There should be no doubt from anyone that ETHEL is one of the most talented string quartets in the world. Over their eclectic 16 year career, the group has proven themselves to be just as technically proficient, passionate, and exciting as a more straight-laced group like the Emerson String Quartet or fellow genre-hoppers, the Kronos Quartet. So seeing them perform in any context is a real treat, and their performance on June 24th, 2014 at Brookfield Place as part of the River To River Festival was no exception. Joined by fellow iconoclast Kaki King, the concert—titled ‘…And Other Stories,’—was a thrilling display of adventurous virtuosity designed to keep you on your toes.
Right from the first piece, the musicians play into our expect-the-unexpected mindset. According to the printed program, the first piece to be played was an arrangement of the first movement of J.S. Bach’s Brandenberg Concerto no. 6. Already an odd choice, I was excited how they would play it, particularly what role Kaki King’s incredible guitar playing would take. But only the four members of ETHEL came out, and when they started playing, it was hard to hear the Bach. The music they played was a rhythmic, minimalistic wash of harmonies, much more similar to Steve Reich or Julia Wolfe than to Bach, but knowing their penchant experimentation, I assumed I was missing something. Maybe I didn’t recall the rhythmic profile of the Bach piece well enough and this arrangement is actually a clever interpolation of the underlying rhythmic motif into a post-modern expressionism. Of course, the reality is that it was simply a different piece. Only after they performed it though, did violist Ralph Farris let on that they would be playing the program out of order and the piece we had just heard—and struggled to hear the Bach in—was actually March by American composer Phil Kline. From this point on, I knew ETHEL couldn’t be trusted, and that I was in for an exhilarating performance of surprises.
Unfortunately, much of their program left something to be desired. Kaki joined them on stage to perform one of her own songs with their accompaniment, a song featured on her 2012 album Glow, and stayed on to perform Aleksandra Vrebalov’s tedious Logbook II, essentially just doubling the cello and looking uncomfortable to be doing so. I was more hopefully when she exited the stage and ETHEL announced they would play John Zorn’s collage masterpiece “Cat O’ Nine Tails (Tex Avery Directs The Marquis De Sade)”, but they only played an excerpt. They performed it incredibly well, but I couldn’t help wanting to hear the rest of the work. The quartet then traded spots with the guitarist for a solo performance of her song “Fences,†which, while a fine composition, suffered from the juxtaposition.
When the five musicians finally played their arrangement of the Brandenberg Concerto, I wished it was more like the Phil Kline. Partially because of the performance space, which added too much reverb, and partially because of violinist Kip Jones’s less-than stellar arrangement, the piece felt heavy and clunky. The idea to rewrite the work in 15/16 as opposed to 4/4 may have seemed clever on paper, but without the rhythmic clarity that would have been granted by a smaller room (and the lack of a guitar), it failed to excite the way it should have.
After a few fine pieces by members of ETHEL, the program finished with Kaki King’s “Great Round Burn,†the single from Kaki’s Glow album and the musicians’ first collaboration. It is a truly electrifying piece and a great way to breathe life back into the program and end on a high note. Despite the inconsistency of the program, it’s hard to not enjoy watching these five musicians perform together for sheer virtuosity alone.
