We are thrilled to announce that ABC Classic has released our recordings of celebrated Australian composer Paul Stanhope’s three string quartets on CD.
Recorded between 2019 – 2022, this release tells contemporary Australian stories through Paul’s inimitable voice and compositional palette.
“It’s a composer’s dream to have a compilation of string quartets released as a commercial recording. And when the performances are a splendid as these, a composer is in seventh heaven! I’ve enjoyed a very fruitful collaborative working relationship with the wonderful members of the ASQ. I find they bring great creative solutions to the process of bringing to life new music, and pursue technical perfection and an energetic passion to the playing of today’s music. This is an inspiring combination.” Paul Stanhope
Rhapsodic and elegiac outer sections frame a pizzicato dance riff in Elegies and Dances, Stanhope’s first quartet, a musical contemplation of mortality, the fragile and precious beauty of new life and its infinite possibilities.
String Quartet No. 2 reflects on the fate of the Czech composer Pavel Haas, murdered in the Nazi death camps of Auschwitz. More broadly, it is informed by the refugee experience: persecution and flight, but also arrival and new beginnings.
Quartet No. 3 From the Kimberley explores aspects of the story of the Indigenous resistance hero Jandamarra, a Bunuba man revered by his people to this day as a Jalgangurru – a figure of great cultural and spiritual power. Its four movements span themes of hunting and being hunted; grief and loss; and hope born from the unbreakable connection between people and country.
Watch: Australian String Quartet on Paul Stanhope and his String Quartet No.2