String Quartets with Soprano <BR> BRIDGE 9192

This disc of three major 20th century works for voice and string quartet marks the final recording by the distinguished soprano Benita Valente before her retirement from the concert stage. All three works were given their premiere performances by Benita Valente and the Juilliard String Quartet. Richard Wernick's String Quartet No. 5, in four movements, is dedicated to the memory of the Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated in 1995 by an extreme Zionist nationalist at a moment when the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians appeared to have established momentum towards a positive outcome. This quartet, setting two poems by the young Hungarian poet Hannah Senesh (1921-44), is Wernick's immediate and heartfelt response to the tragic event. Born in Buenos Aires of a Catalan father and an Italian mother, Alberto Ginastera became the most significant figure in Argentine music during the 20th century. His Third String Quartet was his last, and it is a work which makes tremendou