September 24, 2018

  • Boston's Pedroia Quartet Explores New Music

     Quadrants, vol. 2

    Pedroia Quartet
    Navona Records 6184
    Total Time:  73:16
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    The string quartet is always one of the most personal expressions for a composer.  In this compilation, the string quartet is explored in two larger multi-movement works and four brief ones from six different composers.  The performances are all by Boston’s acclaimed Pedroia String Quartet.

    Four single-movement works bookend the two larger pieces on the album.  Khamsin (1997) by Paul Osterfield opens the album.  It focuses on a single pitch area that is transferred across the ensemble.  Strong accents and pizzicato techniques add additional tension and rhythmic pulse as the work progresses with an eventually lengthier lyric line becoming a source for interaction in the tense discourse.  Higher pitch areas are explored before a more dance-like third section appears.  References to the opening help tie the work together in the final bars.  David T. Bridges’ This Fragmented Old Man (2009) is a compact treatment of the children’s song referenced in the title.  Bridges does a quite masterful job essentially deconstructing this melody and exploring its motivic qualities which spin one way and another.  Katherine Price’s Hymnody gives us an opportunity for a slower musical exploration of the ensemble and the resulting beauty.  The music recalls a bit of Barber’s own quartet slow movements with its rich, resulting harmony.  It stands out among these other equally fine works as a result.  The final work on the album is Marvin Lamb’s Lamentations (2007/2008), a fitting companion to the previous work.  It opens with dark low tones and a somber melodic quality of fragments that will slowly be explored as the cello expands upon this at first.  The music moves from moments of stillness and quiet to growing moments of greater anguish and dissonance.

    Ferdinando De Sena’s first quartet is a perfect representation of the personal moments that are transferred into the genre.  The work was originally composed for the CMN Quartet.  It is a work of sorrow mourning the loss of his mother-in-law and her memory.  Each movement takes a Marian hymn as its title and departure point.  The music has a rather anguished quality in this solemn music that seems to both move us toward questioning loss with the inter-dialogue and mourning as well.  The music is modern, a sort of extension of what one might find in late Bartok.  Moments of light try to break through from time to time, but succumb to more dissonant harmony.  There is a slight, more hopeful atmosphere trying to break through in the central movement.  The final movement does provide some more rhythmic interest with some rather sinuous moments.  The work is also included on an album of De Sena’s music released in August (Secrets for Free, Navona 6178).

    A more traditional four-movement structure is adopted in L. Peter Deutsch’s Departure (2010).  This is a more intense work from it’s opening “Anticipation” movement where small gestures are used to build a gradually more dissonant cluster.  The ensemble is explored with often a violin taking a primary idea with the rest of the quartet adding its rhythmic interjections.  Along the way, each gets a chance to eventually have its say.  Deutsch does occasionally end up on some rather juicy harmonies as well.  “Preparation” moves us into a more traditional harmonic world with a jaunty use of rhythm and pizzicato in a decidedly lighter moment.  “Leave Taking” features a beautiful cello melody, almost folkish in quality.  The harmony is again more traditional here with the motives of the theme being departure points.  This slow movement is really the heart of the quartet and is often strikingly beautiful.  The final, “Setting Sail”, is a bit more episodic and continues along a more traditional route.  Overall it is an interesting work where the opening movement feels like the greatest departure.

    All the pieces here are excellently performed by the Pedroia Quartet.  Each work provides a different window into contemporary music for string quartet with a good blend of both avant-garde and traditional approaches.  It is an easily recommended release for those interested in the genre.