On their ECM New series debut, the Boston-based Parker Quartet, hailed by the Washington Post for “exceptional virtuosity and imaginative interpretation,” play music of György Kurtág and are joined by violist Kim Kashkashian, one of the quarter’s early mentors, to play Dvořák. In this powerful programme of contrasts, Dvořák’s outgoing String Quintet No. 3, composed in America in 1893, is framed by two of Kurtág’s concentrated, meticulously-shaped works – the Six Moments musicaux (2005) and the Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky (1988/89). Throughout, the Parker Quartet’s feeling for colour and texture is in evidence. The quartet’s insights into Kurtág’s soundworld have been developed through extensive work with the Hungarian composer. The album was recorded at Zürich’s Radio DRS Studio.