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CONTEMPORARY MUSIC REVIEW Clean, Solid Music February 25, 2002
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By Jules Langert
On the Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players' program last Monday, the first three pieces shared a refreshingly similar trait. They made no attempt to captivate, ingratiate, surprise or intrigue the audience. They just went their own way un-self-consciously, compositions with a kind of craftsmanlike detachment more typical of Medieval and Renaissance music than music of our time. The result was an appealing clarity and directness, unencumbered by anything designed merely "for effect."
The highlight was David Lang's Press Release (1991) for solo bass clarinet, using advanced playing techniques — a highly charged, jazz-inspired composition. The clarinet's percussive low notes were transformed into a driving, dynamic bass line, its upper tones producing urgent, bluesy sound patterns. Occasionally, isolated high notes even suggested a third voice.
One contrasting episode in Press Release comprised a group of flowing melodic ostinati. The work ended with a series of dramatic, sustained tones linked to a brief jazzy riff. It took enormous virtuosity, stamina and control from the performer Evan Ziporyn to play this and his own composition, Partial Truths, with the style and energy such difficult solo pieces needed. Ziporyn brought these off with dazzling effectiveness.
David Pereira's Here Among Shadows, for cello, piano, bass clarinet and percussion, began with a few resonant piano chords and a gentle arc of ascending notes in the other instruments. Then a loosely imitative pairing of cello and clarinet reinterpreted the rising melodic figure. An answering duet of piano and percussion added its own textural crosscurrent, the piece moving forward, expanding its scope through a calmly-purposeful flow of invention. Pereira continued to use simple if sophisticated means based on his opening material, capping a thoughtful, consistently interesting musical journey. Eric Marty's trio, If Crumble, was a very different piece. From the unusual timbres of a prepared piano to the harsh, scraping noises provided by the violin and cello, there wasn't a "normal" sound to be heard. Yet this composition too, in its steady, ongoing momentum, maintained a satisfying continuity through a series of gesturally free episodes and an exotic spectrum of sound. Ziporyn's Partial Truths for solo bass clarinet juxtaposed percussively-tongued low notes that conveyed high upper "partials," creating a kind of solo duet. To this, occasional vocal sounds were added. Though this thoughtful and ingenious piece had considerable charm and artistry, it depended on the same textural resources for too long. The crucial element of change was lacking. The program concluded on Richard Felciano's Palladio, a vibrant, colorful composition with florid soloistic writing for violin, piano and percussion. Brilliant ornamental episodes alternated with more stable melodic ones, the violin acting as a fulcrum around which the other two circulated. Pianist Karen Rosenak, violinist Terrie Baune and an unidentified percussionist were the admirable trio. (Jules Langert is a composer and teacher who resides in the East Bay.) ©2002 Jules Langert, all rights reserved |