By Damián Autorino
Editor at Moto Perpetuo
Composer: Alberto Ginastera
Works: String Quartet No. 1, Op. 20; String Quartet No. 2, Op. 26; String Quartet No. 3, Op. 40
Performers: Miró Quartet; Kiera Duffy, soprano (in Quartet No. 3)
Label: Pentatone
Release date: July 2025
Recorded: December 2–7, 2024, at KMFA 89.5, Austin’s Classical Music Radio Station (Austin, TX)
Duration: approx. 70 minutes
Available on all major streaming platforms
It’s not often that a string quartet recording feels like a statement. But this new release from the Miró Quartet, joined by soprano Kiera Duffy, takes on one of the most demanding and least-performed bodies of work in 20th-century chamber music: the three string quartets by Alberto Ginastera.
Ginastera remains a visible figure in today’s orchestral repertoire — his Piano Concerto No. 1, Variaciones concertantes, and Harp Concerto are performed with some regularity. But his chamber music, especially these three quartets, rarely receives the same attention. Technically complex and emotionally intense, the quartets are unapologetically challenging — and the fact that the Miró Quartet chose to record all three, with such clarity and commitment, is reason enough to take notice.
Ginastera, who studied with Aaron Copland and was deeply involved in international modernist circles, always resisted easy categorization. While his music sometimes draws from Argentine traditions — especially in his early years — it speaks in a language shaped by Schoenberg, Bartók, Stravinsky, and the postwar avant-garde. These quartets show him in full command of that language, bending it into something deeply personal.
The First Quartet (1948), from what Ginastera called his Objective Nationalism phase, is rooted in Argentine rhythm and landscape — especially in the malambo-inspired outer movements and the guitar-like sonorities of the slow movement. A mysterious scherzo hints at what’s to come.
By the Second Quartet (1958), Ginastera has shifted to what he called Subjective Nationalism. It’s more abstract, written using twelve-tone technique, but still haunted by the atmosphere of the pampas. A set of variations in the fourth movement quietly quotes a song from his Cinco Canciones Populares Argentinas — now hidden rather than declared. The finale is an electrifying moto perpetuo.
The Third Quartet (1973), his final work in the genre, is the most radical. Set for string quartet and soprano, it draws direct inspiration from Schoenberg’s Second Quartet, not only in its unusual instrumentation but also in its expressive intensity. Ginastera sets texts by Juan Ramón Jiménez, Federico García Lorca, and Rafael Alberti in a score that feels hallucinatory and jagged — full of strange timbres, abrupt gestures, and moments of raw vulnerability. Kiera Duffy’s performance is fearless, navigating both the soaring lines and the whispered fragments with nuance and precision.
For the Miró Quartet — based in Austin and known for its adventurous spirit — this is not just a technical feat but an artistic commitment. They bring warmth, intensity, and deep insight to music that too often goes unheard. Let’s hope this album helps change that.
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