Fans of
the Modern Mandolin Quartet will eagerly snap up
Americana, the group's 2012 release on
Dorian's
Sono Luminus label and its first album since the
Nutcracker Suite, which appeared in 2004. This lively collection offers sophisticated and clear-headed arrangements of string quartets by
Antonin Dvorak and
Philip Glass, as well as the
Three Piano Preludes of
George Gershwin, which are interspersed with shorter pieces of a strong American flavor, including the "Hoe-Down" from
Aaron Copland's
Rodeo, "Cool" from
Leonard Bernstein's
West Side Story, the traditional folk song
Shenandoah, a medley celebrating bluegrass legend
Bill Monroe, and an
Irish Roots Medley. The ensemble, which consists of two mandolins, mandola, and mandocello, matches the tunings and registers of a classical string quartet, so the
Dvorak and
Glass pieces make sense both musically and technically, though the adaptations of the
Copland,
Bernstein, and
Gershwin selections involved more creativity. The mandolin's sound isn't for everybody, and because the whole program involves plucked and strummed music, without alleviation from other instruments, some listeners will find the CD is easier to appreciate in small doses. Even so,
Americana is a tour de force, thanks to
the Modern Mandolin Quartet's skill and artistry. The package contains two discs, one a conventional CD and the other a Blu-ray audio disc, providing two options for playback. ~ Blair Sanderson
