Listening to Enigma, the image comes to mind of string quartets far and wide salivating at the prospect of tackling Anna Thorvaldsdóttir's work and adding it to their respective repertoires. It's not uncommon for a new piece for string quartet to be written; it's rather more unusual for one to be created that presents interpreters with a bold new set of sound-design possibilities. Adding to the challenge of performing the Icelandic composer's score is equaling the one delivered by Spektral Quartet (violinists Maeve Feinberg and Clara Lyon, violist Doyle Armbrust, and cellist Russell Rolen), whose world premiere recording leaves the impression of being definitive.
Founded in 2010, Spektral Quartet proves to be an ideal partner to Thorvaldsdóttir, considering the degree to which both are committed to bringing adventurous music into the world and giving form to unusual sound worlds. Over the past ten years, she has solidified her standing within the contemporary classical community with audacious releases such as Rhízoma, Aerial, and Aequa. Premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2019, Enigma is, remarkably, her first foray into the string quartet genre.
Spektral Quartet brings a surgical precision to every aspect of the score, which demands from its interpreters sensitivity to quarter-tone pitch alterations, subtle gradations of bow pressure, and the ability to play at the level of a whisper. Beyond the usual bowing and plucking, scrapes, slides, taps, clicks, pops, and other tactile gestures are required for the realization of the work. Such effects are in keeping with the composer's concept, which has to do with the “in-between,” the shadowy zone between sound and silence. Immense concentration by the players is needed for the three-movement work to blossom and transform at a measured pace that feels natural. Texture and sound design override melody in her micro-detailed tapestry, which isn't a critical observation but rather a descriptive one. Enigma isn't without emotion either, as moods and tones arise ranging from solemn and cryptic to ecstatic and lyrical.
That texture is paramount is evident from the very start when granulated string textures spread through the aural space, at one moment groaning, at another swooping, and in another massing into thick clusters. During the opening movement, one particularly mesmerizing episode occurs that sees percussive plucks chattering obsessively alongside knocks and keening bowed phrases; passages of equally arresting character emerge during the other movements too. The cumulative effect is haunting and the experience of monitoring the unfolding engrossing, especially when it's impossible to anticipate where the material will go next and when it's so densely packed with detail. Of course being a mere twenty-eight minutes in total makes for a brief album, yetEnigmais so substantial a work the recording doesn't feel incomplete, even if space would have allowed for a second Thorvaldsdóttir piece. Being presented alone, however, lends Enigma the gravitas of a major statement.