CONTEMPORARY MUSIC REVIEW: New Music That Sings and Dances By Benjamin Frandzel (Adesso Ensemble, SF Opera percussionist Rick Kvistad, April 6, 2001)

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC REVIEW New Music
That Sings and Dances

April 6, 2001

By Benjamin Frandzel

Bay Area concerts of new music tend to be presented with a variety of attitudes, from solemn to hip. But it's rare when new music is offered to an audience simply as straightforward fun, and even celebratory at that. This was the case with the Adesso Ensemble's annual concert at Old First Church, a relaxed, informal romp through music that was both challenging and direct, led by SF Opera percussionist Rick Kvistad.

With the emphasis on voice and percussion, I was reminded of featured composer Lou Harrison's admonition that music is essentially "song and dance" — melody and rhythm, both of which were heard in great abundance Friday night. The program featured works for varied combinations of percussion, piano, strings, voice, and, in the evening's second half, women's chorus, many of the pieces influenced by traditions from outside the West.

One highlight was the virtuosic marimba work of Luanne Warner, showcased in Minoru Miki's Marimba Spiritual. Essentially a 16-minute concerto for marimba and three percussionists, the piece is a tour de force for the soloist. Warner made the most of its fireworks, while also shaping the music's expressive content with unfailing care and nuance. Kvistad, Allen Biggs, and John Burgardt brought precision and high energy to the accompanying percussion. The resonant acoustics of Old First Church were an added benefit in both the work's meditative first half and its raucous conclusion.

Clear, Plaintive Singing

Two works for soprano by percussionist-composers also stood out. Bob Becker's Cryin' Time mixed hypnotically repeating marimba ostinatos with rich, jazzy chords in the piano and vibes. Catherine Seidel's clear, plaintive singing was ideal for the work's mysterious mood.

Kvistad's own Monument, with a poem by Adesso cellist Victoria Ehrlich, took a different approach, its sparse, shifting orchestration of viola, cello, and percussion highlighting the pensive text and the lyrical vocal lines. Seidel matched the eloquent simplicity of the writing with an understated approach, minimizing vibrato and subtly building an affecting interpretation.

Adesso began the evening with the premiere of Shinji Eshima's Generations, a lovely and rather nostalgic work for piano, vibes, marimba, and glockenspiel, with a surprise entrance from the chorus at the work's very end. Framed by two gathas, or Buddhist hymns, the work develops through the juxtaposition of several toccata-like patterns, gaining its most intriguing moments from the layering of several metric patterns moving toward resolution.

A Political Pantomime

Michael Gandolfi's Budget Cuts rounded out the first half, ably played by Ehrlich, Kvistad, Burgardt, and the composer's sister, pianist Josephine Gandolfi. Depicting the expected effects of NEA budget cuts, the piece repeats a simple theme incessantly, with subtle variations, until, one by one, the players give up and disappear. The ensemble added an open violin case center stage and even drew a few tips. Although I enjoyed the theatrical touches, there's still a little too much invention in the music for it to make its point convincingly. It just wasn't terrible enough.

The Peninsula Women's Chorus, led by longtime director Patty Hennings, began the concert's second half with a lovely rendition of "Here Is Holiness," from Lou Harrison's Four Strict Songs. The ensemble maintained the sweet intonation that makes this heartfelt work most beautiful, and in this version it gained a gentler tone than its original, more declamatory version for eight baritones.

Two Sides of Libby Larsen

Two works by Libby Larsen showed different sides of this composer. Her Psalm 121 was typical of many works in her abundant catalog — tuneful, skillfully written, and effective but without many surprises. I, Just Lightning, which adapts a chant from the mushroom ceremony of the Mazatec Indians of Mexico, is an entirely different sort of piece, more adventurous and more memorable. The chorus really seemed to relish the challenges of this more contemporary piece, and Larsen achieved some genuinely hallucinatory effects by combining ringing chimes with rapid, staggered entrances of singers opening and closing vocal cavities, reminiscent of Meredith Monk.

The entire Adesso ensemble returned to add percussion to a rousing finale, the traditional South African hymn Nginani na, a culmination of the high energy and positive spirit of the entire evening.

(Benjamin Frandzel is a Bay Area musician and writer. In addition to writing concert music, he has collaborated with dance, theater, and visual artists, and has written about music for many publications and musical organizations. He is currently a graduate student in composition at San Francisco State University.)