The discography of George Perle's music contains some thirty-eight pieces recorded (with thirty-five YouTube videos of Perle's music at present); however, as is common among contemporary composers, only a few pieces have multiple recordings. The current CD, the first volume in a projected series by the Daedalus Quartet, adds a second recording of Perle's String Quartets Nos. 5 (1960, rev. 1967) and 8 (1987/88) to the list, and includes the first recordings of an early Molto Adagio (1938) as well as another early work, the String Quartet No. 2 in D minor, Opus 14 (1942). The first recordings are welcome to fill in our aural knowledge of Perle's music, while the second recordings are an essential part of the continuing performance history of these significant works.

Perle is among the relatively few composers in the post-1900 era who created a new musical language. His language, known as “Twelve-Tone Tonality,” builds most directly on aspects of the music of Alban Berg. It stands alongside Arnold Schoenberg's and Anton Webern's non-tonal and twelve-tone languages, Stravinsky's language exemplified in the Rite of Spring, Varèse's compositional techniques anticipating electronic music, and Jelly Roll Morton's definitions of the parameters of jazz music, as among the most original and far-reaching developments in Western art music after 1900. Although it is tempting to divide Perle's output into the customary three periods of early learning and development of a style (1938–60), a middle span of consolidation and emerging mastery (1960–80), and a mature period of enduring works (1980–2009), back-to-back listenings of the late String Quartet No. 8 and the early Molto Adagio on this album astonish one with the realization that the expression achieved in a late masterwork is present in one of the earliest works. It is this raw, unfiltered, pure level of musical thought conveyed in sound that comes through in these recordings, which supersedes any accounts of Perle's compositional methodology or scholarly writings for our appreciation of this composer.

The initial three tracks of the album present the String Quartet No. 2, Opus 14, in which Perle experimented with the genre. What do we learn of Perle in this early effort? Aware of the legacy of earlier quartets in D minor—by such composers as Schubert, Sibelius, Wolf, and Schoenberg—Perle challenged himself to add his own voice to the tonal history of the genre. The quartet is divided into three movements: the first is a searching exploration represented in unfolding chromatic lines with periodic chordal and rhythmic punctuations; the second has a strong foreshadowing of the lilting, scherzo-influenced style that characterizes much of Perle's later music; and the third presents a heartfelt slow elegy in the intense expression found in both the String Quartet No. 8 and the Molto Adagio.

In the subsequent String Quartet No. 5, we enter a somewhat more detached emotional world characterized by a confident unfolding of ideas within Perle's middle period. With a new harmonic palette and a consistent control of voice leading from his now-established compositional language, Perle engages in three movements of an almost courtly-sounding dance seemingly from an earlier historical age, a characteristic quickly evolving Scherzo, and a Bartókian Mysterioso with expressive passages amidst rhythmic interjections. All three movements invoke the feeling of variations, completely coherent and consistent, and a continually evolving variety of registers, textures, and instrumental combinations.

The Quartet No. 8, “Windows of Order,” is a mature work, in which technique and expression are one. The title comes from a dichotomy in Perle's writings: “windows of disorder” versus “windows of order,” meaning that disruptive elements in one mode of expression can become the structural basis of another. Many of the musical elements in Perle's language descend from passages disruptive to the world of late nineteenth-century tonal music, but act as the foundation in Perle's adaptations. All the Perlean features are found in his Eighth Quartet: the slow, expressive evolution of contrapuntal lines, the skittery Scherzo passages, the contrasting rhythmic outbursts, the searching variations, and the continual invention, all within a meaningful, although light, musical flow that engages and envelops the listener. As with all of Perle's later works, the richness of detail only becomes apparent upon repeated listenings.

The liner notes include a general introduction to Perle and his music by the composer's long-time friend and collaborator Paul Lansky, and an essay by Malcolm MacDonald on the pieces recorded. Although the essay features helpful quotes from Perle himself, the introduction is largely impressionistic in its description of—rather than direct response to—the music (with multiple, somewhat-strange assertions, such as the “pugnacious” yet “humorous” passages in several of the works). The playing on the CD is assured throughout, and clearly the Daedalus Quartet has put in the time and effort to express the music fully. My only complaint is a somewhat too uniform approach to tone; a stronger contrast in weight and attack is needed to reflect the music's varying moods and changing character, particularly in the earlier works. Nonetheless, the recording is most welcome, and all listeners should be excited by the promise of a second volume in this series.