Arrangments for string quartet of: Gershwin, Kern, Thiele, Maschwitz, Ellington, Brown, Berlin, Schwartz

COMPOSERS: Arrangments for string quartet of: Gershwin,Berlin,Brown,Ellington,Kern,Maschwitz,Schwartz,Thiele
LABELS: Landor
ALBUM TITLE: Someone To Watch Over Me
WORKS: find works
PERFORMER: Pavão Quartet
CATALOGUE NO: LAN 277

These days it’s hard to imagine



crossover music minus the glitzy



packaging that bedecks most glossy



magazines. This CD of imaginative



quartet arrangements of popular



numbers by Gershwin, Kern and



Berlin et al is no exception. A bevy



of beauties adorn the disc’s cover,



cynics no doubt easily misled into



thinking of this as yet another



obvious marketing ploy. Yet the



talented Pavão Quartet never resort



to superficial gimmicks, offering



playing that is extremely assured



with a meticulous sense of ensemble



captured in a warmly ambient



recording. In fact I would go so far as



to say that the preparation for some



of the arrangements is so thorough



that at times it impedes a spontaneity



that might have resulted had these



encores been recorded at a live venue.



Still, the programme is sufficiently



varied in mood and tempo to make



for very agreeable background



listening. Some of the arrangements



are particularly ingenious, not only



presenting an infinite range of



textures and effects, but in the case



of ‘A nightingale sang in Berkeley



Square’ appropriately allowing bits



of Vaughan Williams’s The Lark



Ascending to enter into the musical



argument. I’d love to know why the



first bars of Wagner’s Meistersinger



Overture precede a version of Berlin’s



‘Cheek to Cheek’. Erik Levi