This disc contains eight works for string quartet--five short, three more substantial--by a variety of American composers. Of these, six (all except Yim and Carter) can be considered part of that specifically American experimentalist tradition.Carter's Elegy comes from 1946, before he had found his mature style. It is a wistful piece, though this performance is probably a little too overheated. In contrast, Ives' brief Scherzo, 'Holding Your Own' is effectively brought off.
The works by minimalist pioneers Alvin Lucier and La Monte Young are early pieces and not representative of their mature work. Lucier's wide-ranging Fragments show his attempts to escape from the modernist tradition and are most effective when they only partially conform to modernist precepts; in comparison, Young's On remembering a Naiad is a rather uninteresting essay in post-Webernian serialism. Feldman's Structures, while also an early piece, at least is strongly indicative of his mature style, but I feel the Ardittis' performance here is too tense and virtuosic to bring out the best of the work.
The longer pieces are generally more rewarding. Nancarrow's first quartet just precedes the first of his studies for player piano and shows many of the interests--jazz, boogie-woogie, instrumental virtuosity and complex canonic writing--that were to make those studies so memorable. The Ardittis are alive to all the possibilities of the music--this is the sort of work where they are totally at home--and bring it to life very enjoyably.
Jay Alan Yim's Autumn Rhythm is inspired by a Pollock painting of the same name. The composer wanted, he says, to express how the painting became less complex and more clear the longer he looked at it, and accordingly the music starts off chaotic and complex and gradually moves towards clarity and melody. I don't find it totally convincing, but the performance here at least gives it a good chance.
The final work is Cage's Four, a 'number piece' from the last years of his life, written for the Arditti Quartet. It can play for 10, 20 or 30 minutes, depending on how the musicians cycle the material between them--in this recording the Ardittis play the 20-minute version. As with many of the Cage 'number pieces', it is a slow, meditative work, preoccupied by long, motionless tones.
Overall, mixed results. Cage fans will probably want instead the Ardittis' Mode recording of the 30-minute version of Four (coupled with his early String Quartet in Four Parts). Others may enjoy the mixture of styles on show here, though it is a pity the Ardittis did not choose to showcase a more consistent group of works.
