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Release Date: September 25, 2020
Catalog #: NV6306
Format: Digital & Physical
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Painted Music

James McGuire composer
Bryan Johanson composer
Osvaldo Golijov composer
Phillip Houghton composer

Quatra Duo
Jeff LaQuatra guitar
Michelle Stanley flute

Navona Records presents PAINTED MUSIC from Quatra Duo. This album of works for flute and guitar by four heralded contemporary composers unlocks the imaginative, expressive power of these beloved instruments.

The first piece, commissioned as a Christmas gift by Quatra Duo’s Jeff LaQuatra for his then soon-to-be wife and duo partner Michelle Stanley, is James McGuire’s Suite for Flute and Guitar. The six-movement piece reveals the composer's affinity for jazz, popular music, and even impressionism; all the while it demonstrates the performers’ virtuosic range on their instruments. Painted Music from composer Bryan Johanson is a sonata, once again broken into six movements. Each of these is inspired by a different painting from early 20th-century, Swiss born artist Paul Klee. Quatra Duo suggests listening to this piece while simultaneously taking in each of the eponymous paintings by Klee in order to more fully appreciate the musical work and to create a truly multi-media experience.

Fish Tale is a surreal and eclectic piece that imagines the journey of a fish from the ocean, to the fish bowl, and far beyond; the music recounts these piscine adventures through a dazzling array of musical styles and colors, from African thumb piano, samba, folk music, and more. From the Dreaming is the work of Australian visual artist, classical guitarist, and composer, Phillip Houghton; it is his only work for flute and guitar. The music, inspired by Houghton’s visit to the Australian outback, reflects the grandeur and raw power of the country’s climate and ecosystems. Searing heat, ancient riverbeds, scurrying geckos and violent storms are all reflected in the dynamic twists and turns of the flute and guitar.

PAINTED MUSIC, as its name suggests, utilizes these two instruments to imprint a gallery of images onto the canvas of the mind. Far from being limited by the duo format, here Quatra Duo seems to relish the challenge. The listener is left with a new sense of what can be accomplished with merely two instruments—in the hands of the right musicians, that is.

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"The performances throughout are immaculate"

Gramophone Magazine

Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Suite for Flute & Guitar: I. Allegro James McGuire Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 2:48
02 Suite for Flute & Guitar: II. Lento James McGuire Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 3:13
03 Suite for Flute & Guitar: III. Festive James McGuire Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 1:35
04 Suite for Flute & Guitar: IV. Dance James McGuire Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 1:52
05 Suite for Flute & Guitar: V. Lullaby James McGuire Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 2:35
06 Suite for Flute & Guitar: VI. Allegretto - Finale James McGuire Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 1:59
07 Painted Music: I. Senecio - Toccata Bryan Johanson Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 3:28
08 Painted Music: II. Strong Dream - Nocturne Bryan Johanson Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 5:20
09 Painted Music: III. Fish Magic - Scherzo Bryan Johanson Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 1:57
10 Painted Music: IV. Ancient Harmony - Passacaglia Bryan Johanson Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 5:15
11 Painted Music: V. Bird Garden - Bagatelle Bryan Johanson Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 2:42
12 Painted Music: VI. Death & Fire - Finale Bryan Johanson Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 4:09
13 Fish Tale Osvaldo Golijov Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 10:43
14 From the Dreaming: I. Cave Painting Phillip Houghton Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 5:10
15 From the Dreaming: II. Wildflower Phillip Houghton Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 5:14
16 From the Dreaming: III. Gecko Phillip Houghton Quatra Duo | Jeff LaQuatra, guitar; Michelle Stanley, flute 3:09

Recorded June 7-10, 2019 at Sauder Concert Hall, Goshen College in Goshen IN

Recording Session Producer Alan Bise
Recording Session Engineer Bruce Egre
Digital Editor Alan Bise

Cover art - Fish Magic (1925) - Paul Klee

Executive Producer Bob Lord

Executive A&R Sam Renshaw
A&R Director Brandon MacNeil
A&R Chris Robinson

VP, Audio Production Jeff LeRoy
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Patrick Niland, Sara Warner

Artist Information

Quatra Duo

Ensemble

Quatra Duo, comprised of guitarist Jeff LaQuatra and flutist Michelle Stanley, have been performing together since 1998. Through their performances, they have enjoyed presenting much of the great repertoire for this ensemble, but their most recent commitment lies in commissioning new works for flute and guitar. Commissions include Painted Music by Bryan Johanson, James McGuire’s Suite for Flute and Guitar, and a piece in 2020 by Grant Ferris.

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Notes

PAINTED MUSIC is Quatra Duo’s debut album. Heard here are four unique and beautiful contemporary works composed specifically for the combination of flute and guitar. Each composition showcases the distinctive voices of four 21st-century composers and their own approaches to the colorful and expressive possibilities of the flute and guitar.

James McGuire’s Suite for Flute and Guitar was commissioned by Jeff LaQuatra as a Christmas gift to his then-future wife and duo partner, Michelle Stanley. Originally, it was comprised of four movements; “Allegro,” “Lullaby,” “Festive,” and “Dance.” The remaining movements, “Lento” and “Allegretto - Finale,” were completed and added to the suite in 2019. The suite’s six movements display McGuire’s diverse influences of jazz and popular music, but also include hints of impressionism. The movements vary in their use of syncopated rhythms and concise forms, and employ McGuire’s gift of melodicism. Here, Suite for Flute and Guitar receives its world-premiere recording.

The symbiotic relationship between visual art and music is a common inspiration. Inspired by a shared birthday with Swiss-born artist, Paul Klee (1879-1940), Painted Music is Bryan Johanson’s first contribution to the flute and guitar repertoire. The work is a sonata in six movements. A trained musician himself, Paul Klee shared with many artists the idea that music was the key to producing a new form of abstraction. His love for, and inspiration from, classical music is evident in many of his paintings such as In the Style of Bach, Polyphony, and Ancient Harmony. In this case, Bryan Johanson composed each movement of Painted Music in reference to one of Klee’s paintings as well as a musical form. As one listens to this world-premiere recording, it is recommended to reference the images of each of Klee’s works (found in the titles of each movement) while enjoying Johanson’s evocative, imaginative, and at times, highly virtuosic composition. Painted Music was commissioned by Quatra Duo.

“I was an hallucinated fish before. Or, perhaps, that’s just a wish. And if it never happened or never will, this music tells how that would be.”

— Osvaldo Golijov

Written for guitarist David Leisner and flutist Eugenia Zuckerman, it is described by Leisner:

“When he finished writing Fish Tale, Osvaldo Golijov called it a ‘watercolor’, a poetically apt description of its slippery, fluid, evanescent nature. It tells the surrealistic tale of the journey of a fish that begins in the ocean, stops to contemplate the sounds of an African thumb piano, continues on, propelled by the wind, which then becomes a tornado, leading to a waterfall, then is suddenly contained in a little fishbowl, and scurrying on to a long swim in a ‘rainbow brook,’ stops to contemplate the passage of time, gets caught by a fisherman who fervently promises to return him to the water, dances a bit of samba, considers anew the passage of time with a sigh, and finally meets the love of his life at the bottom of the sea, dancing a slow waltz to the Brazilian folk music of a ‘marine music box,’ which, like an oyster, opens and closes, to music and to silence.” 

— David Leisner

It is a mystical, beautiful work that weaves colors and shifting rhythms into a dream-like tale.

Australian visual artist, classical guitarist, and composer Phillip Houghton left a rich legacy of compositions for guitar as well as theatre, dance, and film. From the Dreaming is his only work for flute and guitar.

“The music of From the Dreaming was inspired by a seven-month visit to Australia’s central and northern outback regions in 1986. It left powerful impressions on me – the searing heat, the isolation and stillness, ancient riverbeds and caves, sudden violent electrical storms, and the red carpet of dust sprinkled with flowers of violent yellow, orange and purple. The outback is an eiree (sic) world of iridescent colour, a fantastic spirit world both savage and beautiful where everything means something and nothing, and where the stars at night are only inches from your eyes.

“‘Cave Painting’ was inspired by ancient aboriginal rock art, rock formations, mystery and ‘powerfields’. The guitar in this movement tries to imitate the didjeridu. ‘Wildflower’ is the song of a single flower in an ever-changing panorama and climate of storms, drought, heat and isolation – isolation and endless space. ‘Gecko’ is basically the life and times of a small gecko lizard in scherzo form!“

— Phillip Houghton