MARK FELDMAN Book of Tells

As versatile a composer as he is a performer and recording artist, Mark Feldman demonstrates extraordinary skills and a wide range of expressions in Book of Tells: Five Pieces for String Quartet, his 2001 release on Enja Records. However, it may be argued that the discipline of writing for string quartet is too rigorous for Feldman's effusive, showy style, and that these pieces function less as cogent works for four equal players than as virtuoso pieces for solo violin, discreetly backed by a trio. If any of these offerings suffers from such an imbalance, then it is the Kit Suite, which Feldman arranged from the original version for violin and piano. Despite an honest effort at integrating the parts, Feldman's vigorous solo stands out quite vividly, and the other musicians have either accompanimental passages or imitative extensions of the leading line. More naturally conceived for this instrumental grouping are Windsor Quartet, which has an evolving, conversational flow, and Book of Tells, which was composed for the Kronos Quartet, and sounds tailor-made for that famous foursome in its even mixing of distinctive lines and solid ensemble masses. Feldman is joined in these 1998-1999 performances by violinists Joyce Hammann and Cenovia Cummins, violist Lois Martin, and cellist Erik Friedlander, who acquit themselves admirably in all the pieces, even when the composer serves them less than idiomatic material. (Blair Sanderson)

LOIS V. VIERK River Beneath the River

River Beneath the River features four compositions, covering a ten-year span in the life and work of the composer. It is meant to be a kind of introduction to Lois V. Vierk's work, a primer for the uninitiated, or a "greatest hits" for the aficionado, and is one of the prestigious Tzadik catalog's most welcome additions. The title track, a string quartet from 1993 commissioned by Kronos -- but played here by violinists Eva Gruesser and Patricia Davis, cellist Bruce Wang, and violist Lois Martin -- features several Vierk trademarks. First there is the sense of stillness that slowly evolves into glissando movement. It begins as a downward slide into the point of stillness, but before reaching it, the second trademark comes into play, as systematic activity and movement travel ever upward to a polyphonic epiphany. Energy accumulates until the violins become almost free within the score, placing you on the edge of your seat. Next is a string quartet commissioned by a dance troupe, the flowing "Into the Brightening Air," first written in 1994 and reworked in 1999. The third piece, "Jagged Mesa," is perhaps the most serene and beautiful piece on the album. So gradual is its unfolding, so long are the intervals between the predominate fourths and fifths, that it feels as if the piece is one long unraveling ball of yarn. Perhaps the best-known work here is "Red Shift" (1989), for electric guitar, synthesizer (played by Vierk herself), cello, and percussion (courtesy of Jim Pugliese). It is as close as possible to rock in the post-classical age. Glissando is the strategy here, as the work slides from its somber, spare beginnings into a near-operatic frenzy. "Red Shift" has yet to be equaled as a single piece that brings the visceral dynamics of rock together with the sophistication and emotional control of classical music. (Thom Jurek)