“Two movements of truly substantial musical depth demonstrate George Tsontakis’s ability to take a very simple musical idea and develop it into a rich, evolving dialogue between piano and strings.”
There’s something very satisfying about listening to a composer take a well-worn form and explore its potential without in any way compromising what makes it so interesting. Tsontakis’s fourth piano quartet on *TSONTAKIS PIANO QUARTET #4 is a very significant addition to his chamber music output and is a rare feat in a genre which has seen very few composers actually go and write four pieces. It’s released on Navona Records and features two movements which are both very much in the Tsontakis style, with a strong emphasis on harmonic development, repetition, rhythm and the slow evolution of musical ideas. The first movement “Piano Quartet No. 4: I. Hypnotic, Dreamy” is all about musical continuity. The very title suggests a world in which the listener is drawn into a state of concentration, where the way an idea develops is as important as the way it first appears. Tsontakis is of course famous for his use of large scale harmonic prolongations and that is the essence of the piece. He doesn’t treat his musical material as a series of phrases which simply repeat. They are allowed to develop and expand, and that’s what gives the movement its sense of movement. It’s an approach to chamber music which is very much about the relationship between repetition and change.
The second movement “Piano Quartet No.4: II. Swaying” continues the interest in patterns and development of the movement. The title suggests a different kind of movement from the first, one with a more fluid, swaying character. Tsontakis again builds his pieces through the use of ideas that reappear in different forms, the music developing in a gradual organic way rather than through sudden shifts in direction. There is a sense of the music growing from the very beginning, which gives the two movements a common musical language even as each one establishes its own individuality. The interplay between the harmonic and the rhythmic is of course crucial to the work as a whole. The Ames Piano Quartet’s performance is the key to bringing these ideas to life. The group consists of Mei-Hsuan Huang (piano), Borivoj Martinic-Jercic (violin), Samantha Rodriguez (viola) and George Work (cello). The piano and string combination is ideally suited to Tsontakis’s writing and the quartet are able to achieve a very effective balance between individual voices and the overall ensemble. That said, the very nature of the piece with its repeated patterns developing and interacting all the time makes the balance between individual and collective so very important.
The Ames Piano Quartet have a long history of performing and extending the piano quartet repertoire. Formed in 1976 they have spent many years in the business of performing and promoting lesser known chamber works and commissioning new ones. Their association with Tsontakis’ 4th piano quartet goes back to the premiere of that work in 2019 and this recording is therefore a natural extension of that relationship. Tsontakis is one of the most well known American composers of his generation. He has won both the International Grawemeyer Award and the Ives Living Award and has an extensive catalogue of orchestral and chamber works. His music has been performed and recorded all over the world and his long association with the Aspen Music Festival was instrumental in establishing his reputation as both a composer and an educator. Tsonakis Piano Quartet #4 is a very interesting piece in which you get a real feel for his approach to chamber music through two quite distinct movements. It’s full of developing patterns, extended harmonies and a real sense of continuous rhythmic movement. The piece shows how repetition can be a vehicle for discovery rather than mere predictability. The Ames Piano Quartet are the ideal ensemble to bring this rather involved musical dialogue to life.
English