Danzón

The playing is splendid. When string players make their instruments sound like saxophones, guitars, slap-basses, drums, and castanets, string quartet fans tend to get a bit uneasy, but these musicians can also sound like a real string quartet capable of producing a mellow, beautiful tone as well as every imaginable color effect, like ponticello, pizzicato, and barriolage. Moreover, the conversational give-and-take between them is in the best chamber music tradition. The slow pieces have a lilting, songful lyricism; the fast ones jump, dance, and run around brilliantly. To a classically oriented listener, the least convincing numbers are those based on classical pieces, like "Girl from Pathetique," frankly inspired by Tchaikovsky, and "Schizo Grosso," supposedly inspired by Beethoven. "A Night in Tunisia" is a showpiece for the clarinetist and he plays it to the hilt. --Edith Eisler