Infinite Voyage

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Much the finest experience comes in Schoenberg’s quartet, where the Emerson Quartet ’s playing masterfully combines forensic technical precision and expressive warmth. And Hannigan’s identif... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2023, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 8th Sep 2023
Catalogue No: ALPHA1000
Label: Alpha
Length: 72 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

8th September 2023
Gramophone Magazine

October 2023

Editor's Choice
Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2023
International Classical Music Awards

2024

Nominated - Assorted Programs
Gramophone Magazine

Critics' Choice 2023

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Hindemith: Melancholie, Op. 13

Work length14:03

$4.00

$6.00

$8.20

Barbara Hannigan (soprano)
Emerson String Quartet

No. 1, Die Primeln blühn und grüßen...

Track length3:28

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

No. 2, Nebelweben

Track length2:53

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

No. 3, Dunkler Tropfe

Track length2:57

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

No. 4, Traumwald

Track length4:45

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

Berg: String Quartet, Op. 3

Work length21:29

$3.55

$5.35

$7.10

Emerson String Quartet

I. Langsam

Track length10:14

$1.50

$2.30

$3.05

II. Mäßige Viertel

Track length11:15

$2.05

$3.05

$4.05

Chausson: Chanson perpétuelle, Op. 37

Work length7:28

$1.50

$2.30

$3.05

Bertrand Chamayou, Barbara Hannigan (soprano)
Emerson String Quartet

Schoenberg: String Quartet No. 2 in F sharp minor, Op. 10

Work length29:49

$4.50

$6.80

$9.20

Barbara Hannigan (soprano)
Emerson String Quartet

I. Mäßig

Track length6:23

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

II. Sehr rasch

Track length6:47

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

III. Litanei. Langsam

Track length5:47

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

IV. Entrückung. Sehr langsam

Track length10:52

$1.50

$2.30

$3.05

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Recording of the Week, A fin-de-siècle voyage with Barbara Hannigan and the Emerson String Quartet

8th September 2023

The quartet - joined by Barbara Hannigan and Bertrand Chamayou - go out on a high after nearly fifty years of music-making, with a programme of early twentieth-century works themed around journeying and longing.

The title of this album evokes not only the life-long journey of all these musicians, but also a lasting friendship between soprano Barbara Hannigan and the Emerson String Quartet. One of the greatest string quartets of the last four decades, the Emersons will disband in October 2023. Barbara and the Emersons were determined to record Schoenberg's Quartet No. 2 since they started performing the work together in 2015. "The sheer sonic scope of this work takes us on a voyage into previously uncharted territory" say the Emerson musicians. "It's like a tall, gnarly tree to climb (all the way to another planet, it seems), yet one with deep and emotional roots", continues Barbara Hannigan. "The soprano's fin-de- siecle primal scream at the end of the 3rd movement, begging to be relieved of love, is a heavy hitter". Melancholie is a rare and intimate work by the young Hindemith, "a gem of a piece" that the Canadian soprano has wanted to explore for many years. The fascinating Quartet Op. 3, composed by Berg in 1909 as he was finishing his apprenticeship with Schoenberg, features the quartet on its own. And to round out the album, pianist Bertrand Chamayou joins Barbara and the Emersons for another deeply moving encounter by way of Chausson's heartbreaking Chanson perpetuelle.

Reviews

December 2023

Much the finest experience comes in Schoenberg’s quartet, where the Emerson Quartet ’s playing masterfully combines forensic technical precision and expressive warmth. And Hannigan’s identif ication with Schoenberg’s extraordinary and exploratory music is complete and memorable.

October 2023

The Emersons come to [the Schoenberg] as if it were new, hot from the press, and in doing so they recreate the sense of inordinate extravagance that made early audiences so uneasy.

8th September 2023

Each of these works is in some sense challenging; musically, psychologically, or both. But there’s surely nobody better-placed than Barbara Hannigan to explore those darker musical corners, and her musical collaborators are second to none. For the Emersons, it not only looks back to their track-record of championing adventurous repertoire, but perhaps also echoes on a more personal level the bittersweetness of bidding farewell.

New York Times 19th October, 2023

Their final recording, “Infinite Voyage,” with bracing yet seductive works by Schoenberg, Hindemith, Berg and Chausson, was released last month, featuring Hannigan.

16th October, 2023

This weekend, the quartet will play its last concerts ever, at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The group, which formed in 1976, has recorded more than forty albums, including all sixteen Beethoven quartets. (Its swan song, “Infinite Voyage,” came out in September.) In a field accustomed to half-full auditoriums, their concerts sell out. It’s like when One Direction broke up—except that One Direction never won a Grammy, and the Emersons have nine.

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Infinite Voyage

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Recording of the Week, A fin-de-siècle voyage with Barbara Hannigan and the Emerson String Quartet

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