MUSIC REVIEW : ‘Letters’: Strings Attached

In discussing “The Juliet Letters,” Elvis Costello has been very leery about the “c” words: classical and crossover. Fair enough. An ambitious project by any measure, the song sequence seems in any case to have music theater roots.

That was even more apparent in the live show, Sunday at Royce Hall, than in the recording. The between-numbers banter turned the cycle into something akin to a revue, and the wide-ranging encores took in some theater standards. If the ‘90s mean we get Elvis Costello singing Jerome Kern, there’s a weird new dimension to fin de siecle decadence.

The rush to find classical intimations in “The Juliet Letters” comes, of course, from the collaborative participation of the Brodsky Quartet, as if instrumentation defines style. Sunday it played with characteristic bite and rhythmic point, its wealth of sound resources and sonic edge surprising only the terminally naive.

The closest models are Philip Glass’ treatments of Suzanne Vega and Laurie Anderson lyrics in “Songs from liquid days,” sung by Linda Ronstadt with the Kronos Quartet. The Brodskys have come up with thoroughly idiomatic settings, varying their basic bass-and-chords work with interesting textures, although the harmonic reach is limited.

Some of the pieces are through-composed, but more rely on some type of verse-and-chorus form than the defensive advance publicity would have us believe. No problem there--many well-respected lieder are strophic. The non-linear cycle accumulates emotional resonance effectively, and the music reflects the text in mood more than blatant word-painting.

Costello has always been a fluent storyteller in song, and his voice is quite capable of nuance. He succumbs to the temptations of head-thrown-back, belted lounge-style climaxes a bit too often, and better breath control would enhance some of the killer lines, but “The Juliet Letters” is a well-meshed and affecting aural package, on stage as well as on disc.