Mention piano quartet and the assumption is piano, violin, viola and cello. Mention cello quartet and what you say is what you get—four cellos. In the case of the ensemble named CELLO, specifically Maria Kitsopoulos, Laura Koehl, Maureen McDermott and Caryl Paisner, four cellists are a blessing, not a novelty act. Although not the first such group, CELLO pretty much has the field to itself these days. And with the expert musicianship and salesmanship displayed at the University of Maryland's Tawes Theatre last night, CELLO wastes no time winning over a new audience.

One key to the quartet's success is the choice of repertoire, which on this evening went from Boccherini to jazz bassist Ron Carter and beyond. Many of the selections were written expressly for CELLO, and according to the various members' descriptions, the campaign for material is active and ongoing. Three short pieces by Ilan Rchtman explored stuttering jazzlike vamps (Ce-Ce, Ce, Cello), 16-string melancholy (Bows of Blue) and driven energy (Demon Cycle). There were only two disappointments. Jeff Beal's Six Mile Creek had little more than a pleasing demeanor and new age sensibility going for it. The Schubert-lit Dance Suite for Four Cellos was obviously well crafted but uneventful. Remove the name Peter Schickele (a k a P.D.Q. Bach) from the credit and interest might wane altogether. However, the augmented chords of Mark Weber's Walking Man and George Thatcher's South African sojourn Suite for Transient Minds, whose concluding jagged lines suggest fried neurons in the Big Apple, had imaginative spark well conveyed by four cellos.

In fact, the group's scope, namely its ability to cover almost the full range of a string quartet, was showcased in excellent arrangements of some Hungarian Peasant Songs by Bartok, the Sarabande from Debussy's Pour le Piano and Barber's Adagio for Strings, presented with absolutely no trace of shrill pathos. For its encore, CELLO offered a version of the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby that gave a sense of belonging to all the lonely people.

—The Washington Post