American String Quartet bringing sounds of insects and machines to Aspen Music Festival

You won’t hear anything else quite like Vivian Fung’s “Insects and Machines” this summer at the Aspen Music Festival.

“We’venever played or heard anything like this piece,” said American StringQuartet violist Daniel Avshalomov, who will perform it with his group onJuly 24 at Harris Concert Hall.

Thereisn’t much string music that the American String Quartet — celebratingits 45th anniversary this year — has not heard or played. But Fung hasdone it with this wild 12-minute trip down the sonic rabbit hole —mimicking the buzz of swarming insects, making a waltz out of it,circling the listener’s head like a bug in pursuit, and then graduallymorphing it into a mechanized whine.

Theadventurous Juno Award-winning composer, born in Canada and now basedin California, has made a name for herself by crafting idiosyncratic newsoundscapes and breaking fresh ground in classical music.

“Ifyou are coming for melodies and harmonies, you’re going to be baffled,”Avshalomov said. “It’s all rhythms and patterns and metric changes.”

Fora dose of melody and harmony at the Aspen recital, the Quartet willprime the audience with the crowd-pleasing Dvořák’s beloved “American”String Quartet No. 12 and close with with Cesar Franck’s Piano Quintet(with the seemingly ubiquitous pianist Anton Nel joining.) They’re pickyabout the challenging, contemporary pieces they perform and champion,such as Fung’s.

“Those we take on, we don’t just play the premiere and drop it,”Avshalomov explained. “We tour with it, we program it with things thatcomplement it. Vivan Fung is a great example of that.”

Thequartet premiered “Insects and Machines” two months ago in New Jerseyat the Red Bank Chamber Music Society. But the quartet’s relationshipwith Fung goes back 17 years, to her time as a doctoral candidate atJuilliard. The American String Quartet had been asked to sit in on arecital of new string works by composition students, and heard a Fungmovement that was entirely pizzicato — the musicians setting aside theirbows and plucking the whole time. Nobody Avshalomov knew of had donethis since Bartok in his Fourth Quartet.

“Shelooked at it and said, ‘Yes, it’s good but can there only be one?’” herecalled. “She asked for criticism and we said, ‘Where are the otherthree movements? You’ve got to finish this thing!’”

TheQuartet eventually took the piece on tour and has continued championingFung’s work, most recently commissioning Fung to write what wouldbecome “Insects and Machines.”

“Whenyou’re finished, it’s this wonderful feeling,” Avshalomov said ofplaying Fung’s work. “You’ve stretched your bran in a new way you neverhave before.”

Of course, being the American String Quartet carries a little extra weight during this themed “Being American” season in Aspen.

Avshalomovjoked that, when he heard about the theme, he thanked Music Festadministrators for singling out his group. But the name, he noted, islittle more than that. The quartet, Avshalomov recalled, chose themoniker after going nameless for a bit at the outset in 1974, when theywon both the Coleman Competition and Naumburg Award and were thrust uponthe world stage.

“Wesaid, ‘In 1976 there is going to be a big bicentennial year and we mightget a boost from that,’” he recalled with a laugh. “And here we are 45years later.”

TheQuartet is in Aspen for its long-standing summer residency at the MusicFest, mentoring emerging and student quartets at the school. ButAvshalomov’s Aspen connections go back even further. He saw his firstconcert here as a child in 1958 and was a student here in 1968, servingon the faculty since 1976. So he’s seen the festival evolve from sincenearly its inception. He recalled how, in the late 1950s, the originalMusic Tent was propped up with a massive wooden center pole that wouldoccasionally be lifted from the ground by a strong wind and crash loudlyto the ground.

“That was my favorite part of any concert as a child,” he recalled. “I’d sit and watch that pole the whole time. Luckily my taste in music has grown slightly more sophisticated.”

-Andrew Travers (from the Aspen Times)