Album Review: The Shape of Strings from Wayne Alpern

Album:  The Shape of Strings
Artist:  Wayne Alpern
Label:  Henri Elkan Music
Website: www.waynealpern.com

Wayne Alpern's compilation The Shape of Strings leaves listeners with the impression that they are in the center of Louis XIV's court, hearing a recital performed by a symphony of strings.  There is something so 18th century French classicism about the recording that will make audiences feel like they have gone back in time to an age when beauty was common place and within everyone's grasp.  There is a majestic, royal-like pomp and ceremony quality about the scores that transcends the listener into a fantasy-like realm. 

Alpern leads the renowned String Orchestra of New York City on his release, assembling a compilation of compositions that elevates the spirit and pacifies the mind.   Perceivably, influences of jazz ballads are integrated with classical dramatic phrasing on scores like "Serenade 1" and "Serenade 3," projecting an intensity that seeps into the audience's skin.  In contrast, the whirling motions and lofty flusters generating from the strings along "Reinvention 1" are bright and bold, whisking listeners off the ground, and imagining taking flight on eagle's wings.

The choir of wispy strings floating across "Reinvention 2" project a reflective mood, emanating a serenity that puts listeners at peace, changing to a springy tempo along "Reinvention 3" as strings flap and scamper, sowing the melodic progression.  On the other hand, the three part suite of "Divertimento" is diversified, moving the tempo between affable strolls to heavy footed strides, in addition to altering the intensity of the strings from frolicking to grumbling and from somber to invigorating.

Alpern testifies in a press release about the recording that "I simply wish to explore the geography of my own imagination."  He explores much more than his imagination on this compilation.  He explores the chemistry that is formed when strings come together.  Notations that cause a symphony of strings to surge, to skyrocket, to lobe and fluster, to scamper and weep.  

The amalgam of expressions represented on the release cover a wide scope, giving the recording a human perspective of what is possible.  Alpern explores possibilities melodically, harmonically, and symphonically, plunging audiences into a fantasy-like realm that they reluctantly see end at the close of the recording.  Audiences will likely never tire of repeating the listening experience.

Musicians:
Concertmaster - Monica Bauchwitz
Violin 1 - Monica Bauchwitz, Lauren Cauley-Kalal, and Regi Papa
Violin 2 - Sarah Whitney, Arthur Moeller, and Kristi Helberg
Viola - Miranda Sielaff and Margaret Dyer
Cello - Jing Li and Caleb van der Swaagh
Bass - Logan Coale