Easter Friday Miscellany

- David Patrick Stearns offer a substantial interview with Esa-Pekka Salonen.

- The inimitable Jeremy Denk writes about the Goldberg Variations on Deceptive Cadence.

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Here are some pictures from last week’s New York New Music Ensemble concert at Penn. The performance was superb, at times astounding. All the pieces had merit – I was especially struck by On That Swirl of Ending Dust by master of electronic media Eric Chasalow. The piece combined Eric’s exquisitely crafted electronic sounds with the live ensemble in tight synchrony. There were hints of jazz in the second movement, while the third movement was a quiet ritual, with bits of spoken text in the electronic component that made me think of a sober family gathering. Rand Steiger’s exuberant tribute to Elliott Carter, Elliott’s Instruments, enfolds fragments from an array of Carter’s own pieces. It was interesting how one could still recognize references to essentially athematic music. Yiorgos Vassilandonakis’s Quatuor pour la fin d’une ère evocatively explored liminal sounds, a dreamscape not quite in focus.  Cloud Earth by Pulitzer Prize winner Zhou Long was less densely worked than some of the other music on the program. There were imaginative textures here, as well as a little too much wood block for me.

Here are (l to r) Linda Quan, Steve Gosling, Chris Finckel and half of Jean Kopperud in rehearsal:

James Baker, Steve Gosling, Jean Kopperud, Jayn Rosenfeld, and guest artist Dave Shively (regular NYNME percussionist Daniel Druckman couldn’t make it):

and the band bowing after the show:

NYNME at Penn

Here’s the program for Wednesday night’s concert by the New York New Music Ensemble, to be held at 8:00 pm in Rose Recital Hall, located in Fisher-Bennett Hall on the Penn campus:

Rand Steiger — elliott’s instruments (2010)
Eric Chasalow — On That Swirl of Ending Dust (2012) Written for NYNME
Yiorgos Vassilandonakis — Quatuor pour la fin d’une ère (2012) Written for NYNME
Zhou Long — Cloud Earth (2012) Written for NYNME

Wail of the Voice

Lots of new music at Penn in coming weeks. Music by Penn faculty past and present will be heard on Wednesday, March 28, at a program playfully called “Wail of the Voice”, with reference to the Crumb work that will end the program, Voice of the Whale. There will be music by current faculty Anna Weesner and Jay Reise, as well as myself. The Daedalus Quartet will play Anna’s piece, Greg DeTurck will offer my Piano Variations, and there will be a piece for saxophone and piano by Jay. In addition to Greg and the Daedalus, Matt Bengtson (piano), Sam Lorber (saxophone), and Michele Kelly (flute) will also be heard. A pre-concert discussion will be at 7:00, concert at 8:00, all this in Rose Recital Hall at Fisher-Bennett Hall on the Penn campus.

One week later, April 4, same place, same time, the New York New Music Ensemble will appear. The program includes:

Rand Steiger — elliott’s instruments (2010)
Eric Chasalow — On That Swirl of Ending Dust (2012) Written for NYNME
Yiorgos Vassilandonakis — Quatuor pour la fin d’une ère (2012)  Written for NYNME
Zhou Long — Cloud Earth (2012) Written for NYNME

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Hear whales wailing here.

Soon in Philly and NYC

-The music of seven members of the Philadelphia chapter of the American Composers Forum – Efrain Amaya, Michael Djupstrom, Daniel Shapiro, Adam B. Silverman, Tony Solitro, Thomas Whitman, and Ya-Jhu Yang –  may be heard as part of a new music theater piece on the Decameron, tonight and through the weekend at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia.

- Network for New Music’s November 21 program is called Trade Winds from Tibet and presents music by Andrea Clearfield springing from her research gathering songs in Tibet; composers Eric Moe, Tony Solitro, Michael Djupstrom are also featured.

-The Contemporary Chamber Ensemble of SUNY Stony Brook presents its annual concert of premieres - Nov. 17 on campus, Nov, 18 at Merkin Concert Hall. New music by David Cutler, Leo Kraft, Laura Schwendinger, Daria Semegan and Ken Ueno.

- New York New Music Ensemble offers music of Eric Moe, Keeril Makan, Caroline Malonée, Kati Agócs, and Stephen Hartke, November 22 at Merkin.

Ritual Fragments

I’ve been enjoying a disc from a few years back featuring music of Ross Bauer and entitled Ritual Fragments. Released on Albany in 2007, the album includes five pieces from the 1990s, both vocal and instrumental. Performances are exemplary, with top soloists and ensembles: singers Christine Schadeberg and Susan Narucki, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Triple Helix (the Boston-based piano trio) and Ross’s own Empyrian Ensemble, in residence at UC Davis, where he teaches. Ross works in a post-tonal language, and the musical surface can shift rapidly, even kaleidoscopically – either via juxtaposition, or through magical transmutations smoothly shifting from one instrument to the next. But, as David Rakowski comments in his booklet notes, “there’s always a long line unfolding underneath”. I was struck by how Ross integrates motoric and non-pulsed rhythms, and admired the care with which he paces the rate of harmonic change.  The vocal pieces both set texts by indigenous peoples – Eskimos and Native Americans. Ross’s command of a wide range of mood and color lets him find apt frameworks for these varied and evocative texts. I hope more music of Ross Bauer – perhaps including some more recent pieces – finds its way to disc soon.

Mario!

I’m looking forward to the 75th birthday concert for my teacher, Mario Davidovsky, being presented by the New York New Music Ensemble at Merkin Hall in NYC, Monday November 23. NYNME’s near telepathic sense of ensemble is a perfect match for the mercurial wit and passion of Mario’s music.