Takács Assad Labro: Takács Assad Labro
Yarlung Records

An interesting backstory accompanies this collaboration between pianist-composer Clarice Assad, Takács Quartet, and bandoneónist Julien Labro. In truth it was Assad who jumpstarted the project when she contacted the powers-that-be at Yarlung about it. As a piece she'd created for Labro and the string quartet was already being performed by them, she thought a wonderful recording could accrue from an album featuring it, pieces by Labro and Bryce Dessner, and another Assad was developing for violin and piano. Once the label signed on, steps were taken to secure Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa as the recording site and reserve dates in April 2023 for the sessions. The resultant release augments single pieces by Dessner and Labro and three by Assad with treatments of material by Milton Nascimento and Kaija Saariaho. Any recording featuring composers so varied can't help but be compelling, and Takács Assad Labro is assuredly that.

The music's wide-ranging too. While Dessner's Circles, Assad's Clash, and Labro's Meditation No. 1 are scored for bandoneón and string quartet, the three-part Constellation is performed by Rhodes and Assad and Luminous features her alone. The recording does more than unite figures as diverse as Labro, a renowned French accordion and bandoneón player based in New York, and Dessner, a Paris-based American rock musician and guitarist for The National. Its release anticipates the fiftieth anniversary of the award-winning Takács Quartet, formed in 1975 in Budapest and still featuring its founding cellist András Fejér (violinists Edward Dusinberre and Harumi Rhodes and violist Richard O'Neill are the other current members). All of the album's music, incidentally, was recorded in a single take and bursts with visceral energy.

The writing process behind a number of pieces reflects real-world goings-on, with Dessner's Circles exploring the desire for connection felt by individuals emerging from pandemic lockdowns and Assad's Constellation a celebration of her nuclear family. While her Clash isn't programmatic, its tone does reflect the turbulent state of the world at the time of its 2020-21 writing, what with political conflict, global health crises, economic collapse, and social distancing elevating stress levels. Assad's Luminous, on the other hand, conveys her affection for the uplifting power of Brazilian jazz, whereas Labro's Meditation No. 1 calls to mind terrific bandoneón recordings issued by Astor Piazzolla and Dino Saluzzi during the '70s and ‘80s. Homages of a slightly different kind are present in the inclusion of material by classical composer Saariaho, who died in June 2023, and Brazilian great Nascimento.

At the album's start, Dessner's Circles sees Labro's bandoneón and the quartet's strings engage in an intricate dance as their voices gradually entwine after a tentative entrance. The desperate desire for connection is palpably communicated in the passion of the musicians' playing. Assad's rousing Luminous, from her Pendulum Suite, presents a dramatically contrasting sound world to Dessner's, though it's no less enthusiastically delivered by Assad, who shadows her own illustrious piano playing with bright wordless vocalizations. Labro's Meditation No. 1 reinstates the instrumental configuration of the opening piece in a setting that could, in fact, be mistaken for one of Piazzolla's, so reminiscent it is of the boundary-pushing music for which the Argentine ‘nuevo tango' master is known.

The scenery shifts again, this time back to Assad's voice and piano for a high-energy, inspired take on Nascimento's Cravo e Canela. Her domestically themed Constellation follows, its three parts titled after her two daughters and partner and rendered exquisitely by Rhodes and Assad. The duo captures the pure beauty of her youngest daughter Stella in “Celestial,” the playfulness of her oldest, Antonia, in the beguiling children's song “Estrellita,” and her love for her partner in the lyrical warmth of “Solais.” In another striking change-up, Rhodes appears alone on Saariaho's crepuscular reverie Nocturne, composed in 1994 and dedicated to Lutoslawski. Assad's Clash concludes the set with twelve minutes of intense bandoneón and string interactions, their voices here at times engaged in conflict and agitatedly going back and forth like humans arguing.

May 2024