Of All Joys

by Attacca Quartet

Overview

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

Product Details

Release Date:	11/05/2021
Label:	Sony Classical
UPC:	0194399360620
Rank:	89778

Tracks

1. Summa
2. Solo e Pensoso
3. Flow, my tears (Lachrimae) (From the Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, 1600)
4. Fantasia a 6 in D Minor
5. String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima"~I. 1957: Award Montage
6. String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima"~II. November 25: Ishigaya
7. String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima"~III. 1934: Grandmother and Kimitake
8. String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima"~IV. 1962: Body Building
9. String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima"~V. Blood Oath
10. String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima"~VI. Mishima / Closing
11. Miserere
12. Weep, O Mine Eyes
13. Ego Flos Campi a7
14. Fratres

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Attacca Quartet   Primary Artist,String Quartet

Technical Credits

Orlando Gibbons   Composer
Jacobus Clemens Non Papa   Composer
Luca Marenzio   Composer
David Goddard   Photography
Arvo Paert   Composer
Derek Robertson   Liner Notes
Philip Glass   Composer
John Dowland   Composer
Gregorio Allegri   Composer
Alan Bise   Producer
John Bennet   Composer
Zachary Crystal   Executive Producer
Anja Hoppe   Artwork