Diotima Quartet - Ferneyhough's Sonatas for String Quartet

Brian Ferneyhough's epic Sonatas for String Quartet played by the Diotima Quartet - a recording made at the BBC's Total Immersion weekend earlier this year.
"I find beautiful whatever stimulates, brings forth positive inner turmoil, makes me feel momentarily more intelligent, spiritual, etc., than I otherwise am," Ferneyhough observes. Sonatas for String Quartet (1967) marked the ambitious departure point for Ferneyhough's journey on the mind, its 20 movements rich in textural contrasts and expressive silences.