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Editorial Reviews

The Brodsky Quartet is the cream of the crossover crop. Despite venturing regularly into the pop-music world, the group has never tarnished its sterling classical pedigree, thanks to an approach that is nothing like the souped-up dance beats of the crossover quartet Bond, nor the surprisingly abundant albums of string quartet arrangements paying dubious "tribute" to everyone from Jessica Simpson to Sonic Youth. Instead, the Brodskys have chosen to collaborate with innovative pop auteurs like Elvis Costello (on the highly acclaimed Juliet Letters) and Björk, and on Moodswings, they team up again with both of those artists: Costello opens the disc with his classic "My Mood Swings" and closes it with a Randy Newman tune, while Björk contributes a chamber-pop version of one of her Dancer in the Dark songs. But they also reach out in some unexpected directions. Where else could you find Sting and singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith rubbing shoulders with avant-garde vocalist and composer Meredith Monk? The eclectic British composer Richard Rodney Bennett (best known for film scores like Murder on the Orient Express) sings one of his own pop standards, and Errollyn Wallen, a more recently arrived talent in new music, shows off her chops as both chanteuse and composer in the poignant "Daedalus." Most surprising are the half-dozen tracks credited to some real unknowns: teenage students who participated in an outreach program with the Brodskys, creating music and lyrics for some of the freshest-sounding songs on this album. The students couldn't ask for better performances -- four excellent vocalists join the quartet for these numbers -- and their work blends perfectly with that of the more famous tunesmiths. In all, not only is Moodswings completely absorbing on a musical level; it also accomplishes something much trickier: blurring genres until any distinction between classical and pop music falls aside as something utterly irrelevant. Scott Paulin, Barnes & Noble

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