Sessions, May, Rhodes

Acclaimed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "one of the great quartets of our times," the Pro Arte Quartet has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as one of the most enduring string quartets in existence. Founded in Brussels in 1912 by violinist Alphonse Annou and violist Germain Prevost, the Pro Arte became the court quartet to Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. Its world reputation soared with a European tour in 1919, earning the group such outstanding acclaim that many composers - including Bartok, Milhaud, and Honegger - composed new works for the Pro Arte. In 1940, stranded in the United States by the outbreak of World War II, the University of Wisconsin-Madison offered the Quartet the position of Artist-in-Residence, which continues to the present day. Current members, David Perry and Suzanne Beia, violins, Sally Chisholm, viola, and Parry Karp, cello, have continued the Pro Arte legacy. The guest artist on this CD, Samuel Rhodes, has been a member of both the Juilliard String Quartet and the faculty of the Juilliard School since 1969. His Quartet was written while he was studying for his Master of Fine Arts degree at Princeton (with Roger Sessions) shortly before he joined the Juilliard String Quartet. Sessions's influence is very much felt in the piece, especially in the first movement.