A Breath Between the Strings

The three British composers in this program all found very different ways to integrate the harmonica with that most aristocratic of ensembles, the string quartet. Gordon Jacob's Divertimento is a delicious musical tableau, full of his characteristic melodic ease and playfulness. James Moody was devoted to the harmonica, for which he wrote a number of works, and his Quintet has a Classical structure that includes both highly virtuosic and deeply introspective episodes. Renowned as a jazz drummer, Tony Kinsey adopted a late-Romantic stance in his Quintet but also looked to Gershwin and Piazzolla, ending the work with the blues and an unforgettably catchy riff.