The Anzû Quartet, comprising violinist Olivia De Prato, cellist Ashley Bathgate, clarinetist Ken Thomson and pianist Karl Larson, performs Thomson’s composition Uneasy.
The work features on the ensemble’s upcoming debut album release adjust on Cantaloupe Music, on 25 April 2025.
Playing in a mixed-instrument quartet poses unique challenges from playing in a conventional string quartet. Notably, the opening of Uneasy features an extended unison passage between the violin and clarinet.
How do the two instruments blend timbres with each other? Violinist De Prato elaborates:
’Playing in Anzû requires specific technical considerations related to tuning, sonic blending and ensemble togetherness. Since we have a woodwind, two string instruments, and one keyboard, we each need to be aware of and apply our creativity to blending, matching and complementing each other’s musical lines within a piece.
’With this violin and clarinet unison passage, I use a few things to fuse my sound with Ken’s - little to no vibrato, slurs and articulation that match the breath patterns in the clarinet, and slight adjustments in bow contact point placement to match timbral changes (in this passage, mostly between ordinario and sul tasto playing, with subtle variations in flautando bow pressure at the beginning and end of phrases).
’Most of this is done intuitively and/or found in rehearsal. Ken and I have also known each other for many years and know our styles of playing very well - that’s a major reason why we’re in a group!
’I think the key technical point for string players here is vibrato. It’s vital to have complete control of vibrato in order to use it well - from using none at all, from slow to fast and everything in between. Also, just focusing on the bow as the equal to the breath in the clarinet and the strike of the key in the piano. The higher levels of subtlety and phrasing are all in the bow.’
Thomson shares the unsettling inspiration behind Uneasy: ’This piece was written during the first Trump era in New York, and completed just before the pandemic began. The atmosphere was tense and charged, the ground unstable, with half of the country and the world in shock, still at the beginning of the West’s rightward turn. Interaction, not only in New York but in my travels, was grim if not yet resigned.
’But there’s a second side of the title — the piece is, quite literally, un-easy. Especially the first movement is really tricky and requires virtuosic playing and tight coordination from all four of us.
adjust featuring works by Thomson and jazz composer Anna Webber will be released on Cantaloupe Music on 25 April 2025 on all streaming and downloading services.
Photo credit: Markus Sepperer
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