LIVE FROM NEW YORK | Textura | May 2020
“One of the smartest decisions Sybarite5 made for its fourth album was to record it live, as shown by the palpable energy emanating from the performances on Live from New York. While each piece is executed with precision, the music's visceral punch calls to mind the excitement of a sweaty rock concert more than the refined formality of a chamber classical set. Some credit for that must be shared with the guests accompanying the string quintet on the release, santoor player Ehsan Matoori, percussionist Shane Shanahan (co-director of Yo-Yo Ma's Silkroad ensemble), and mezzo-soprano Blythe Gaissert, each guesting on different tracks.
Violinists Sami Merdinian and Sarah Whitney, violist Angela Pickett, cellist Laura Metcalf, and bassist Louis Levitt have been together as Sybarite5 since 2009 and followed its inception with its debut, Disturb the Silence, a year later. Similar to other contemporary music ensembles of its kind—yMusic, Eighth Blackbird, et al.—Sybarite5 performs commissioned works (one hundred-plus and counting) and arrangements of others. For this live set, the former includes world premieres of pieces by Brandon Ridenour, Ehsan Matoori, Steven Snowden, and Michael Dellaira; in the latter category are string quintet treatments of material by William Brittelle, Marc Mellits, Aleksandra Vrebalov, John Coltrane, and Pete Seeger. As would be expected from a composer pool so diverse, the recording ranges widely, from the Middle Eastern-flavoured swoon of Matoori's Tehran When Lonely to the plaintive folk strains of Seeger's “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” and sombre drama of Coltrane's “Alabama.”
Shanahan's appearance comes early, with the percussionist augmenting the string quintet on an all-acoustic treatment of Brittelle's Future Shock, originally composed for string quartet and electronics. A great scene-setter, the piece appeals for its exuberance and uplift, with the strings sawing intently and the guest animating their bluesy glissandos with a booming drum pulse and ornate percussive details. Purportedly influenced by both Pachelbel and Tupac Shakur, Ridenour's NuPac Kanon & Jig is treated to a rendition both graceful and vivacious, words that arguably could apply to the album as a whole. Even more rhythmically forceful is Sybarite5's rendering of Mellits's “Groove Machine,” the aptly titled fourth movement from his second string quartet. By comparison, Tehran When Lonely unfurls at a ponderous tempo that allows the beauty of Matoori's santoor (Persian dulcimer) playing and the instrument's interactions with the quintet's strings to be appreciated; the Iranian composer's Naqsh-e Jahan, on the other hand, offers a pleasing contrast when its dance rhythms sparkle so dynamically. Written after the Ku Klux Klan bombing of an Alabama church in 1963 that killed four African-American girls, Coltrane's “Alabama” is suitably mournful, though the lament also turns surprisingly jazz-like when a violin solo's backed by a ride cymbal pattern.
Live from New York aligns itself closest to standard classical repertoire when Gaissert joins the quintet for Dellaira's transporting Star Globe, written for the group and mezzo-soprano in 2016. As earthy and raw as its strings are, an ethereal quality also emerges in Snowden's Traveler No. 65 through their intricate intertwining and the alien wail generated by the violinist and cellist after pieces of aluminum foil were affixed to their instruments' bridges. Dialing down from such intensity, the album ends with a lovely rendition of the folk classic “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” that no doubt sent concertgoers home feeling nostalgic for carefree times. Here and elsewhere, the live presentation does much to elevate the fifty-minute set, so much so Sybarite5 might want to consider recording future releases in like manner.”
-Ron Schepper, (Textura) May 15, 2020