Matthew J. Palm: Well-Strung gives fun mix of classical, pop.
If a band is composed of four strapping lads who have the nudge-nudge, wink-wink chutzpah to name their group WellStrung, you’d expect them to have a sense of humor.
Yet when one player had to leave the stage during Saturday’s sold-out show at The Abbey — an emergency instrument repair — the remaining three couldn’t come up with a decent joke or story or really anything to fill the time until their comrade returned. First time on stage, boys? Of course it’s not: When it comes to performing, the Well-Strung guys are no virgins. (Yes, I know how that sounds.) The New York-based string quartet has toured extensively for years, so it’s curious that despite their stage presence they have so little stage patter.
What they do have is a great concept that makes for an entertaining evening.
Violinists Edmund Bagnell and Chris Marchant, cellist Daniel Shevlin and viola player Trevor Wadleigh combine classical works with recent pop hits. They call their mashups “popssicals,” and those cross-genre pieces display real creative flair.
Lorde’s “Royals” feels right at home with Karl Jenkins’ “Palladio,” which is famed for its use in diamond commercials. Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” fits niftily with Bach’s “Partita No. 3.” How about some Aaron Copland with Swift’s “Mean”? Another fun success.
The works are technically well-played, and the players are adept at using their instruments to create percussive pop rhythms by plucking strings or tapping bows. That works especially well in a classical remake of Britney Spears’ dance floor burner “Toxic,” its distinctively squealing riff intact.
Their musicality, however, falls flat at times. There’s little tempo variation during many of the pieces and even fewer changes in volume. One notable exception: A lovely version of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” played in the Whitney Houston pop style, that grows in sound and size until its gentle ending.
The men also display strong musicality when they sing — yes, they sing, too. They’re stronger together than solo, creating stirring moments in an a cappella segment in Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
Marchant and Shevlin make a particularly pleasing duo when they harmonize.
Well-Strung might carry a bit of the boy-band vibe, but they ably and entertainingly have shown they’re more than pretty faces.