The
Del Sol String Quartet made a striking debut with its revelatory recordings of
George Antheil's string quartets; now they return to Other Minds with Ring of Fire, a selection of string quartet music from Pacific Rim composers. Recorded at Skywalker Sound, the ambiance of the disc is just right -- warm and spacious, but not too far away. Two works among the nine included here jump out of the program --
Kui Dong's "Spring" and
Zhou Long's Song of the Ch'in. "Spring" comes from a quartet written around the theme of the seasons and is a riot of colorful patterning; a total departure from what has appeared of
Kui Dong's music on disc before, and a dazzling one. Song of the Ch'in is an adventurous and loose fantasy in which the string quartet successfully approximates the sound of traditional Chinese instruments;
Zhou Long's piece has a rich and bluesy component as well. That's not to say the other pieces on the program aren't as potent; Garbriela Lena Frank's "Chasqui," an excerpt from Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout, is a lovely and intoxicatingly rhythmic evocation of Peru that could've definitely gone on a lot longer than its proscribed three minutes. About the only piece that seems overbudgeted is New Zealand composer
Jack Body's Epicycle, which, like the
Kui Dong, is an intriguing piece built out of complex sequences and is superficially a little reminiscent of Ruth Crawford Seeger's string quartet. It's fine, but tends to wear out its welcome a couple of minutes before it ends. By contrast, "Toot Nipple" from
John Adams' John's Book of Alleged Dances is so short and blends into the program so completely that one hardly notices its presence; one can rarely say that about anything of
Adams!
There is the notion, mostly held in the American East, that Pacific Rim music is inherently lighter weight stuff, a notion based on negative perceptions of some of
Lou Harrison's music, and indeed,
Harrison was a true pioneer in attempting to establish a trans-national approach to Pacific Rim culture. The sheer seriousness of this program and the daunting technical requirements of some of this music genuinely challenge that notion, and the
Del Sol's personality as a quartet is so strong that a sense of cohesiveness applies to the whole program just in the manner through which it plays its music. Ring of Fire is a highly enjoyable listen and a great vehicle through which to connect with the music of some of the world's most compelling contemporary composers.