Australian composer and violist Brett Dean has won many prizes for his orchestral and chamber compositions, including the most renowned of them in 2009, the Grawemeyer Award. Today his works are performed all over the world and highly praised for their aplomb and power of expression as well as their ready accessibility to listeners. The three works featured here were composed between 2003 and 2013 and are all Premiere Recordings. They highlight the empathetic side of Dean: if Eclipse is an evocation of the refugees saved during the 'Tampa Crisis', the five movements of Epitaphs are individual obituaries for lost friends of Dean's. A viola player with the Berlin Philharmonic for fourteen years, Dean joins the Doric String Quartet in the latter, a string quintet with two violas.

Tracklist:

Epitaphs: I. Only I Will Know: Gently Flowing, With Intimate Intensity
Epitaphs: II. Walk A Little Way With Me: Moderato Scorrevole
Epitaphs: III. Der Philosoph: Quasi Cadenza
Epitaphs: IV. Gyorgy Meets The Girl Photographer: Fresh, Energetic
Epitaphs: V. Between The Spaces In The Sky: Hushed And Fragile
String Quartet No. 1 "Eclipse": I. Slow And Spacious, Secretive
String Quartet No. 1 "Eclipse": II. Unlikely Flight
String Quartet No. 1 "Eclipse": III. Epilogue
String Quartet No. 2 "And Once I Played Ophelia": I. Fast, Breathless -
String Quartet No. 2 "And Once I Played Ophelia": II. Hushed, Distant - Flowing - Serene, Intimate - Broad, Exalted -
String Quartet No. 2 "And Once I Played Ophelia": III. Fast, Agitated - Suddenly Slow, Vacant -
String Quartet No. 2 "And Once I Played Ophelia": IV. Extremely Still - Sparse, Distant -
String Quartet No. 2 "And Once I Played Ophelia": V. Slow, Austere

UPC: 095115187326
Label: Chandos
Release Date: 9.25.15
Format: CD

Dean / Doric String Quartet / Brett Dean / Bell - Chamber Works (CD)