On-Demand Audio: 'Andriessen 75' Festival Showcases String Quartets

Friday, July 11 at 12 pm ET, Phil Kline continues his presentation of the "Andriessen 75" festival in Washington, D.C. The week-long festival celebrating the Dutch composer's life and work presented a concert that showcased his complete string quartets, recorded on April 13. The Aeolus Quartet, Juilliard's graduate resident string quartet for this year, performed. 

Andriessen's five string quartets—Raadsels (Riddle), Garden of Eros, La Voce, ...miserere... and Facing Death—were written between the 1980's and the early 21st century. They come from various inspirations, but many started out as pieces for solo strings. La Voce, for example, was written for solo cello, and Garden of Eros originated on solo violin accompanied by three string instruments. All converged in quartet form, though, in Washington, D.C. for the festival. 

The festival was developed and curated by Armando Bayolo, founder of the Great Noise Ensemble and new-music curator at the Atlas Performing Arts Center.

Select excerpts from the program are available below: 

Concert audio recorded live and mixed by Brian Knox.