There has always been a vogue for string quartet
arrangements. In the 1940s American Decca, for example, engaged
elite performers to record 10" albums – hence the apparent
incongruity of the Gordon Quartet recording Jerome Kern or the
London recording Stephen Foster, the latter in spicy arrangements
by the gifted ex-viola player, soon-to-be conductor Anthony
Collins. So these Bill Thorp arrangements have a long and established
pedigree and the Belgian Quartet Tactus have recorded ten of
them on this modestly priced but exceptionally short CD.
Included are the verses – many such arrangements
are only of the refrains and are limited as a result – and Thorp
has decorated the melodies with little runs (A foggy day) or
has quoted from other Gershwin songs; in By Strauss he quotes
Rosenkavalier which the meagre sleeve notes call ingenuous but
to me sounds arch; similarly Thorp ends a nice, rocking, thrumming
and pizzicato launched Nice work if you can get it with an unnecessarily
aggressive quotation of It Aint Necessarily so. An analogue,
I suppose, to jazz musicians’ puerile use of quotations and
equally nondescript. By some geographical alchemy the booklet
claims that track seven is that well-known Gershwin standard
Swansea. Regrettably it turns out to be less a paean of praise
to the joys of rugby than more of the quotation game – both
the New World Symphony <Sample 1> and Old Folks at Home
are sewn into the melodic lining with rather more enjoyable
results because Thorp’s level of subtlety is operating at a
consistently higher level. Thorp uses divided lines and cello
pizzicatos to galvanize the melodies, utilises the violins’
higher register, though never obtrusively so, and can give a
suitably sprightly lick – Somebody loves me <sample 2>
- when necessary.
Playing is calmly enjoyable though I can imagine
less polished, more vibrato-laden and less polite performances
paying bigger dividends. Awful playing time though, whatever
the price.
Jonathan Woolf
Tactus String Quartet
