Lark Chamber Artists
A string quartet with a bang-up fifth
October 6, 2009
Many string quartets take on a fifth wheel occasionally -- most often a pianist, sometimes a singer -- to expand into new repertoire or enjoy the company of a respected colleague. The Lark Quartet now makes a habit of the practice. Renaming itself the Lark Chamber Artists, the New York-based troupe tours with a changeable assortment of distinguished fifths. Percussionist Yousif Sheronick joined the string players on an Oct. 4 appearance for the San Antonio Chamber Music Society in Temple Beth-El.
The five induced smiles with John Adams’s “John’s Book of Alleged Dances,” a witty suite originally composed for string quartet with prepared piano. Sheronick approximated the piano sounds on an assortment of standard and home-made percussion instruments. As one expects from Adams, the music is based on repetition and variation of cells. “Minimalism,” however, is only a very loosely apt term. The pieces are immediately and directly charming, but their charm comes from the complexity of their construction, their eccentric rhythms and the composer’s carefully observed adaptations (or perversions, perhaps) of blues, ragtime and other popular idioms. The performance was spirited all around, with Sheronick contributing particularly incisive rhythms.
The other works with percussion were less interesting. Romanian composer Sapo Perapaskero’s “Turceasca” was, as the name implies, a lively Turkish dance, though it got somewhat jazzy toward the end. The movement “Federico II” from Giovanni Sollima’s “Viaggio in Italia” was another lively dance, this one with references to late-medieval music. (Federico II was an illustrious 13th-century Holy Roman Emperor with rationalist tendencies.) The audience was invited to participate in American composer Daniel Bernard Roumain’ “Klap Ur Handz” by, well, clapping. That made made it hard to hear the music, which seemed to have a generic world-musicky character, sort of bluesy and sort of Middle Eastern and sort of Eastern European.
The string quartet was on its own, lusciously, in Giacomo Puccini’s mournful “Chrysanthemums,” three of Antonin Dvorak’s ”Cypresses” -- enriched by violinist Deborah Buck’s firm, bright tone and natural singing line -- and American composer Jennifer Higdon’s “An Exaltation of Larks.” Though Higdon’s piece dates from the 21st century, its neoromanticsim fits neatly among its 19th-century fellow travelers. Her harmonies are rich and shimmering, and the piece is strikingly beautiful, though more compelling in its energetic contrapuntal patches than in the serene material that predominates. The piece seemed, however, to be more a collection of lovely moments than a structured whole with a destination.
In addition to Buck, the string players were violinist Harumi Rhodes, violist Kathryn Lockwood and cellist Caroline Stinson. Their ensemble sound was creamy and warm, their phrasing supple and lively.
Mike
Greenberg
