Glass: String Quartet No. 5, Suite from Dracula & String Sextet

Philip Glass’ Fifth String Quartet is the most substantial of his five quartets and the most traditional, using formal structures and expressive contrasts which go far beyond minimalism. While maintaining Glass’ unmistakeable personal style, this is a quartet which delivers both driving energy and an unforgettable, threnody-like tenderness. Glass chose a string quartet for his score to the film Dracula to ‘evoke the feeling of the world of the 19th century’, the music underpinning the film’s visual drama while avoiding obvious ‘horror’ effects. The String Sextet is an arrangement of Glass’s Third Symphony (Naxos 8559202), combining symphonic scale with the intimacy synonymous with the chamber music genre. The Carducci Quartet’s critically acclaimed recording of Philip Glass’s String Quartets Nos 1-4 can be heard on Naxos 8559636.