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There have been enough failed attempts at combining pop and classical music idioms to justify moans about the futility of it all. Then along comes Elvis Costello (born Declan MacManus) and the Brodsky String Quartet, and, lo, what pleasures they hath wrought!
Collaborating on The Juliet Letters, these musicians avoid the simplification that has derailed lesser efforts. A perceptive lyricist, Costello is the key shaper of 20 songs that, while too eclectic to constitute a formal cycle, explore the peculiar caprices of love, lust and loss. The album makes for seductive listening, especially if one has the patience to absorb the songs in a single arc.
All five performers were inspired by letters, addressed to "Juliet Capulet," sent to Verona, Italy, and answered over the years by a local scholar. If Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is literature's quintessential story of doomed love, these letters prove that correspondence can adopt any emotional stance.
The Juliet Letters ask us to giggle, weep, cringe and (to borrow a sentiment from Yeats) cast a cold eye on life, love and death. "Thank you for the flowers / I threw them on the fire," go the opening lines of "I Almost Had a Weakness," punctuated by Costello's cackling accents. Wicked.
Noted for its interpretations of 20th-century quartet literature, the Brodsky made a logical interpretive leap to Costello's music. His jaunty, sometimes improbable style, full of wild expressive effects, translates readily into the singing lyricism of four string instruments. Violinists Michael Thomas and Ian Belton, violist Paul Cassidy and cellist Jacqueline Thomas (Michael's sister) play lusciously.
Play it for someone you love or can't stand.
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