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George GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
Porgy & Bess (1935) Suite - arr. Carl Davis (Summertime
[3:14]; A Woman is a Sometime Thing [2:36]; Bess, You
is My Woman Now [5:35]; It Ain't Necessarily So
[2:38])
Jerome KERN (1885-1945)
All the Things You Are (1939) [4:39]
The Way You Look Tonight (1936) [4:46]
Bill (1927) [4:05]
The Song is You (1932) [5:01]
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (1933) [4:30]
Once in a Blue Moon (1923) [4:03]
George GERSHWIN
Lullaby for String Quartet (1919) [7:11]
Joan Enric Lluna (clarinet)
Alexander String Quartet (Zakarias Grafilo, Frederick Lifsitz (violins),
Paul Yarbrough (viola), Sandy Wilson (cello))
rec. 24-26 May & 15 July 2011, St Stephen’s Episcopal Church,
Belvedere, California, USA
FOGHORN CLASSICS CD2008 [48:15]
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UK readers will know the Alexander Quartet as a foursome drawn
from the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The
award-winning ensemble on this disc was formed in New York in
1981 and is now resident in San Francisco. Their list of CDs
is eclectic, to say the least, and several have already featured
on these pages. Michael Cookson nominated their Beethoven quartets
a Recording of the Month – review
– and Dominy Clements was equally fulsome about their Shostakovich
set (review).
In the light of such encomia this Gershwin/Kern selection certainly
has a lot to live up to.
The Porgy & Bess suite is an arrangement for clarinet
and string quartet by Carl Davis – perhaps best known for his
silent film scores – based on Jascha Heifetz’s own transcriptions
for violin and piano. Curious listeners may wish to read Rob
Maynard’s review
of Heifetz playing these pieces. The ASQ kick off with Summertime,
Clara’s lovely number from Act I. Joan Enric Lluna’s clarinet
sound is bright and clear, but there are one or two moments
when his intonation is less than impeccable. Otherwise this
is an accomplished performance, albeit short on charm. The acoustic
is rather dry and there’s very little ‘air’ around the instruments.
The next two numbers – A Woman is a Sometime Thing
and Bess, You is My Woman Now – are pretty uninspiring;
I can’t decide whether it’s the arrangement, the playing – or
both – that kept me at arm’s length throughout. They have a
good stab at Sportin’ Life’s manic It Ain’t necessarily
So, but it lacks all character and animation. Suffice to
say, anyone who knows and loves this great score will find little
to detain them here. Sadly, the same holds true for the Kern
selection; All the Things You Are, from Very Warm
for May, has a soupy cello line and the harmonies are just
a mess. The Way You Look Tonight, from the
Astaire-Rogers classic Swing Time, certainly has its
lighter moments, but these fleet-footed tunes just don’t dance
the way they should.
The admittedly lachrymose Bill – from Show Boat
– is the least appealing piece here, but the ASQ redeem themselves
with a rather fetching rendition of The Song is You,
from Music in the Air. As for Smoke Gets in Your
Eyes, from Roberta, it offers some deft pizzicato
playing but very little else; and Once in a Blue Moon,
from Stepping Stones, is just too swoony for my tastes.
Thank goodness for the youthful Gershwin Lullaby, which
really sings in a way those other ‘songs’ don’t. A delightful
coda to an otherwise uninspiring collection.
An enterprising project, but one that doesn’t deliver musically
or sonically. I’m just not convinced that Davis’s arrangement
and/or this instrumental combo does justice to the harmonic
and rhythmic felicities of Porgy & Bess; the monochromatic
Kern selection is even less appealing, not helped by a less
than ideal acoustic and balance. Factor in a rather short playing
time – just 48 minutes – and that dreaded Digipak and you have
a very disappointing issue indeed.
Mediocre arrangements and recording; depressing.
Dan Morgan
http://twitter.com/mahlerei
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