[...]
Entitled Five Improvisations For String Quartet, the [...] sections [...] are well-crafted, sounding
not in the least improvisatory, except in the arbitrary flow of ideas.
There are three very short movements, generally brusque and decisive,
separated by two slightly longer adagio movements, in which the tone is tentative
and somewhat wandering. The effect, deliberate or unconscious, is
precision and obfuscation; while in the three other movements, the effect is
rugged decision, and even, in the middle movement, piquancy and good cheer.
All these effects are doubtless a function of the complicated and abstruse
Morawetz. The work plays well, and does not lack interest.
[...]
