“Invariably energetic and finely burnished…The Catalyst Quartet, a new ensemble sponsored by Sphinx, played the Allegro Rustico movement from Ginastera’s Quartet No. 2 with an earthy vigor that made you wonder why whoever assembles Sphinx’s programs did not have them offer the complete work.”
– Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
See the article Fledgling Musicians Spread Their
Wings

In a program of overflowing energy, the Catalyst Quartet—another branch of the Sphinx Organization—performed single movements from the second quartets of Michael Nyman and Alberto Ginastera, each with relentless rhythmic force.
October 5, 2011 – Elliot Mandel, CHICAGO CLASSICAL MUSIC

Four of the Sphinx Virtuosi’s principal players, violinists Bryan Hernandez-Luch and Karla Donehew-Perez, violist Christopher Jenkins and cellist Karlos Rodriguez, comprise the Catalyst Quartet, which performed two numbers. The first movement of Michael Nyman’s String Quartet No. 2 (1988) combines elements of minimalism with a rock aesthetic in a virtuoso setting. The finale Furioso movement, from Argentinean Ginastera’s String Quartet No. 2, Op. 26 (1958), certainly shows Bartók’s influence, but through a South American prism. This music is “in your face” seething, frantic and fabulous fun.
October 7, 2011 – Greensboro, NC:   CVNC – AN Online Arts Journal

One last piece dominated the proceedings, the String Quartet No. 2, Op. 26, by Alberto Ginastera from Argentina, played by the Catalyst Quartet, the first-chair players from the Sphinx Virtuosi. They were scheduled to play just Ginastera’s finale, but in a spirit of enthusiasm presented the whole quartet, all five movements of it. Here there was no question of the violins resting on the lower strings’ laurels. Violinists Bryan Hernandez-Luch and Karla Donehew-Perez gave as much tight energy and sure-handedness as violist Christopher Jenkins and cellist Karlos Rodriguez. Through Ginastera’s perpetual-motion opening movement and finale, his ghostly scherzo full of special sound effects, and the two cautious, softly dissonant slow movements, the resemblance to a really good performance of a Bartók quartet was unmistakable.
October 19, 2011 – Stanford University:  www.SFClassicalVoice.com

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