Babel Calidore String Quartet

• Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856): String Quartet No. 3, Op. 41:
• 1 String Quartet No. 3, Op. 41: I. Andante espressivo — Allegro molto moderato 07:25
• 2 String Quartet No. 3, Op. 41: II. Assai agitato 06:20
• 3 String Quartet No. 3, Op. 41: III. Adagio molto 07:38
• 4 String Quartet No. 3, Op. 41: IV. Finale: Allegro molto vivace 07:19
• Caroline Shaw (b. 1982):
• 5 First Essay: Nimrod 08:34
• 6 Second Essay: Echo 04:18
• 7 Third Essay: Ruby 05:24
• Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975): String Quartet No. 9 in E-Flat Major, Op. 117:
• 8 String Quartet No. 9 in E-Flat Major, Op. 117: I. Moderato con moto 04:16
• 9 String Quartet No. 9 in E-Flat Major, Op. 117: II. Adagio 03:32
• 10 String Quartet No. 9 in E-Flat Major, Op. 117: III. Allegretto 03:57
• 11 String Quartet No. 9 in E-Flat Major, Op. 117: IV. Adagio 03:27
• 12 String Quartet No. 9 in E-Flat Major, Op. 117: V. Allegro 09:26
• Total Runtime 01:11:36

Info for Babel

A compilation of quartets by Schumann, Shostakovich and Caroline Shaw from the acclaimed American string quartet, Calidore String Quartet, exploring the visceral forms of expression that exist at the intersection of music and language. For this recording the Calidore String Quartet gathered music which transmits ideas by imitating language; its rhythms, cadences and intentions. But it also explores what happens when music substitutes for language. When it fills the void of forbidden speech or even how it carries on when language has been exhausted.

The Calidore String Quartet has been praised by The New York Times for its “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” and the Los Angeles Times for its balance of “intellect and expression.” Recipient of a 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2017 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, the Calidore String Quartet first made international headlines as winner of the inaugural $100,000 Grand Prize of the 2016 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition. The quartet was the first North American ensemble to win the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, and is currently in residence with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two).

Calidore String Quartet

Calidore Quartet
Jeffrey Myers, violin Jeremy Berry, viola Ryan Meehan, violin Estelle Choi, cello The Calidore String Quartet is recognized as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of a vast chamber music repertory, from the cycles of quartets by Beethoven and Mendelssohn to works of celebrated contemporary voices like György Kurtág, Jörg Widmann, and Caroline Shaw. For more than a decade, the Calidore has enjoyed performances and residencies in the world’s major venues and festivals, released multiple critically acclaimed recordings, and won numerous awards. The Los Angeles Times described the musicians as “astonishing,” their playing “shockingly deep,” approaching “the kind of sublimity other quartets spend a lifetime searching.” The New York Times noted the Quartet’s “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct,” and the Washington Post wrote that “four more individual musicians are unimaginable, yet these speak, breathe, think and feel as one”.

The New York City based Calidore String Quartet has appeared in venues throughout North America, Europe, and Asia including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Brussels’ BOZAR, and at major festivals such as the BBC Proms, Verbier, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Rheingau, and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Always seeking new commissioning opportunities, the Quartet has given world premieres of works by Caroline Shaw, Anna Clyne, Huw Watkins and Mark-Anthony Turnage and collaborated with artists such as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Anthony McGill, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Marc-André Hamelin, Joshua Bell, Emerson String Quartet, Lawrence Power, David Finckel and Wu Han.

This season, the Calidore returns to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the University of Delaware to perform the complete String Quartets of Beethoven; and to the Colburn School to play the complete cycle of Korngold String Quartets. Other highlights of the 24/25 season include appearances with San Francisco Performances, the Celebrity Series of Boston, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Warsaw Philharmonic and BBC Radio at London’s Wigmore Hall; and premieres and performances of works by Han Lash, Sebastian Currier, Xavier Foley, and Gabriela Montero. In their most ambitious recording project to date, the Calidore is set to release the final two volumes of Beethoven’s complete String Quartets for Signum Records in the 24/25 season. Volume I, containing the late quartets, was released in 2023 to great critical acclaim, earning the quartet BBC Music Magazine’s Chamber Award in 2024. The magazine’s five-star review noted that the Calidore’s performances “penetrate right to the heart of the music” and “can stand comparison with the best.” Their previous recordings on Signum include Babel with music by Schumann, Shaw and Shostakovich, and Resilience with works by Prokofiev, Janáček, Golijov and Mendelssohn.

The Calidore String Quartet was founded at the Colburn School in Los Angeles in 2010. Within two years, the quartet won grand prizes in virtually all the major US chamber music competitions, including the Fischoff, Coleman, Chesapeake, and Yellow Springs competitions, and it captured top prizes at the 2012 ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg. The Quartet first made international headlines as the winner of the $100,000 Grand Prize of the 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition and was the first and only North American ensemble to win the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship. The Calidore was also named a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and in 2018, was awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant, having won the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award a year prior. The Calidore is currently in residence with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

The Calidore String Quartet serves as the University of Delaware’s Distinguished String Quartet in Residence. In this capacity they direct the UD School of Music’s Graduate String Quartet Fellowship and serve as artistic directors of the University of Delaware Chamber Music Series.

Prior to taking this position, they served as artist-in-residence at the University of Toronto, University of Michigan and Stony Brook University.

The Calidore is grateful to have been mentored by the Emerson Quartet, Quatuor Ébène, Andre Roy, Arnold Steinhardt, David Finckel, Günter Pichler, Guillaume Sutre, Paul Coletti, and Ronald Leonard.

The Calidore String Quartet plays the following instruments: Jeffrey Myers plays a violin by Francesco Rugeri c.1680, owned by a private benefactor on loan through the Leonhard Fellowship and plays a bow by Francois Tourte.

Ryan Meehan plays a violin by Vincenzo Panormo c.1775 and a bow by Joseph Henry. Jeremy Berry plays a viola by Giovanni Battista Ceruti c.1811, owned by a private benefactor and a 1903 Umberto Muschietti viola and plays a bow by Pierre Simon. Estelle Choi plays a cello by Charles Jacquot c.1830.

This album contains no booklet.