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A Lark At The Ark

January 30, 2009

Outside the realm of classical music, the combination of viola and cello isn’t all that common. Fans of Peter Weir’s movie Master and Commander will be familiar with Boccherini’s “La Musica Notturna Delle Strade di Madrid Op. 6 No. 30”. But the violin-cello combo is by and large a relative rarity in pop culture.

So it was a delight to hit The Ark, a cozy acoustic music venue in Ann Arbor Michigan, the other evening and hear the seasoned Scottish folk fiddle virtuoso Alasdair Fraser performing with the young, Californian, Julliard-trained cellist Natalie Haas.

Over the two-hour program of traditional numbers, adaptations of newish pieces by contemporary folk musicians and pieces composed by Fraser himself, the players brought out qualities in each other that I don’t often hear. The cello was used more like a percussion instrument – Haas underpinned Fraser’s careening, jaunty melodies with driving rhythms. She played more like a droning bagpiper or rhythm guitarist in a rock band than a classically-educated cellist. And there was a sonority, subtlety and depth to Fraser’s playing that one doesn’t often hear in fiddle-led folk music.

The musicians, who've been playing together for more than ten years and first met when Haas was just 11 years old and a student at one of Fraser's fiddle workshops, managed to whip the audience into a dancing frenzy by the end of the evening. Fraser and Haas had us all up on our feet attempting to jig. Their energy was infectious.

The musicians are performing all over the country in the coming months. Click here for a schedule. I’m looking forward to catching Fraser and Haas when they appear at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on March 10 and 11. I’ll be wearing my dancing shoes.

P.S. The duo’s latest album, In the Moment, is one of the best folk recordings I’ve heard in several years.

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