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Fellow Traveler: The Complete String Quartets of John Adams, performed by the Attacca Quartet on Azica Records ACD-71280.

I'll be honest here: John Adams is one of my favorite composers, and this new recording by the outstanding young group the Attacca Quartet gives us all of John's music for String Quartet in one place. This is my fourth or fifth time through the recording and I love it more with each listening.

There's John's Book of Alleged Dances from 1994 that are challenging due to the fact that there's a pre-recorded track in 6 of the 10 movements which present more problems in live performance than on a recording, and this is a terrific suite with such titles as Alligator Escalator (which Adams describes as an alligator "slowly lumbering up from the basement of Macy's to the top of the store, then back down again") and Pavane: She's So Fine (a beautifully lyrical slow movement) which is followed by Standchen: The Little Serenade which pays "homage to those ecstatic Beethoven and Schubert finales in 12/8 time, but with a consistent three-against-four cross-rhythm that throws the listener off with frequent 'hiccups' in the pulse." Other movements have titles like Hammer and Chisel (which refer to two friends who do work on John's house), Dogjam, Habanera (a "tongue-in-cheek lament of an aging dictator...(and) the beloved cigars he had to give up") and finishing with Judah to Ocean, a streetcar in San Francisco that passed a cottage John lived in.

The next to last composition is the Sting Quartet from 2008 is in stark contrast to the Book of Alleged Dances. In two movements, the notes by violist Luke Fleming describe the first movement as "functions as the traditional opening allegro, scherzo and slow movements of the standard string quartet form." Almost 20 minutes in length and beautifully written, all three sections flow seamlessly from one into another subtly changing character to mark the allegro, scherzo and slow movements. A powerfully expressive finale concludes this very rewarding quartet and leaves us wishing for more string quartets from the pen of John Adams. 

The "encore," if you will, is the world premiere recording of Fellow Traveler, the work from (obviously) this cd gets its title. As Luke Fleming reminisces, "After hurriedly cutting and pasting together individual parts from the full score (which is all that was available at the time), we gave our first performance of it at the Kennedy Center..." (Haven't we all been there as musicians?) Written as a 50th birthday present for Peter Sellars, long-time collaborator and friend, there are hints of two other Adams compositions, Son of Chamber Symphony and the opera Nixon in China. More of John Adams at his very best.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the dedication on one of the last pages of the booklet. The Attacca Quartet was formed while its members were students at The Juilliard School, and "This album is dedicated to the members of the Juilliard String Quartet -- past and present -- who as teachers, coaches, mentors and performers have influenced and guided our careers and so many others' since long before the Attacca Quartet's formation." I couldn't have found a better way to say that yes, the Attacca Quartet reminds me of all those wonderful recordings by The Juilliard and their fantastic ensemble playing, expressiveness, interpretation and sheer joy of music making. 

Wonderful warm sound engineered by Bruce Egre and great editing and producing from Alan Bise. Buy Now http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=871532&source=VENEZ

Donald Venezia

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