DAVID STOCK (b.1939): String Quartets Nos. 5-7.

Description: The Fifth is an in memoriam piece for a friend of the composer. The work is in three movements; a mournful elegy with a gently sobbing figure accompanying a quotation of the 'Les Adieux' motif from Beethoven's piano sonata, followed by a more protesting, intense slow movement with a suggestion of Shostakovich. The finale breaks the somber mood, with a high-spirited reminiscence of the memorialized lady in happier days. The Sixth is influenced in its form by the Bartókian device of paired movements of similar character and related material; two scurrying perpetuum mobile movements and two polyrhythmic incisive scherzi surround a lyrically expressive slow movement. The idiom is Stock's own, though echoes of Shostakovich's quartet writing are frequently detectable in harmony and melodic contour. The Seventh was written for the present ensemble, and reflects their playing style in music of rhythmic vitality and richly textured sound. Again, a substantial melodic slow movement is at the heart of the piece, surrounded by movements of contrasting character (including a scherzo that seems to be a relative of that in Bruckner's Ninth Symphony!). Cuarteto Latinoamericano.