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)