The Ciompi Quartet plus a percussion bonus

OK, here's something altogether different from the music I've linked to thus far: the Ciompi Quartet, a chamber music group based out of Duke University, where they have been in residence since 1965. Their repertoire ranges pretty widely, with a special emphasis on 20th century American composers; they often premiere compositions by Duke composers including Scott Lindroth and Anthony Kelley. The Quartet comprises Eric Pritchard and Hisao-Mei Ku on violin, Jonathan Bagg on viola, and Fred Raimi on cello. (When I was in college, Raimi was my academic advisor before I declared a major. I guess I had given them the idea that I wanted to be a music major, which wasn't really true. As an advisor, he's a great cello player...)

MP3: String Quartet in D Major; 1. Allegretto (Josef Hayden)
MP3: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 93; 1. Allegro sostenuto (Sergei Prokofiev)
MP3: String Quartet in F; 1. Allegro moderato, tres doux (Maurice Ravel)
(From Live at St. Stephens, 2003)

MP3: "Dunkler Tropf (Dark Drop)" (Paul Hindemith)
MP3: "On Wenlock Edge" (Ralph Vaughan Williams)
(from Melancholie, Albany Records 2003)

The latter two are song settings; I'm not as much a fan of that style. I really enjoy the first three tracks, though the bitrate is horrifyingly low (32 kbps!). (Even so, they don't sound that bad, though it could just be that nothing sounds that great on my work computer...) You can buy either disc by sending $15 to Ciompi Quartet; Box 90665; Duke University; Durham, NC 27708.

MP3: "Nasuh" with soprano Susan Narucki (Scott Lindroth)
(recorded live in 2004)
This is an excerpt from a song setting of a "teaching poem" by the Persian Sufi poet Rumi. I think it's more effective that the previous two, though I'm not enough of a scholar to articulate why.

As a bonus, and a 180 change of direction, here's a percussion piece composed by Scott Lindroth called "Bell Plates". This is a live recording, including both acoustic and electronic intstruments. The performer is Adam Sliwinski, of the So Percussion group -- he's impressive. This is honestly my favorite of all the music in this post.

Have a good weekend!