Peter Margasak, Best of Bandcamp Contemporary Classical

“…the interaction and shifting focus of [Claire] Chase and Spektral [Quartet] does evoke a fluidity we don’t often experience in contemporary composed music. The three “Bagatelles” for string quartet and piano reference various Beethoven pieces, while “Aprés une lecture” uses some of the notated transcriptions composer Leoš Janáček made of the spoken language from Brno, Czech Republic as melodic motifs that hold the piece together. As fascinating as such ideas are, they wouldn’t matter if the composer’s structural rigor and lyric gifts didn’t transform them into work that’s consistently compelling.”