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CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
March 5, 2006
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By Aaron Einbond
The audience filling Hertz Hall in Berkeley Sunday afternoon was not there to see a famous soloist play Chopin, nor a jazz ensemble play the standards. They came to see the young new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound perform the music of John Adams. The 20-member ensemble comprising recent graduates of the Eastman School of Music looked like they were enjoying what they were doing, and the audience did too. Cal Performances presented the concert in conjunction with Miller Theater at Columbia University in New York as part of both institutions' Composer Portrait series.
In the last five years Alarm Will Sound has established itself as one of a handful of ensembles advocating a hipper approach to new music. They play standing up, and when not playing members swing to the beat in support of their colleagues. Conductor and artistic director Alan Pierson tries to foster a rock-band-like feel in the group, which goes well with the electric guitar, bass, keyboards, and drum kit on stage. Their dedication of time and energy to the music they play is admirable and infectious. Their talents could be used to lead audiences to a wide range of exciting current music.
But on Sunday they presented music that was probably well-known to most listeners present: that of Berkeley composer John Adams. The works spanned his career, from China Gates (1977), one of the works with which he first established his voice and reputation, to the autobiographical Gnarly Buttons (1996). But the most striking work on the program was the Chamber Symphony, which inspired the group's most sparkling and intense performance. The reference to Schoenberg in the work's title is intentional and musical: The instrumentation is similar to the great work of 1909, and like Schoenberg, Adams does a good job of balancing quick turns and symphonic force. As the work opens, colorfully chromatic wind arpeggios cascade over a relentless cowbell pulse of which Arnold, of course, would not approve.
The second movement “Aria with walking bass” was delivered with good humor by Kate White, but it never lasted long before being overcome by swarms of scales and motor rhythms. It is as if Adams initially resolved to write a cantabile melody but realized in the middle of it that he really much preferred post-minimal pulses. In the third movement the rhythmic drive is undivided, as fragmentary Stravinskyan wind motives are pitted against Wild-West parallel string chords. The cowbell returns, this time as a reference to the cartoon music of the movement's title: “Roadrunner.” The arpeggios from the work's opening gradually reemerge, building to a noisy and energetic conclusion that sent the audience to its feet in a standing ovation to conclude the concert. Adams' works for chamber ensemble portray him in his best light. The ensemble writing of Gnarly Buttons is especially effective, with banjo and acoustic guitar blending into textures that also include cheesy yet tasty electric keyboard. The humor goes overboard with the electric “moo” in the second movement. But the soap-opera piano chords of the third movement succeed in their self-conscious reference to American kitsch. Adams' father and Adams himself are clarinetists; however, the monotonous arpeggios of the solo part were tiring despite soloist Bill Kalinkos's best efforts to infuse them with sensitivity. His perseverance earned cheers and hoots from the audience. Pianist John Orfe's arrangement of Short Ride in a Fast Machine was more effective than the cluttered orchestration of the original. The piano version had a terrifying uniformity that complemented its newscast harmonies, and Orfe's deadpan yet virtuosic delivery elicited not only hoots but screams. His lovely performance of China Gates was a welcome look to where John Adams had come from before adding the “post” to his brand of minimalism.
An excerpt from Hoodoo Zephyr was also an Alarm original: an arrangement of Adams's electronic piece by violinist Caleb Burhans. Perhaps it is not surprising, given how well Burhans knows the ensemble, that this was the most colorful orchestration of all, utilizing vibes, marimba, electric keyboard, and piano to create an eerie 1980s-themed texture, complete with a flashy violin part for himself. Adams's own take on the electrified band was not as successful in Scratchband, where the noodling acoustic wind figures could never quite compete with the punchy electric bassline. But shouldn't a “Composer Portrait” expose listeners to someone who cannot already be found on the Bay Area's symphonic, chamber, and opera programs every season? Do we need a talented East Coast group to travel all the way to Berkeley to play music from down the block? The series at Miller Theater has done an excellent job of exploring personalities that are not already so well known, such as Benedict Mason and Olga Neuwirth. The next time Cal Performances invests in bringing a group from so far away, let us hope that they bring some fresh and unfamiliar music with them.
(Aaron Einbond is a Ph.D. candidate in music composition at UC Berkeley.)
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