Postcard designed by Chris CornwellJust this past Tuesday, PUBLIQuartet stepped onto the stage at Cornelia Street Cafe for the very first time. The room was packed and there was a bubbling high energy in the air.
We opened with "Broken Lines" by our violist, Nick Revel. After the rock out crazy finish we went into Don Byron's "Four Thoughts on Marvin Gay". It was a pleasure to be able to perform this great piece for the composer himself! From starting with a piece that had been quoted to sound like "robot lovin'" into a downright raucous jazz/new music fusion piece, we were beading with sweat and mellowed the mood with Sky Steele's beautiful piece, "January 5 (sun ice)". This work was dedicated to a friend of Sky's who had passed and the ethereal melody sang out and was a touching part of the show. PQ brought it back around and into Anton Webern's extremely intricate String Quartet, Op. 5. There are 5 movements, each with its own particular sound. From the gritty and eerie into the suspenseful stratosphere and everything in between, this piece represents how Webern paved the road for a new style of string quartet. Following the Webern, we went from the wrote to the unwritten, improvising as a group live on stage. The improvisation led into the reading of the poem associated with the last piece, Sky Steele's "Evalynn". The piece has a wonderful repetitive melody which gets torn apart, fragmented, and brought back together again with open sections for free improv in the violin, viola, and cello.
All in all, it was a success and a wonderful experience for us! Thank you all who made it; we laughed, we hollered, we had a great time.
Please check out the group that was on the bill after us, The Mighty Third Rail. They were absolutely amazing.