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Edit 3/28/12: We hope you enjoyed the free preview week of our entire recording. By purchasing a digital download of our album, not only will you enjoy unlimited access to all ten tracks in a format of your choosing, but you will help finance our next recording!

TxGQ

With the download, you will have the above three tracks, as well as:

Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 (Mvts. II & III)
Antoine de Lhoyer's Air Varié et Dialogué (world premiere recording)
Beethoven's Egmont Overture
Albeniz' Aragón (from Suite Española)
Joe Williams' "Red" (Try not to die & Birth day)

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From the 18th Century to present day, this recording threads the strings of a guitar quartet through the fabric of western art music. J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #3 (c. 1721), Beethoven's Egmont Ouverture (1810), and Albeniz' Castilla and Aragón (from Suite Española, 1886) are masterpieces of their respective genres and need little introduction. Through these arrangements, it is our endeavor to bring an elegant new parallel to their original conception.

Antoine de Lhoyer's Air Varié et Dialogué (c. 1813) is likely the very first piece composed for the guitar quartet medium. In the published score, it is orchestrated for a virtuoso and three modest accompanists (presumably Lhoyer and his pupils). In the spirit of the sub-title, “A conversation amongst friends”, Mitch Weverka has rearranged the texture to create a more balanced dialogue in the ensemble where each part leads through virtuosic exchange.

The namesake of this recording is the premiere of Red (2011). The individual movements evoke three very different but interrelated perspectives on life and death. Try not to die is the most complex and varied movement and abstractly depicts the myriad qualities of an individual's life. At the core of our existence, beyond daily experience (such as work, having sex, reading books, wine, traffic, advertisements, success, failure, the internet, backflips…) we manage to live despite certain death. The second movement is dedicated to the birth of my niece, Juliana Williams. It explores the innocence of a newborn, the imposing task set before each parent, and the simultaneous bewildering and joyful uncertainty of a Birth day. The final movement is life from the perspective of microbiology. At the smallest level, cells continue to make cells without regard for our hopes, dreams or desires. Fortunately, life continues at a cellular level long after our triumphs and failures in a raucous and swirling torrent of cellular growth.

credits

released March 28, 2012

Executive Producer: TXGQ, LLC
Producer: Brad Sayles & Texas Guitar Quartet
Recording, editing, mixing, mastering: Brad Sayles
Assistant Engineer: Joseph Simon
Cover Artwork: Melissa Mims
Layout & Design: Alejandro Montiel
Photography: K & T Photography (portraits), Alejandro Montiel (inside)
Recorded at the Geary Performance Studio, Houston Public Radio

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Texas Guitar Quartet Texas

The Texas Guitar Quartet has firmly established a reputation as the premier guitar ensemble in Texas. Members Isaac Bustos, Jonathan Dotson, Alejandro Montiel and Joseph Williams II have individually garnered acclaim and critical praise as soloists on concert stages around the world. With their talents combined, they display a virtuosic command of the guitar quartet medium. ... more

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