“MEMORIAS TROPICALES.” Cuarteto Latinoamericano. New Albion Records...

“MEMORIAS TROPICALES.” Cuarteto Latinoamericano. New Albion Records NA051 CD. The title work for this adventuresome collection of string quartets is a typically atmospheric, Bartok-on-the-beach marvel by Roberto Sierra, spoiled by a cheesy spoken passage in the finale. Similar techniques, deployed in a more lyrical mode, color the taut and original structure of Celso Garrido-Lecca’s Quartet No. 2. The intense, folkloric-based variations of Aurelio Tello’s “Dansaq II” also roam the timbral map with confident zest. Javier Alvarez’s “Metro Chabacano” is a one-movement piece of vigorous, jazz-oriented post-minimalism, all shifting patterns and motor energy. Cuarteto Latinoamericano may not be the sonically ideal ensemble for this repertory, with a lean and often mean sound even where something more caressive seems appropriate. But it provides compensating virtues of complete stylistic sympathy--incisive in rhythm, clean in detail and acute in abstract definitions.