Stephen Clarke & JACK Quartet - Radulescu: Piano Sonatas & String Quartets 1 (2016)

The first volume in a series combining Radulescu’s complete Piano Sonatas and String Quartets, there are six of each, on Mode performed by the superb JACK Quartet and Stephen Clarke (piano). In the 1970s, Horatio Radulescu (1942-2008) began exploring and composing begun composing what he called “plasmatic music,” in which sound was conceived as an “endless ocean of vibrations,” as opposed to the traditional way in which music treats sound as a fabric of discrete scale steps. His music is linked to the “spectral music” school. Radulescu’s Fifth String Quartet is one of the key works in his output. It is in some ways the richest manifestation of the body of string techniques he had developed for his music. The Second Piano Sonata is inspired by the Tao of Chinese philosopher Lao tzu (6-5 BC). The first movement, “Immanence,” opens with a powerful sonority built from spectral functions which gives a sense of immensity and strength. The Fifth Piano Sonata makes abundant use — more so than any of the other sonatas — of Romanian folk material, which is absorbed and integrated into Radulescu’s spectral language.