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Amped-Up Colors of the Del Sol

Be'eri Moalem on November 17, 2010
Del Sol String Quartet

The Del Sol Quartet is one of several organizations in the Bay Area that specialize in new music. The last time I heard the quartet, it played an all-acoustic concert, but this time around, perhaps taking after the Kronos Quartet, the entire performance was electrified. The Del Sol appears to be unaccustomed to playing with amplification, tripping over wires and not sounding absolutely comfortable with the completely different instrumental sound-response while playing miked. Furthermore, not all the pieces on the program were composed with amplified instruments in mind, though all were amplified to maintain continuity of sound.

The concert took place on Nov. 13 at the Yerba Center for the Arts, and will be repeated at various venues through Nov. 19.  

Amy X Neuberg’s first string quartet, Lonely Strange Hats, used the amplified and altered string sound to create a wide array of textures. The composer added her own voice to the quartet, creating vocalizations that sounded like a raspy old witch at times, like an operatic soprano at other times, and even issued Björklike moans enhanced by electronic delay and chorusing. X Neuberg’s incredible vocal range is reminiscent of Dawn Upshaw’s vocal versatility in Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre. The first and last movements of the piece were particularly memorable, as the quartet created a murmuring that sounded like a stampede of insects.

I last heard X Neuberg at the Garden of Memory where she produced similar sounds, and as she did then, here also she couldn’t resist her signature funky glissandos. While certainly unique-sounding, in the middle of a slow movement titled “Painfully Beautiful” they felt out of place, breaking the spell of the music. Overall, however, it’s a great composition, full of wit and interesting sounds. But who, other than the composer, would be able to tackle that crazy vocal part?

Falling Timbre

“Painfully Beautiful” would have been a better fit for Golijov’s Tenebrae, a slow, contemplative movement in utter contrast to X Neuberg’s wackiness. One of the defining features of the work is the second violinist’s G string being tuned down to an F. This not only adds range, but also gives the loose string a reedy timbre, so that it sounds more like a viol or an ancient, ethnic string instrument than a modern violin. This amazing color was practically wiped out by the amplification, though. Amplification also detracted from the effectiveness of the Baroque allusions that Golijov makes. Despite these setbacks, the performance cast a soothingly melancholic spell. Violist Charton Lee’s fluid harmonic- and open-string patterns were truly mesmerizing. This was the only piece on the program that was not a world premiere, being a comparatively ancient piece (composed in 2003). The rest of the music all came from the last two years.

Canadian Ronald Bruce Smith’s String Quartet No. 3 stood out on the program for its more academic approach, studying finite details in color, while lacking in audience-friendly devices such as beat and melody. Electronic effects created an ethereal blend among the strings, evoking San Francisco’s fog.

Joan Jeanrenaud, former cellist of the Kronos Quartet, wrote her first quartet for the Del Sol. That it was the Del Sol and not the Kronos that premiered the piece was odd; was the transition from instrumentalist-colleague to composer-boss uncomfortable? Her work, Falling Water, was the most pop-music-influenced piece on the program — a curious fact, since Jeanrenaud was the senior composer on the program, born in 1956. The hip hop–style beats work well in the amplified quartet, proving that she is anything but an old lady and is not even close to musical retirement. It was palpably clear that a cellist had written the piece; the Del Sol’s new cellist, Kathryn Bates Williams (a dashing redhead with a strong cello sound just like that of their former cellist, Hannah Addario-Berry), held the bass line with authority.

The concert ended with lighter fare: a virtuosic setting of flamenco riffs by guitarist Daniel Ward. Although the flamenco elements were discernible, they were not overbearing or cliched by any means. Their active contrapuntal lines swirled and swarmed, making for an energetic ending.