On November 30, 2009 the Borromeo Quartet performed Gunther Schuller's String Quartet No. 4 in Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory of Music. It was to be part of the preparations for recording the work one month later. It turned out they and Gunther Schuller felt that there was something captured in this performance which warranted presenting this live concert on the CD in addition to the studio version that the quartet subsequently recorded.

The studio version of Gunther Schuller's String Quartet No. 4 was made with exactly the same acoustic setup as the concert, but adding four individual microphones. The concert and studio recording were engineered by Jeremy Sarna. The editing of the studio version was done by Nick Kitchen and then refined with Nick and Gunther working intensively together.