Kickin’ It Old School: Brooklyn Rider’s 7 Steps
The versatile Brooklyn Rider String Quartet is one of a number of chamber groups seeking to take the classical tradition out of its well-worn ruts, give it a fresh perspective, infuse it with the new and emerging, and bring it to new audiences. Its latest endeavor in that regard is something seemingly counter-intuitive: recording Beethoven’s String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131. This makes Seven Steps, its latest album on In a Circle Records, something truly substantive and free for the most part of the gimmickry and low-quality “crossover” that mires too many contemporary classical recordings. The album also features a collective composition / improvisation by Brooklyn Rider called Seven Steps, as well as Together Into This Unknowable Night, a piece for string quartet and electronics by NYC-based composer Christopher Tignor.
Brooklyn Rider – Photograph by Sarah Small
