Road Trip Music from The Alexander String Quartet

The road between my current home and my home town is not the most exciting in the world. Vast stretches of fertile farmland are punctuated by a few trees here and there that usually indicate the location of a small stream or a town. The winter bleakness can be starkly picturesque, the summer corn an endless wave of green, but after traversing it for as long as I have, the bloom is off the rose.

Thus faced with a trip home that would involve some late night driving, I grabbed some CDs to keep my mind alert and my bleary eyes open. One of my selections this time was a new disc sent for my perusal by the Alexander String Quartet. Readers will know I have been exploring some of their recent releases on their Foghorn Classics label and have been highly impressed by their musicality and repertoire selections. This is a bit of a different animal from the Brahms and Bartók cycles of late, a single disc released late summer 2013 of arrangements for string quartet of songs by Jerome Kern and George Gershwin. Clarinet Joan Enric Lluna joins the quartet in the Gershwin "Porgy and Bess" selections.

Usually this is not my type of thing. I prefer to hear Gershwin, Kern, Rodgers, et. al., as originally written, voice and piano preferably. I half expected the usual schmaltzy, overblown and stiff results that all to often characterize classical music's forays into "pop" idioms. But leave it to the Alexanders to find and so superbly record picture perfect arrangements of these miniature masterpieces.

Carl Davis’ (noted composer and arranger, working frequently in TV and film) arrangement of Porgy and Bess selections for clarinet and string quartet is nothing less than suave, sophisticated and totally enjoyable. Davis started with Heifetz’s arrangement of these selections for violin and piano with the clarinet taking the solo violin parts and then linking the song via brief cadenzas. Lluna is fully in tune with the sound and rhythms of Gershwin, classically elegant in "Bess You is my Woman Now", just a touch bluesy and sentimental in "Summertime" and brash and sassy in "A Woman is a Sometime Thing" and "It ain't Necessarily So". The quartet does not take a back seat to the clarinet solo but is an equal partner in stating the lush melodies and setting the moods. They also swing and sass while at the same time exhibiting their usual tight and taught ensemble.

The Kern selections have a similar pedigree. Kern's assistant Charles Miller transcribed the six songs selected and arranged by Kern for string quartet in 1942. They were first recorded on 78's in 1948 and likely are making their CD debut on this recording.

The songs ("All the Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight", "Bill", "The Song Is You", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "Once in a Blue Moon") are well known to anyone familiar with American song. As with the Gershwin, these are sophisticated, classical inspired arrangements, suggesting comparisons to Schubert and Schumann rather than to the "easy listening" channel or Muzak. The Alexanders capture the pathos, longing, and sadness in "Smoke.." and "Bill", the tenderness in "The Way.." and the elegance and economy of scale in each of these classic works.  The lyrics are rarely missed or, for that matter, needed.

The disc ends with the only work originally written for quartet, the charming and familiar "Lullaby" by Gershwin. Frequently heard in a full string orchestra arrangement, the original presented here is just fine, thank you, basking in lazy and languid light.

This disc, (an all too short 48 minutes, but each one a jewel) was not the sleepy elevator music so often made from these fine examples of the song writers art, but engaging enough to entertain and delight while negotiating the mind numbing Interstate Highway. Fine production and the usual complete notes too.

Gershwin and Kern
Alexander String Quartet
Joan Enric Lluna Clarinet
Foghorn Classics  CD 2008