released in August 2009. Gramophone praised the disc as "revealing artistry of uncommon insight and cohesion." The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported, "The Cypress players converse with such rare sincerity as to make long-familiar music sound utterly fresh." The album was featured as one of The Denver Post's "Best discs of 2009."

Purchase this album direct from the artists at cypressquartet.bandcamp.com



SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING

REVIEWS

For Beethoven Late Quartets, Volume 2
"In the forest of Beethoven recordings, the Cypress String Quartet's are some of the mightiest trees. Compounding the success of its first installment of late-Beethoven quartets, the San Francisco-based ensemble here considers the great B-Flat Major, Op. 130, offering special insight by including both the original "Grosse Fuge" and the later, alternate finale. The performances are masterly: technically assured and lucidly conversational. After this, one can hardly wait for the third and final release."
Grade: A -- Zachary Lewis for the Cleveland Plain Dealer (7/11/2010)
"The Cypress' joie de vivre in this music shines through in this movement, courtesy of close miking by engineer Mark Willsher. The Cypress project a feverish but delightful intensity into the mix...A fine album of chamber music, certainly a must for collectors of modern Beethoven surveys."
- Gary Lemco for Audiophile Audition
Quartet Opus 130, Grosse Fuge Opus 133 & Alternate Finale Beethoven referred to his Opus 130 Quartet in his conversation books as the "Liebquartett" (Dear Quartet), a fitting title for a quartet that contains some of Beethoven's sweetest and most intimate music. Completed in 1825, the quartet is written in six movements, confounding expectations of music form...

Beethoven: Late String Quartets, Vol. 1

String Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131 String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135

When people discuss the greatest contributions to the arts in Western civilization, names such as Shakespeare, da Vinci, and Beethoven inevitably arise. Proponents for Beethoven cite his five late quartets, which were the final works that he completed. In this second of three volumes, the Cypress String Quartet continues to bring a fresh voice of humanity and clarity to these monumental works.

Purchase this album direct from the artists at cypressquartet.bandcamp.com



SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING
  • Beethoven 131-1 1. Beethoven Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Op.131 - I. Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo 5:44
  • Beethoven 131-2 2. Op.131 - II. Allegro molto vivace 3:06
  • Beethoven 131-3 3. Op.131 - III. Allegro moderato 0:43
  • Beethoven 131-4 4. Op.131 - IV. Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile-Piu mosso-Andante moderato e lusinghiero-Adagio-Allegretto-Adagio ma non troppo e semplice-Allegretto 14:27
  • Beethoven 131-5 5. Op.131 - V. Presto 5:19
  • Beethoven 131-6 6. Op.131 - VI. Adagio quasi un poco andante 2:13
  • Beethoven 131-7 7. Op.131 - VII. Allegro 6:58
  • Beethoven 135-1 8. Beethoven Quartet in F Major, Op.135 - I.Allegretto 6:41
  • Beethoven 135-2 9. Op.135 - II. Vivace 3:20
  • Beethoven 135-3 10. Op.135 - III. Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo 7:17
  • Beethoven 135-4 11. Op.135 - IV. Grave ma non troppo tratto - Allegro 6:56

REVIEWS

For Beethoven Late Quartets, Vol 1
"Another recording of Beethoven String Quartets seems almost unnecessary, but this one by the San Francisco-based Cypress String Quartet doesn't belong on the slush pile. Presenting two late works, the Cypress players converse with such rare sincerity as to make long-familiar music sound utterly fresh. Throw in their technical aplomb and rich, cohesive tone, in which every voice is significant, and you've got a pair of definitive statements. Happily, more are coming; This is merely volume one. Grade: A"
- Cleveland Plain Dealer

Benjamin Lees: String Quartets 1, 5 & 6

String Quartet No.1 (1952) String Quartet No.5 (2001) String Quartet No.6 (2005)

The highly personal style of American composer Benjamin Lees lends his music the lofty grandeur and sardonic wit, not only of Shostakovich but also of the Cubist and Surrealist artists, all of whom he so admires. Lees, who also shares Britten’s refined sense of harmony, delights in contrasts and surprises, enthralling the listener at every turn from the lyrical to the burlesque, the romantic to the brusque.

His fifth string quartet was chosen by Chamber Music America as one of its 101 Great Ensemble Works.

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SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING
  • 1. String Quartet No. 1 - Moderato 5:47
  • 2. String Quartet No. 1 - Adagietto 6:21
  • 3. String Quartet No. 1 - Allegro vivo 4:21
  • 4. String Quartet No. 5 - Measured 9:57
  • 5. String Quartet No. 5 - Arioso 6:27
  • Lees 5-3 6. String Quartet No. 5 - Quick, quiet 1:46
  • 7. String Quartet No. 5 - Explosive 7:50
  • 8. String Quartet No. 6 - Measured, dolorous 6:50
  • 9. String Quartet No. 6 - Calm, steady 5:13
  • 10. String Quartet No. 6 - Quiet, eerie 2:30
  • 11. String Quartet No. 6 - Unhurried 5:22
Back to Discography

Jennifer Higdon

Piano Trio (2003)
Voices (1993)
Impressions (2003)* *featuring the Cypress String Quartet

The Cypress String Quartet is featured on this Naxos release of Jennifer Higdon's chamber music with its recording of Impressions which it commissioned in 2003. Jennifer Higdon describes Impressions as "a musical response to the artists of the Impressionist period in both music (Debussy and Ravel) and painting (Monet and Seurat)".

Read more about Jennifer Higdon and the music on this recording here.

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SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING
  • 1. Piano Trio: I. Pale Yellow 7:53
  • 2. Piano Trio: II. Fiery Red 5:26
  • 3. Voices: I. Blitz 6:18
  • 4. Voices: II. Soft Enlacing 6:16
  • 5. Voices: III. Grace 5:01
  • Higdon 1 6. Impressions: I. Bright Palette 8:39
  • 7. Impressions: II. Quiet Art 8:06
  • Higdon 3 8. Impressions: III. To the Point 3:34
  • 9. Impressions: IV. Noted Canvas 6:23

American Record Guide, June 2007

Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962) teaches at Curtis and appears to have emerged as one of the top composers in the field, though this seems to be only her second major record release. Her big Concerto for Orchestra was recorded by Robert Spano on Telarc and generally well received by Mark Lehman (J/A 2004); it won a Grammy, too. This is her first recorded collection of chamber music, as far as I can tell.

Ms Higdon is somewhat aggressively marketed as an "accessible" composer. Not everything here will necessarily fit that description, but I can't imagine anyone not loving the first movement of the Trio (2003), a truly lovely eight-minute slow movement called, for some reason, 'Pale Yellow'. It is cut from the same American romantic cloth as Aaron Jay Kernis's Air-lyrical, sensitive, and even sublime. The fast, more dissonant toccata that follows ('Fiery Red') is playful enough not to offend the sensitive too badly. These are two apparently unrelated movements (or pieces), and the net effect is therefore not as impressive as it should have been. This was unfortunately recorded in concert at a music festival in Vail: sound is not very appealing.

The earlier Voices (1993) is a more "experimental" string quartet in three continuous "images". The first, 'Blitz', is a cartoon-music­like exercise in clusters and frenetic, parallel dissonance. II, 'Soft Enlacing', works with Ivesian overlay of vibrating tremolandos, hysterical melody, and glassy harmonics. The finale, 'Grace', opens with plaintive recitative-maybe a precursor to the Trio's first movement-and then leads to more impassioned declamation before its symmetrical return to the opening prayer. The overall effect seems more tentative than both later works on the program.

Impressions (2003), also for quartet, is named for the Impressionist movement and its practitioners in painting and music. Ms Higdon is aiming more for commentary on the Ravel and Debussy quartets than outright quotation. The effect is a lengthy, thoughtful homage. One is, of course, forced to think of the originals, which are pretty good and do not suffer by comparison. I ('Bright Palette') proceeds in regular block harmonies, more insistently square than you'll find in the composer's more fluid French models. II ('Quiet Art') has bits of harmonic parallelism and drifts along in aimless blocks of endless melody. III (To The Point') aims for the Ravel scherzo with its opening pizzicato, but its repeating two-bar figures resemble a passacaglia, though the composer says she was going for a Gamelan reference (following Debussy). IV ('Noted Canvas') is cyclical and ends with what amounts to a hoedown.

This is a well-crafted piece of chamber music; it might be of value at summer music festivals in programs with the originals, but I'm afraid it has limited value in itself. Naxos is marketing this with their growing catalog of women composers (Gloria Coates, Joan Tower, Margaret Brouwer, and Marion Bauer are listed at the end of the booklet).

Jay Cloidt: Spectral Evidence

eleven windows
Spectral Evidence

Jay Cloidt's latest CD features the premiere studio recordings of two ambitious and diverse works for string quartet, Spectral Evidence and eleven windows, performed by the Cypress String Quartet. Spectral Evidence begins with a straightforward performance of the first two minutes of a Mozart quartet. At first subtly then radically, the piece is broken down into parts and reassembled into a series of ten new movements. Meticulously recorded at George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch, the music is solely based on the deconstruction and reconstruction of the melodic materials found in the original opening section.

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "Jay Cloidt's exceptional score, a Mozart string quartet and its subtle deconstruction and transformation into something ominous, tracks the choreography every step of the way... the Cypress String Quartet... performs Cloidt's score masterfully."

Read more about Jay Cloidt and the music on this recording here.

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SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING
  • 1. eleven windows: Door 2:02
  • 2. eleven windows: Falling 1:31
  • 3. eleven windows: Ascending 0:50
  • 4. eleven windows: Brazali 2:10
  • 5. eleven windows: Gehenna 2:07
  • 6. eleven windows: Fast & Furious 0:44
  • 7. eleven windows: Canon Avenue 1:53
  • 8. eleven windows: Flick 1:16
  • 9. eleven windows: No Sound 1:19
  • 10. eleven windows: Infinite 1:31
  • 11. eleven windows: Kk 0:54
  • 12. Spectral Evidence: I 1:58
  • 13. Spectral Evidence: II 2:17
  • Spectral 3 14. Spectral Evidence: III 3:51
  • 15. Spectral Evidence: IV 2:42
  • 16. Spectral Evidence: V 3:36
  • 17. Spectral Evidence: VI 3:16
  • 18. Spectral Evidence: VII 3:13
  • 19. Spectral Evidence: VIII 1:40
  • 20. Spectral Evidence: VIIII 3:34
  • 21. Spectral Evidence: X 2:04
Back to Discography

Daniel Asia: Trilogy

Woodwind Quintet
String Quartet No.2* (1985) featuring the Cypress String Quartet
Brass Quintet

Daniel Asia (b. 1953) is a leading member of that talented post-World War II generation of American composers that includes Danielpour, Kernis, Schwantner, and Tower—among many others—who helped turn the tide of stylistic syntax away from the predominant serialist academicism of the 60s and 70s. The Second String Quartet of 1985 shows us Asia writing the kind of freely modified 12-note music one would expect from a pupil of Druckman and Schuller. But already one can sense in this serious and ambitious almost half-hour work an underlying urge to break free of the confines of ideological allegiances, as the movement headings "Cantabile; free and flowing—crisp and energetic" and "Majestic—dancing–majestic" would indicate. This score exhibits the same distinctive traits that would characterize his later and more tonally oriented works: a natural and unfettered thematic fertility coupled with a noticeable economy of content and coherence of form. All three ensembles provide beautifully judged and dynamically shaped readings with a top-drawer acoustic from Summit. All in all, this turns out to be one of the premier releases of American chamber music of 2004.

Read more about Daniel Asia and the music on this recording here.

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SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING
  • 1. Woodwind Quintet - I. Lively 2:15
  • 2. Woodwind Quintet - II. Moderately 2:34
  • 3. Woodwind Quintet - III. Fiery 2:03
  • 4. Woodwind Quintet - IV. Ruminative 3:43
  • 5. Woodwind Quintet - V. Impetous, darting 1:55
  • 6. Woodwind Quintet - VI. Fast And mercurial 1:50
  • 7. String Quartet No. 2 - I. Cantabile; free and flowing-crisp & energetic - presto 9:25
  • 8. String Quartet No. 2 - II. Moderato - free - moderato 7:01
  • 9. String Quartet No. 2 - III. Majestic - Dancing - majestic 6:30
  • Asia 2-4 10. String Quartet No. 2 - IV. Presto possible 3:36
  • 11. Brass Quintet - I. Moderato 5:55
  • 12. Brass Quintet - II. Tranquil and elegiac 7:40
  • 13. Brass Quintet - III. Fast and lively 4:25
Back to Discography

Debussy, Suk & Cotton

Claude Debussy: String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10
Josef Suk: Barcarolle & Ballade
Jeffery Cotton: String Quartet No. 1

The music featured on this disk represents the varied interests of the Cypress String Quartet; a "masterpiece", an overlooked "jewel", and a Cypress-commissioned quartet. The Debussy Quartet, written in 1893 in Paris, began a revolution in string writing that ushered in the 20th Century. Composed just a few years earlier but worlds away in Prague, the Suk pieces represent the end of the romantic period. The Jeffery Cotton Quartet, composed for the Cypress in 2003, looks back with respectful fascination at the string quartet tradition and leads us on an inspiring journey that ends in the heart of German Cabaret of the 1920's.

Purchase this album direct from the artists at cypressquartet.bandcamp.com



SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING
  • Debussy 1 1. Claude Debussy Quartet in G Minor, Op.10 - I. Animé et trè décidé 6:06
  • Debussy 2 2. Debussy - II. Assez vif et bien rhythmé 3:44
  • Debussy 3 3. Debussy - III. Andatino doucement expressif 6:59
  • Debussy 4 4. Debussy - IV. Très modéré 7:13
  • Suk 1 5. Josef Suk Barcarolle & Ballade - I. Barcarolle 2:11
  • 6. Josef Suk Barcarolle & Ballade - II. Ballade 3:49
  • 7. Jeffery Cotton String Quartet No.1 - I. Overture 8:55
  • Cotton 2 8. Cotton - II. Capriccio 3:25
  • 9. Cotton - III. Chorale and Cabaret 10:49
  • 10. Cotton - IV. Variations 8:18

REVIEWS

For Debussy, Suk & Cotton
"Say what you want about a crisis in classical music - the Cypress Quartet is not listening. This new recording of works by Debussy, Suk and Cotton is full of an overwhelming joy and enthusiasm for the cause. With an exceptional level of technical skill and thoroughly convincing interpretations they have created a beautiful addition to the catalogue. The unusual pairing of repertoire is consistent with their mission of celebrating the new and less known with the same level of commitment they bring to the 'standard' repertoire. The recorded sound is beautiful. Mark Willsher has captured a true and natural quartet sound, and there is a real intimacy to the overall effect of the recording. Bravo."
- Barry Shiffman, Director of Music Program, The Banff Centre

Haydn, Ravel & Schulhoff

Franz Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in D Major, Op. 76 No. 5
Maurice Ravel: String Quartet in F Major
Ervin Schulhoff: Five Pieces for String Quartet

This album packages together three distinct and flamboyantly beautiful works. Haydn's String Quartet in D Major shows him exploring form and structure while examining the depth of emotional experience. Ravel's String Quartet is one of the most pleasing works in the standard repertoire, filled with exotic influences and invention. The Five Pieces for String Quartet by Ervin Schulhoff are delightful dances, some humorous and some satirical in character. Schulhoff created miniature pictures of popular dances including a Viennese Waltz, an Arabic dance, a Czech folk dance, an evocative Tango and a rollicking Tarantella.

Buy this album direct from the artists (digital download only) at cypressquartet.bandcamp.com



SAMPLES / TRACK LISTING
  • Haydn 1 1. Franz Joseph Haydn Quartet in D Major, Op.76 No.5 - I. Allegretto - Allegro 4:45
  • 2. Haydn - II. Largo ma non troppo; cantabile e mesto 7:33
  • 3. Haydn - III. Menuetto: Allegro ma non troppo 3:00
  • Haydn 4 4. Haydn - IV. Finale: Presto 3:47
  • Ravel 1 5. Ravel: String Quartet in F Major - Allegro moderato, Tres doux 7:47
  • Ravel 2 6. Assez vif, Tres rythme 6:01
  • Ravel 3 7. Tres lent 8:16
  • Ravel 4 8. Vif et agite 5:25
  • Schulhoff 1 9. Schulhoff: Five Pieces for String Quartet - Alla Valse Viennese: Allegro 2:13
  • Schulhoff 2 10. Alla Serenata: Allegretto con moto 3:02
  • Schulhoff 3 11. Alla Czeca: Molto allegro 1:40
  • Schulhoff 4 12. Alla Tango Milonga: Andante 4:01
  • Schulhoff 5 13. Alla Tarantella: Prestissimo con fuoco 2:43

REVIEWS

For Haydn, Ravel & Schulhoff
"Ahhh.. they have done it again and brought us another exquisite album of string quartets. Based in San Francisco, the Cypress String Quartet bestows upon us this elegant and electric album with pure artistry that exudes ease, passion and integrity. They float along the sweet and delicate melodies of Haydn, the ghostly and poignant harmonic colors of Ravel and the exotic, energetic flair of Ervin Schulhoff with the same unwavering conviction and dedication. Bravo!"