Mexican musical roller-coaster ride

By WILLIAM DART

The wild, primary colours on the sleeve of the Kronos Quartet's latest album, Nuevo, are a warning ... and an invitation.

Nuevo was inspired by a walk around Mexico City, and its 14 tracks recreate that experience in what leader David Harrington describes as "a layering of time, music, culture and art".

The spirits of Frida Kahlo, Beethoven and Esquivel hover over it all - the Space Age Bachelor Pad master being represented by a dazzling twang-and-pick through his Mini Skirt (with wolf-whistles on the side). This is just one of Osvaldo Golijov's many inspired arrangements.

Nuevo is a musical roller-coaster ride that could leave you breathless, as it veers from Ricardo Gallardo's wacky take on a Turkish March by Beethoven to the brooding rhythms of Silvestre Revuelta's Sensemaya, in which the quartet is joined by the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble.

You may wipe a tear from your eye when layer upon layer of Mantovani strings introduce Perfidia, played on an ivy leaf by Carlos Garcia, a one-armed Mexican street performer. Don't worry if your player seems to have tracking problems on the final number - it's a Plankton Man remix of the album's opening piece.

Nuevo is a musical adventure to savour - and all this for a fraction of the price of an airfare to Mexico.

Atoll's Viola Aotearoa presents violist Tim Deighton in a selection of New Zealand music. Deighton, who is on the staff at Penn State University, was one of the more memorable performers at last year's International Viola Symposium in Wellington.

The dizzying swoops and driving rhythms of Martin Lodge's Pacific Rock set the standard of virtuosity required and Deighton is more than up to the challenge.

While the late Anthony Watson's 1969 Solo Sonata is the emotional centrepiece of the album - shifting within seconds from the searing to the poignant - the late Douglas Lilburn is also remembered with a glorious account of the composer's Three Songs for Baritone and Viola. How perfectly Paul Whelan, who recorded a haunting account of Lilburn's Elegy cycle a few years back, gauges the tone for Lilburn's prickly setting of R.A.K. Mason's Song of Allegiance.

The final offering is a Concerto by Anthony Ritchie in a fine concert recording with the Penns Wood Festival Orchestra, conducted by Grant Cooper - a sprightly score, with an alert and committed performance, let down, alas, by a trite finale.

It's cheering to see (ho-hum to some, perhaps) that the Aotearoa of the title is explained with asterisk and footnote in the CD booklet. Obviously, this is an album that intends to take our music out into the world. Let's hope it also finds its way into more than a few local collections.* Kronos Quartet, Nuevo (Nonesuch 79649-2); Timothy Deighton, Viola Aotearoa (Atoll ACD 202).