The Stuyvesant String Quartet
In Concert at the Library of Congress
(Bridge Records)
Producer Jay Shulman continues to chronicle the career of his father, Hudson resident Alan Shulman, with this archival release featuring the late cellist and composer (see past Chronogram issues for reviews of previous titles). The Stuyvesant String Quartet was an exemplary New York group that featured Alan and his brother, violinist Sylvan Shulman. Formed in 1938, the quartet splintered with the onset of World War II but reunited in 1945, the year before the concert heard here. Taken from the original Library of Congress transcription discs, it finds the foursome delivering appropriately tender and zestful renderings of Prokofiev, Dvorak, and Hungary’s Erno Dohnanyi. The liner notes, by Alan’s daughter Laurie Shulman, quote a review of one of the quartet’s later recordings that also nails this one’s essence: “…four musicians not only in total accord with each other, but crazy about the music they play.”
This article appears in October 2025.
