John Corigliano is one of the finest and most widely recognized American composers. He has won several Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and an Academy Award for his score for the film The Red Violin. Corigliano’s nostalgic Snapshot: Circa 1909 was inspired by the photograph of his uncle and father – later to become concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic – that is reproduced on the cover of this disc. Corigliano’s String Quartet, written for the farewell tour of the Cleveland Quartet, is both celebratory and wistful in tone, and won the composer two Grammy Awards. A Black November Turkey takes its title from a savage allegorical poem by Richard Wilbur, and was especially arranged for the Corigliano Quartet. The String Quartet No. 2 by Corigliano’s former pupil Jefferson Friedman won the ASCAP Leo Kaplan Award and the BMI Student Composer Award in 2000.
