Search - Peter Schickele, Audubon Quartet :: Schickele: String Quartet No. 1 "American Dreams", String Quartet No. 5 "A Year in the Country", Quintet No. 1 for Piano and Strings

A Cause For Rejoicing

11/08/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A new CD of Peter Schickele's music is always cause for rejoicing, since Mr. Schickele is one of the most under-recorded American composers of our time, and this CD is one of the most American of them all. It contains two String Quartets of evocative music with American connections: #1 "American Dreams" and #5 "A Year in the Country". Between these is the Quintet #1 with the Audubon Quartet joined on piano by perhaps the foremost interpreter of Mr. Schickele's music, himself. This is, of course, the non-parody, non-P.D.Q. Bach side of Schickele, but that doesn't stop him from unusal practices like making violinists play their violins as if they were fiddles. The music ranges from pulsing jazz riffs ("Four Studies") to lively program music ("Birds" and "Bugs") to gut-wrenching meloncholy ("At John Burroughs' Grave"). It makes a nice companion to the similar CD by the Lark Quartet of Schickele's Quartet #2 and Quintet #2. The liner notes have the usual great descriptions of the history and structure of all the works, but an inexplicable complete absense of any biographical information about the Audubon Quartet members. My one complaint about the CD is the inclusion of the String Quartet #1, which has previously been recorded beautifully by the Audubons, instead of something like the String Quartet #4 ("Inter-Era Dance Suite"), which nobody has ever recorded, and which has also been played beautifully by the Audubons. This recording of #1 is in general a better performance than the original on RCA (with the amazing exception of the bird calls in the third movement which sounded more like the actual birds in the original recording), but I'm greedy enough to rather have something new from a composer who has written so much great music that's never been recorded."