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By Ann Hicks, Arts Writer
Greenville News original
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Fun night out with eighth blackbird
The extraordinary young sextet “eighth blackbird” made its first
appearance in Greenville on Wednesday night, and proved just how much fun
modern music-making can be.
They hand-slapped tafelmusik, jauntily swapped phrases, conjured weird notes
and rhythmically bounced all around the stage emitting a kaleidoscope of
sounds.
You couldn’t help but grin watching the uninhibited choreography that
underscored the sextet’s superb technical and interpretive skills.
The members of this terrific ensemble are Molly Alicia Barth on flute and
piccolo, Matt Albert on violin and viola, Matthew Duvall on percussion, Lisa
Kaplan on piano, Michael J. Maccaferri on clarinets and Nicholas Photinos
on cello.
Their eclectic concert, co-presented by the Peace Center and the International
Chamber Music Series, introduced the works of seven composers ranging in
age from 23 to 67.
The first three works — all written for the sextet — opened
with Dereck Bermel’s two-movement “Tied Shifts.” The odd
metered composition allowed for some fascinating conversation between Barth’s
unerring flute and Albert’s ringing violin.
The other two works included the eerily urgent “Inescapable” by
Ashley Fure and Marcus Maloney’s obsessive “Rhythms.”
They concluded the first half of the concert with Frederick Rzewski’s
comical “Les Moutons de Panurge,” a work constructed of only
65 notes to be performed first by adding them up one note at a time, then
subtracting them in reverse.
The first work after intermission, Thierry de Mey’s “Musique
de Tables,” became the highlight of the concert as Kaplan, Duvall and
Albert did a six-hand ballet on tabletops with fists, fingertips, knuckles
and nails.
Fred Lerdahl’s rhythmic “Fantasy Etudes” and Jennifer
Higdon’s bouncy “Zango Bandango” concluded the evening.
Copyright 2005 Greenville
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