The
Attacca Quartet offers a program here, perhaps unlike any other on the market: the group mixes minimalist pieces by
Philip Glass and
Arvo Paert (whose two works were not explicitly string quartets but work well enough in that configuration) with Renaissance vocal polyphony, played only by the four instruments. One can debate whether the analogy being drawn here is valid. Renaissance motets do not have "harmonic rhythm" in the sense that the music of today has, but almost any listener will admit that the quartet has chosen its music carefully. The album was made during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the title comes from
Dowland's
Flow my tears ("And tears and sighs and groans my weary days / of all joys have deprived"), surely an appropriate sentiment for this time, and the mood is consistently meditative (the fastest motion comes from
Philip Glass'
String Quartet No. 3 ["Mishima"], to give an idea). What's cleverly done is that the Renaissance pieces have been selected to fit with the minimalist ones. The well-worn
Allegri Miserere is here but sounds fresh in this context. Other pieces, like
John Bennet's madrigal
Weep, O mine eyes, are deliberate enough that they fit seamlessly with
Glass and
Paert. Overall, for late-night rumination, this program will fill the bill nicely, and
Sony gives a beautiful churchlike but not church sound from the Sauder Concert Hall in Goshen, Indiana, one of the unsung acoustic treasures of the U.S. Midwest. ~ James Manheim
