Celebrating Collaboration - a new album from Métier

Works written for the Kreutzer Quartet and Roderick Chadwick by Gloria Coates, Tom Metcalf, Sadie Harrison and Joel Järventausta

The Kreutzer Quartet is celebrated for decades of collaborating with composers. These range from many world-renowned figures, including Hans Werner Henze, Judith Weir, George Rochberg, David Matthews and Poul Ruders, to hundreds of young artists, many of whom begin work with the quartet in the countless workshops that they give in Europe, Asia and the Americas. This new album consists of four pieces, in a mix of live and studio performances, by composers of different generations: from the late Gloria Coates, whose celebrated work with the quartet began in the 1990s, to Tom Metcalf and Joel Järventausta, still in their 20s.

Collaboration became ever more precious for everyone during the Covid-19 pandemic: music-making was threatened, and collaboration, in performance and recording, became newly vital and regained its potency, as can be heard here. Three of the works here were workshopped, completed and recorded under lockdown restrictions.

Common themes ran through the works which emerged at that time. One of these was the idea of water, of the river. It pours through the music of Joel Järventausta and Tom Metcalf. Sadie Harrison was in the midst of writing pieces for the quartet, based on the River Thames, when George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis – her immediate, powerful reaction can be heard here.

And, of course, all collaboration ends. In the summer of 2023, Gloria Coates died, completing her extraordinary journey with all the musicians heard on this recording. This joyful performance of her final work for the Kreutzers marked the last time that they all worked together, celebrating her birthday on stage in London.

The Kreutzers have had a long a fruitful relationship with Métier Records going back to the 1990s, and have become a cornerstone of the new-music scene in both recording and concertising, and have several more recordings in progress.

Album details:

Title: ‘Something So Transporting Bright’
Label: Métier
Catalogue number: MEX 77132
Artists: Kreutzer Quartet (Peter Sheppard Skærved & Mihailo Trandafilovski, violins; Clifton Harrison, viola; Neil Heyde, cello) with Roderick Chadwick – Piano
Works:
- Piano Quintet (Gloria Coates)
  The Multiple Burdens of Injustice (Sadie Harrison)
- Pixelating the River (Tom Metcalf)
- On Blue (Joel Järvenausta)
Recorded 2021-2: Recording engineer Adaq Khan
To be released: late 2024 early 2025 (exact date to be confirmed)