San Francisco Classical Voice original link

Making a Strong Case

If all new music had advocates as enthusiastic and dedicated as Eighth Blackbird, perhaps there would be no need to worry about audience apathy. In their concert last Friday in Kanbar Hall at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center, the group showed a level of energy, virtuosity, and hard work that made me wish I did not expect less at a new-music concert.

The ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello, piano, and percussion) produced for San Francisco Performances a concert of four recent works and two standards ca. 1970. As if to say, "This isn't your grandma's new music," they appeared in colorful, shiny, and tight-fitting outfits, played nearly the entire program from memory, played standing whenever possible. Keeping eye contact and making body gestures, they had a degree of engagement among the performers more often found in a string quartet. The energy was infectious.

The group's dynamic unity led to an outstanding rendering of George Perle's Critical Moments 2 of 2001, written for the group. The nine short movements supplement a similar set Perle wrote in 1995-96. His approach differs from that for a traditional miniature, which focuses on a single texture or affect. Instead, as the title suggests, each movement explores the interaction of a small group of contrasting gestures. These include tutti rhythmic arpeggios, Klangfarben (tone-color) lines passed between the players, and isolated solo interjections. Within each movement, irregularly-repeating rhythmic cells brought different elements into shifting relationships.

Perle's dry wit was frequently evident. Conclusions to several movements were cut off in mid-sentence. There were humorously-isolated Snare Drum rolls in number V, and even a surprise triad in number IV. The ensemble navigated Perle's elegantly-shifting orchestration with perfect coordination as they tossed phrases from one player to another.

Another gem was Kaija Saariaho's Cendres (1998) for alto flute, cello and piano. Rather than pursuing traditional thematic development, the distinguished Finnish-French composer draws the listener's attention to the beautifully-crafted, evolving tone-colors of the three instruments as they play with a range of standard and extended techniques. From the opening gesture, in which soft pizzicato morphs into a cello harmonic trill molto sul ponticello and back to a soft tremolo, the ensemble sculpted composite timbres with great care. Cellist Nicholas Photinos was outstanding for his exquisite precision producing the flickering sonorities.

The ensemble's penchant for theatrical gesture lent itself to George Crumb's Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale) for amplified flute, cello, and piano. Following the composer's directions, the players wore black masks and the stage was lit in dim blue. Crumb's special effects may have begun to wear thin since 1971, but the players did achieve a strong theatrical presence, creating an aura of dark mystery even in the silent spacing. Molly Alicia Barth's evocation of the humpback whale with impassioned vocalization into the flute was impressive. Pianist Lisa Kaplan's gentle touch on the keys and piano strings contributed to the sensitive blend of live and amplified sound.

Commentary

At several times during the concert, the performers spoke from the stage, and this helped them set up Frederick Rzewski's Les Moutons de Panurge. Whether or not the polished musical demonstration helped the audience to understand how the group realized the piece, their pleasure in the performance was projected. They began the piece with deadpan mechanical manner well-suited to the note of social commentary in the work of 1969. However, Rzewski's spare, one-line score, written for any number of musicians and non-musicians, simply indicates that the players should always play loud. Eighth Blackbird’s introduction of a variety of dynamics, articulation, and rhythm of their own was out of character.

Opening the program, Jennifer Higdon's Zaka (2003) took advantage of the ensemble's impressive palette of extended tone-colors, including flute tongue rams, slaps on the barrel of the clarinet, and muted notes and pizzicati in the piano. I have never before seen a pianist navigate the outside and inside of the piano with Lisa Kaplan's finesse and seeming ease.

The evening closed on the U.S. premiere of Derek Bermel's Tied Shifts (2004). The work drew on Bulgarian folk music to produce long, ornamented melodies in rich parallel harmonizations. In both the Higdon and Bermel works, the opening pulse gave way to a more lyrical modal or tonal section, followed by a gradual return of the opening material. Both works were marked by an unrelenting motoric drive and might have benefited from a wider variety of tempi.

(Aaron Einbond is a Ph.D. student in music composition at the University of California Berkeley.)

©2005 Aaron Einbond, all rights reserved