For those unaware, Composer Elena Ruehr adds to her extensive discography with Icarus and Other Music, an album of chamber music infused with hints of history, legendary literature and close collaborations with a multitude of musical colleagues.

Throughout, history elides with the present day, and Elena’s sumptuous and evocative compositional voice shines through.

The repertoire revolves around the string quartet, a genre that generated great acclaim for Elena’s Six String Quartets.

1. String Quartet No. 7: A Thousand Cranes (2019) (14:04)

2. Icarus for clarinet and string quartet (2018) (11:38)

The Worlds Revolve for piano and string quartet (2016)
3. I. The Worlds Revolve (3:56)
4. II. Like Ancient Women (3:13)
5. III. Gathering Fuel (4:38)
6. IV. In Vacant Lots (7:25)

Insect Dances: Suite for String Quartet No. 8 (2020)
7. I. Spider Swing (2:45)
8. II. Dragonfly Flit (2:15)
9. III. Wasp Stomp (2:29)
10. IV. Bumblebee Boogie-Woogie (2:51)
11. V. Lady Bug Waltz (1:51)
12. VI. Grasshopper Polka (2:19)

This expertly sculptured, heartfelt and organic new album - which was actually made possible with support from the MIT SHASS Research Fund - opens on the stirring, veritably translucent at times String Quartet No. 7: A Thousand Cranes and then brings us the aching yearn within the comprehensively earnest Icarus for clarinet and string quartet.

Up next is the the four-piece The Worlds Revolve for piano and string quartet which opens on the delicately playful The Worlds Revolve and then brings us the full on, all be they sterner (at times), orchestrated majesties within Like Ancient Women, then we get the melodic fervency of Gathering Fuel, the work closing on the flinty, quietly foreboding at times, rhythmically soaring at others, In Vacant Lots.

This simply wondrous new recording comes to a close on the six-part Insect Dances: Suite for String Quartet No. 8, the first piece being the playful Spider Swing and that is backed by the flirtatiously-ornate musings within Dragonfly Flit, the aptly entitled urgency of Wasp Stomp, the delightful ebb and flow romp within Bumblebee Boogie-Woogie, rounding out on the pure, unadulterated gossamer of Lady Bug Waltz and the perky, buoyant, and statically-charged Grasshopper Polka.

Elena’s String Quartet No. 7: A Thousand Cranes, evokes experiences and resilience of children in wartime, including the internment of Japanese in American camps, and her own father’s escape from Nazi Germany. Her playful Insect Dances: Suite for String Quartet No. 8 – “written for listeners of all ages” – finds a diverse family of bugs engaged in an impish dinner party.

Inspired by T. S. Eliot, The Worlds Revolve, for piano and string quartet, conjures elements both ancient and prescient. The title track, Icarus for clarinet and string quartet, centers on the Greek mythological character’s excitement as he builds his wings of wax and dares to fly, rather than his dark demise as he flies too close to the sun.

Artists:
Jon Manasse, clarinet
Donald Berman, piano
Borromeo String Quartet
Delgani String Quartet
Arneis Quartet
Tom Stone, violin

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