Deduction, emotion in 'Piano Quartet'

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, April, 2008 | by B Inquirer Music Critic

y Peter Dobrin You don't notice the greatness at first. Yevgeniy Sharlat's  Piano Quartet , unveiled at an Astral concert Sunday, starts with melodies that must be deduced, almost like one of those pixelated puzzles whose image can only be seen if you stand back far enough. But then patterns begin to emerge.

You get the sense that material is being taken apart, put back together. Those patterns begin to emit a certain mood. And in places the mood grows quite emotional. I was particularly taken with the section in which the viola pizzicato accompanies a piano music-box part - only to be interrupted by a bright outburst, a contradiction, from the piano. Here you were sure the two instruments were saying something to each other. Sharlat, born in Moscow and educated at Yale,...