HARBISON: String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2;...

HARBISON: String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2; “November 19, 1828.” Lydian String Quartet; Yehudi Wyner, piano. Harmonia Mundi 907057. These generally dark, haunting pieces prove powerful additions to the repertory, helped by the suave, immaculately controlled playing of the Lydian Quartet. Harbison’s first quartet is a taut, obsessive piece of absorbed--and thoroughly absorbing--neo-Romanticism. His second is neo-Baroque, suggesting both the spirit and the motivic letter of the famous Aria from Villa-Lobos’ “Bachiana Brasileira” No. 5. Neo-whatever, both are gripping, original works of a potent musical imagination. “November 19, 1828,” for piano quartet, is a stylish tribute of sorts to Schubert, less convincing than the quartets in its musical gamesmanship but no less moody.