Word: quartets
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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SHOSTAKOVICH: QUARTETS 4 AND 8 (Mercury). Shostakovich's late chamber works are better than his late symphonies. The eighth quartet, a secular requiem for the victims of Fascism, was written in 1960 and is daringly monochromatic: three of the five movements are largo, and the often-repeated main theme changes only from a moan into a sigh. Even the joyful sections seem to shift into a remembrance of gaiety long past. A subtle performance by the Borodin String Quartet, which the U.S.S.R. will send on a first visit to the U.S. in October...
Author Markfield's quartet of intellectuals revolves around the Little Magazines, to which they rarely contribute but wish they did. There is Felix Ottensteen, burly book reviewer for a Yiddish daily, who refers to himself as der Alte and browbeats his sullen son because he is still a student at 27 ("The way Catherine the Great took lovers, he takes courses"). There is Barnet Weiner, a fading poet-critic who remembers peevishly the time when his picture appeared on the dust jacket of New Critics, 1944. There is Holly Levine, who teaches creative writing but keeps a copy...
Whisky & Bier. As the novel begins, the intellectual quartet finds itself bereft. Leslie Braverman, a bona fide writer who published more than 100 articles that were read and discussed, has just died of a coronary at 40, and satellites are in a panic. For Leslie held perpetual open house, fed them ideas and patiently listened to theirs. He had integrity-"the way some people have b.o.," remembers one of the survivors emotionally. Leslie's wife also made herself available-and not just for talk...
...FARMER QUARTET: INTERACTION (Atlantic). Flügelhorn, anyone? Ex-trumpeter Farmer is using the soft, sweet monster in his new quartet, and to further melt the sound, he has replaced the piano with a guitar (played by Jim Hall). The melodic lines in Embraceable You are several yards long and barely kept aloft by a faint little beat. An album for those who take their jazz with plenty of cream and sugar...
BENNY GOODMAN QUARTET: TOGETHER AGAIN (RCA Victor). A lot has happened both in and out of jazz since the salad days of Goodman, Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton and Teddy Wilson. But here they are, sounding much the same 25 years later. Goodman fans will treasure new versions of Runnin' Wild, Somebody Loves Me, I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good. But something is missing-a sense of discovery. Perhaps the trouble is that the pieces sound light and facile, like the right thing said once too often...