Composed across sixteen years, these three quartets chart Richard Festinger's long engagement with a form that has drawn composers from Haydn and Beethoven to Bartók and Shostakovich. String Quartet No. 2, From the Beginning (2005), written for the San Francisco ensemble Earplay's twentieth anniversary, unfolds in two linked movements and is played here by the Verona String Quartet. The boldest of the three, No. 4 – Icarus in Flight, commissioned by the ClimateMusic Project, maps 200 years of climate data (from 1880 to a projected 2080) onto its thirty-minute structure, rendered with visceral power by the Telegraph String Quartet. String Quartet No. 5 (2021), given its world premiere here by the Jasper String Quartet, closes the album with three unbroken movements that move from athletic energy to lyricism and a brilliant Allegro con brio finale. Three of today's leading quartets meet Festinger's ambition with playing of exceptional technical command and interpretive depth.