String Quartet No. 6

 

A modern master contemplates the past and looks to the future in Lowell Liebermann’s STRING QUARTET No. 6. Composed for the renowned Dover Quartet, Liebermann’s quartet is supremely expressive throughout. Cast in the unique frame of two Adagio movements (with many changes of mood and tempo within), the piece reconsiders the ancient forms of the ricercare, and the chaconne and fantasia, respectively. The second movement includes prominent quotations from the climactic scene of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, in which the slain Commendatore’s statue calls Don Giovanni to his fate from beyond the grave.