Review: American String Project mixes things up this year, resulting in memorable moments

Concert review |

Listening to a string quartet turned into a string symphony is a lot like watching chocolate syrup being added to milk. The inclusion of the double bass darkens and enriches timbres; the additional instruments smooth and blur individual sonorities. The end result is unmistakably different, even as it remains the same.

And judging from the way the 15 musicians in The American String Project (nine violins, three violas, two cellists and a double bass) played Thursday night at Benaroya's recital hall, the whole experience of remixing the music in this fashion must be awfully fun to play as well.

For its ninth season, TASP has introduced a new format to its concerts. Before the evening's pieces are performed, they are introduced by artistic director, arranger and double bassist Barry Lieberman. Four musicians play excerpts from the original chamber piece, followed immediately by the entire group playing the same passage, but rearranged. Only after this side-by-side demonstration is the new arrangement played in its entirety.

With Haydn's String Quartet in G major, Op 64 No. 4, the difference was one mostly of amplitude. The increased mass of sound emanating from the quadrupled players added a sculptural heft to the original score. This was still Haydn's bucolic, sprightly quartet, but supersized. Or, as Lieberman quipped, like doing it in 3-D.

The players, all of unmistakable caliber, were a force to be reckoned with. But the most memorable moment in the Haydn occurred during the Adagio, when violinists Joan Blackman and Maria Larionoff engaged in a lovely, wistful duet.

The changes the new arrangement brought to Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 9, Op. 117, were far more noticeable. The increased number of instruments had the effect of softening much of the Russian composer's signature angularities. Even with its edges softened, the Shostakovich still provided plenty of visceral shifts to which the audience responded with much warmth.

But the most arresting moment proved to be an original one: violinist Frank Almond's anguished solo passage during the Adagio. When violinist Alexander Kerr, violist Adam Smyla and cellist Arek Tesarczyk joined him, I found myself wishing that only the four of them would continue playing.

For chamber music devotees and newbies alike, The American String Project's new concert format will prove fascinating. My friend, a violist, left the concert wondering aloud what would happen if a symphony were downsized to fit the group. Now that would be another exercise worth hearing.

Sumi Hahn: sumi@bewodo.org