JASON VIEAUX and ESCHER QUARTET DANCE

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

JASON VIEAUXESCHERCASTELNUOVO TEDESCOBOCC HERINIAARON JAY KERNIS

Jason Vieaux, guitar     Escher String Quartet    Music by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Luigi Boccherini and Aaron Jay Kernis  AZICA RECORDS

Guitarist Jason Vieaux and the Escher String Quartet make music that makes one want to dance in Dance, their recently released album for Azica Records.

The nicely engineered and impeccably produced CD – the work of Alan Bise and Bruce Egre – features three works for string quartet and guitar.

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, opus 143 is a consonantly melodic opus that still does not shy away from polytonal byroads, all but one of its four movements lively and playful. The Escher String Quartet delivers a sterling performance filled with elegance, clarity, and flair for the composer’s Italian gift for melody.

Aaron Jay Kernis is supported in the musical pranks that abound in his witty 100 Greatest Dance Hits by the members of the Escher String Quartet, who as musical accomplices serve up an in-your-face rendering of Kernis’ four-movement musical satire of oldies but goodies, including good-natured potshots at Salsa, Easy Listening, Disco, and Dirty Dancing.

The CD’s third offering is the Boccherini D Major quartet, climaxing in an Iberian toe-tapping, hand-clapping “Fandango” complete with castanets, that brings this album of rarities to a happy ending.

Throughout the album, the superb playing of Jason Vieaux provides the perfect partnership to the Escher players.

Rafael de Acha http://www.RafaelMusicNotes.com

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”