REVIEW: Dover Quartet's Rewarding 'Sonic Spectrum' at CMS

Apr 19

Apr 19 REVIEW: Dover Quartet's Rewarding 'Sonic Spectrum' at CMS

Above photo by Cherylynn Tsushima

By David Wolfson

April 17, 2025

The idea of a concert for “string quartet plus one” is an excellent one, but it does perforce move the quartet out of the spotlight. So let me say up front that the Dover Quartet (violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violist Julianne Lee and cellist Camden Shaw) performed with utmost musicality and precision, not to mention stamina, through nearly 90 minutes of well-chosen, engaging recent music on the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Sonic Spectrum IV at the Rose Studio. The soloists (percussionist Ian David Rosenbaum, clarinetist Romie de Buise-Langlois and harpist Bridget Kibbey) were likewise excellent, all three performing with commitment and intelligence.

In Samuel Carl Adams’ Sundial Rosenbaum added vibraphone, almglocken and (near the end) crotales to the quartet’s sonic palette. The harmonic, melodic and rhythmic material of this piece comes from the Steve Reich toolkit, with simple repeated figures, rhythmic momentum, and changes in texture featuring prominently, but the core musical idea is timbral, with the vibraphone and strings blending but constantly trading roles as foreground and background, an ingenious and riveting effect. The almglocken (essentially, tuned cowbells) provided a fuzzy shadow to the vibraphone, giving it a depth to match the strings; the crotales, much more strident and just out of tune with the other instruments enough to provide overtone “beats,” were saved for climactic moments near the end. The movement of a shadow over the titular timepiece over the course of a day suggested an arch form, with midday represented by long, dissonant chords followed by a telling silence, and morning and evening more active. This was a well-paced and satisfying piece of music.

The clarinet in Pierre Jalbert’s three-movement Equilibrium (a CMS co-commission in its New York premiere) had a more traditional separate-but-equal relationship with the quartet. The first movement, “Still/Animate,” alternated between slow non-vibrato string chords wound with twining clarinet lines, evoking acoustically-rendered electronica, and frantic rhythmic playing, often pizzicato. “Chant” ostensibly drew inspiration from Gregorian chant, although passages that actually referenced it were sparse; I got more of a secular medieval troubadour vibe from much of it, particularly de Buise-Langlois’ ornament-rich clarinet commentary. “Tipping Point” had an energetic, off-kilter momentum, with loud, syncopated unison string lines bouncing erratically off the clarinet. Aside from the endings of the outer movements, which felt tacked-on and obligatory, again this was a rewarding listen; I applaud Jalbert’s strategic use of sectional repetition to allow listeners to bask in the material.

By contrast, Sebastian Currier’s Ongoingness, also a CMS co-commission in its New York premiere, is (as the name implies) a stream-of-consciousness piece, in which one passage gives way to the next without repetition or audible connection. Music like this lives or dies on the appeal of the material and the drama of the juxtapositions; luckily, the combination of strings and Kibbey’s harp lends itself quite well to this in Currier’s hands. Sometimes the harp and the quartet drift past each other like clouds; sometimes one has an angular, irregular ostinato while the other strikes energetic dissonant chords. If the piece was perhaps a tad over-long, still there was a welcoming clarity to even the most complicated passages that brought listeners in. (And complicated some of it was: this was the only part of the evening in which I saw the performers visibly counting to themselves to keep their place in the music.)

Rosenbaum returned to join the quartet on marimba for selections from Andy Akiho’s LIgNEouS (the capital letters spell out “lines”). This was a lot of fun. The marimba definitely hogs the spotlight here, although the strings are working just as hard; the low, tolling chords that began this excerpt from both forces were remarkable by virtue of the marimba sonority. And Akiho includes a dizzyingly delightful array of special timbral effects for the percussionist: playing while holding the sticks just behind their heads, which makes the marimba sound like a vast array of woodblocks; playing clusters of notes with the sides of sticks, in ferocious rhythmic patterns; using the frame as well as the bars to make a multi-timbral kit out of the instrument; and dragging a stick down the resonators, a shockingly raucous noise used to excellent structural effect. The piece develops an irresistible momentum and builds to an ovation-demanding climax.

David Wolfson holds a PhD in composition from Rutgers University, and has taught at Rutgers University, Montclair State University and Hunter College. He is enjoying an eclectic career, having composed opera, musical theatre, touring children’s musicals, and incidental music for plays; choral music, band music, orchestral music, chamber music, art songs, and music for solo piano; comedy songs, cabaret songs and one memorable score for an amusement park big-headed-costumed-character show. You can find more information here.

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