Sextet seems almost superhuman

If the genome code someday becomes the basis for understanding and judging adventurous ensembles, musicians and listeners will pay particular attention to the lines and bars that define Eighth Blackbird. This sextet, which played its local debut Thursday at the Perelman Theater in the Kimmel Center's Fresh Ink series of contemporary music, appears to have coding fit for some future generation of musicians: players with extra fingers, added layers of metrical understanding, and hearing mechanisms that allow understanding of simultaneous differences in pitch.

And an extra blip - where is it in the code? - also sends the six into flights of notes that evince real pleasure, infectious pleasure, something often lacking in concerts of new music.

Their program, mainly of pieces composed (or imagined) for them in this century, included premieres of works by two Philadelphians - David Ludwig's Haiku Catharsis and the local premiere of Jennifer Higdon's Zaka - and pieces by George Perle and David Gordon. Reaching into the past, the group also played Kaiia Saariaho's Cendres (from 1998), and one nearly baroque work, Frederick Rzewski's Les Moutons de Panurge (from 1969).

Ferocious energy colored by theatrical turns marks the ensemble's approach. Its composers exploit that, asking intense rhythmical joining among flute and clarinet, cello and violin, piano and percussion. Ludwig offered a softly transparent, but no less intricate, set of intimate scenes. Molly Alicia Barth's alto flute proposed the mood; distant bass chimes and shadowy string sounds shaped the succinct scenes. The players moved about, facing each other, violinist Matt Albert kneeling, and at one point all facing cellist Nicholas Photinos. Like a haiku, the piece ended in intense quiet, a metallic chime just audible.

Higdon's music burst out of the gate, all smiles. Pianist Lisa Kaplan sounded the first note inside the piano, and the race was on, the flute whooshing, percussion leading with rhythmic twists and turns that never were predictable. The sudden lyrical middle section, full of shifting, light sonorities, provided breathing room before the ensemble sprinted to the end.

George Perle gave the group music of Webern-like brevity, but rich and light. Saariaho, writing for piano, cello and flute, built a sense of intimacy in instrumental groupings that belied the complexity of the writing.

It was Rzewski's old-time religion of chance happenings that brought laughter to the concert. He proposed a 65-note tune played in unison at top speed. Each time the ensemble returned to the theme, it started one note later. Since even these players can blink, the slight missteps and out-of-sync playing produced unplanned canons and a growing sense of derring-do.

David Gordon's Dramamine was a galloping show-closer. Relentless tempo and shifting meters, quarter-tone flights, percussion eloquence from the prepared piano and Matthew Duvall's array of drums and mallet instruments pressed the playing and the players to what seemed a precipice of sound and gaiety.

Clearing the Record

A review of a concert by Eighth Blackbird that appeared in Saturday's Inquirer stated that the Thursday Kimmel Center performance was the group's local debut. Penn Presents presented Eighth Blackbird on Jan. 11, 2002, and again Jan. 24, 2003, at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

Copyright 2004 Philadephia Inquirer