Gorecki: String Quartets Nos 1 & 2

"Gorecki's two string quartets-Already It Is Dusk (No. 1) and Quasi una Fantasia (No. 2)-date from 1988 and 1977 respectively and both can be found in excellent performances by the Kronos Quartet on a new disc from Elektra Nonesuch. My biggest reservations regarding Gorecki's recent compositions is the overwhelming sense of darkness and despair-hardly a speck of light infiltrates this music. Combined with the rather narrow tonal range that the music inhabits the effect can be somewhat claustrophobic, and I find this particularly so listening to the string quartets."
(Gramophone April 1993)