 May 14, 2004A Transplanted Music Festival Keeps Its Spirit of Adventure
The Wednesday evening installment put the spotlight on a chamber group dedicated to new music, counter)induction, that has given some superb performances in the last few seasons. The group favors the thornier side of contemporary language, and its players have the technique to do so deftly. More important, they are sufficiently sensitive to this difficult musical language to project its emotional core with the clarity necessary to make it speak to a listener. The most affecting piece on the group's program was Eric Morin's "Elegy (In Memoriam Michael J. Baker)," a slow-moving but highly charged score for string quartet and solo viola. Elegies are often melodic and bittersweet. Mr. Morin's was a snapshot of loss and pain. It wasn't until nearly the end of the work that the solo viola line, played by Steffanie Griffin, was able to sing freely and plaintively on its own. Until then, it climbed tentatively out of the quartet section, which was nearly static for the first part of the work, and increasingly agitated. The piece was so wrenching, in fact, that it wasn't until after it was over and the emotional grip released that a listener realized that in purely musical terms, not a lot happened. Sometimes, though, a great deal happens, but much less is said. Johan Tallgren's "Quatour à Royaumont" had so much going on that even though the scoring was spare — counter)induction's basic lineup of violin, cello, piano and clarinet — it required a conductor. The instrumental lines darted about in the way that academic post-tonal works often do, but beyond the virtuosity evident in both the writing and the playing, it did not convey a lot. Salvatore Sciarrino, whose "Centauro Marino" was also on the program, comes from a harmonic universe not very distant from Mr. Tallgren's, but his work was couched in more vividly dramatic terms. Kyle Bartlett also veers away from tonality in her music, but she focuses the listener's attention on other things, including process. In "The Weight of a Reflection," the process was a kind of mirror imagery. The first part of the work was so gentle as to be nearly inaudible at times; the second half was brusquely assertive. Anna Weesner was also concerned with textural change, but she took a different approach in her "Dance of Light and Stone," a trio for violin, clarinet and piano that was built on an interplay of swirling textures. The able players who make up counter)induction are Blair McMillen, pianist; Asmira Woodward-Page, violinist; Jessica Meyer, violist; Sumire Kudo, cellist; and Benjamin Fingland, clarinetist. Matthew Cody conducted Mr. Tallgren's work, and Yonah Zur joined the ensemble on violin in Mr. Morin's "Elegy." |
he Mata Festival, once presented at the Anthology Film Archives
(the name is an acronym for Music at the Anthology), has migrated from the
East Village to Chelsea, but its freewheeling spirit has remained intact.
This year's programs, which run through tomorrow, include 16 premieres for
forces ranging from mechanical and electronic instruments to a cello duet,
various chamber configurations and a choir.