May 13, 2010
The American String Project plays at Benaroya — and on your computer, too
One doesn’t usually get previews of coming attractions for orchestras, but this year anyone interested in attending one of the upcoming concerts by the American String Project can get a preview online. That’s because there’s now a documentary available that shows the orchestra in action, and also includes some interviews with the players.
The American String Project was started by Barry Lieberman, a double bass player and professor of music in the UW School of Music. Once a year, Lieberman invites some of the most talented musicians he knows to join him in a series of three concerts at Benaroya Hall. The group plays music originally written for a string quartet, arranged by Lieberman for five first violins, four second violins, three violas, two cellos and one double bass — a 15-member string orchestra.
Lieberman said he has wanted to make a video about the project for several years, but the money to produce it just wasn’t there. Then, last year, a musician had to drop out at the last minute because of a family illness, and Lieberman decided to put the unused salary into making a documentary. You can see the result on the project’s website.
The string project, meanwhile, will be performing three concerts May 20, 22 and 23 in the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya. The program includes:
Thursday: String Quartet No. 51 in G Major, Opus 64, No. 4 by Joseph Haydn; and String Quartet No. 9 in E flat, Opus 117, by Dmitri Shostakovich.
Saturday: String Quartet No. 8 in E Minor, Opus 59, No. 2, by Ludwig von Beethoven; and String Quartet No. 4 in E Minor, Opus 44, No. 2, by Felix Mendelssohn.
Sunday: String Quartet in E Minor, by Giuseppe Verdi; and String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Opus 111, by Johannes Brahms.
The documentary, which was made by local video producer John King, runs 20 minutes and provides an introduction to the unique approach of the project, which was created by Lieberman back in 2002, in part because his instrument is not included in string quartets and indeed in most chamber music.
“I wanted to enlarge the repertoire of chamber music for the bass and I wanted to have the chance to play with all the string player friends I’ve made over the years” he said.
His arrangements add the bass to the string quartet compositions — most often by having the bass play the same part as the cello — and expand the other parts to balance the extra sound.
The other unique feature of the string project is the fact that it has no conductor. Instead, there is a different concertmaster for each piece who serves as leader, with the other musicians empowered to speak up during rehearsals to give their views of the music.
“The musicians are all type A people and they’re all pretty much leaders all the time in their life, except when they come to the string project,” Lieberman said, “when they may be a leader for a half hour or 40 minutes, but then they’re in the back, in a supporting role.”
The idea of a bunch of creative types with no designated leader may bring visions of duking it out behind the music stands, but Lieberman said it all works out well and the music that results is something special.
King agrees. “I’ve seen many live performances,” he said, “but when you get on stage with this group of folks as I did when I was shooting the video, it’s really something. I was just lifted off the stage. I had no idea it was going to be as dynamic as it was.”
King was contacted by Lieberman on a Monday, shot the rehearsal all day Wednesday and the performance on Saturday. Interviews were conducted with key people, and three weeks later, the video was complete.
“When it’s unscripted, you don’t know what is the jewel and what you’re going to cull away,” King said. “So you try to get as much as you can when you’re shooting — to give yourself lots to choose from.”
After the shoot, King worked with his editor, Mark Sterling, to pick out the best footage. Lieberman and his wife and collaborator, Seattle Symphony Concertmaster Maria Larionoff, spent a day looking at clips and giving their opinions from a musical standpoint.
In the video, King has woven segments of the musicians performing with clips from interviews to give a sense both of how the project works and of what the performance is like. In addition to being posted on the project website, the video is on YouTube, where it has received a modest number of hits. Lieberman has also taken it with him when visiting K-12 schools with orchestra programs.
“It’s almost impossible to get across the idea of the project without that documentary,” he said. “You can play a CD for them, but I don’t know if that really communicates what we’re doing. But when they see 15 people playing together, it has a completely different impact.”
This year, audiences at the concerts will get an extra bonus. “Before each piece we’re going to have a lot of examples of how the quartet sounds in the original version followed by our version,” Lieberman said. “I’m going to discuss how and why I added the bass, or used one violin against all the other strings or whatever. Then we’ll play the complete orchestrated version so people will get to hear how different it is.”
It’s an extension of the Q&A period that has always followed the concerts and is very popular with audiences, Lieberman said. “[The musicians] are all really funny people too. When we’re done with the project, when it’s history, I’m going to issue a CD that’s the best of the Q&A as a bonus to the music CD.”
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets, which are $30 general and $20 students and seniors, are available here or by calling 206-215-4747.
