Whether one considers his music polystylistic or merely eclectic, Christos Hatzis seems content to use any means at his disposal to describe his subjective artistic journeys. Drawing on childhood memories as well as historical and cultural associations for the two enigmatic string quartets recorded here, Hatzis tries to convey larger spiritual themes by analogy with his juxtaposed materials; yet his extra-musical content practically overwhelms his spare musical ideas, and only makes his work seem naïve, heavy-handed, and pretentious. The single-movement String Quartet No. 1, "The Awakening," with prepared tape incorporates Inuit throat singing, the sounds of locomotives, and aggressively bowed multistops to suggest cycles of creation and destruction, and the complexities with which humanity must contend in the modern world. The String Quartet No. 2, "The Gathering," seems even more vaguely outlined; though its central subject is the war in Yugoslavia, the conflict is confusingly portrayed in a hodgepodge of minimalist patterns, Brazilian, Balkan, and Middle-Eastern dance music, and references to Eastern Orthodox chant. These quartets fail to cohere mostly because content overrides form, and despite explicit references, the musical implications are not at all clear. The St. Lawrence String Quartet executes both pieces with professional precision and abundant energy, and EMI provides focused sound.
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