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CONTEMPORARY MUSIC REVIEW
January 31, 2006
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By Jules Langert
Composers, Inc. has a history of inviting prominent ensembles from
outside the area to perform at its concerts. On Tuesday evening's program
the visiting Los Angeles Flute Quartet played three works, beginning with Up
in the Air, written for them last year by Composers Inc.'s Jeffrey Miller.
It is an attractive piece, starting with the low, tentative oscillation of
major seconds, and then blossoming into rising figures and high, syncopated
sonorities which develop and solidify before returning briefly to the
opening mood. It provided a good introduction to the rich, mellow sound of
the quartet, who returned later to play the last two works of the evening.
Martin Rokeach's Sleepless Night, for violin, cello, flute, and guitar, was the
most interesting and original composition on the program. A restless, syncopated
ostinato for the guitar is the kernel of the piece, amplified by urgent pizzicatos and
strumming by the strings; in this section the flute contributes a low wailing sound.
When the texture dies down, a slow wavering melodic fragment based on the ostinato
emerges in the flute, with violin harmonics adding an eerie upper overtone. A
shortened return to the earlier material ends the work, which is a kind of fretful
"night music" of memorable effectiveness.
Daniel David Feinsmith's Self sets an excerpt from Emerson's Transcendentalist essay of 1844, The Poet, for pianist/speaker, in a kind of post-Ivesian manner. Between episodes of a demanding piano part, the performer declaims about "the intellectual man" being "caught into the life of the Universe" ... "and suffering the ethereal tides to roll and circulate through him." Somehow it all seemed bracing and refreshing, because pianist Sarah Cahill delivered the lines with convincing naturalness and a purposeful sense of the text's meaning, while playing with real conviction and commitment. Anything less could have edged the performance toward embarrassing pomposity or parody. The largest, most elaborate piece was Stephen Gryc's Dances and Nocturnes (1989-90) in seven movements, for violin, viola, cello, and piano, performed admirably Tuesday by the California Quartet. In a pre-performance statement, the composer acknowledged his debt to Bartók in this work. Indeed there is a significant influence, from the syncopated ostinatos to the cast of Gryc's modal melodic writing to some of the textures, but these affinities have been assimilated into Gryc's own style and should cause him no regrets. Nocturnes and Dances is the assured product of a highly developed musical technique and was a pleasure to hear. When the L.A. Flute Quartet returned, it was with Chovihano (Gypsy Healer) by Christopher Caliendo, a work of lyrical, sweeping legato shapes in which the quartet, topped by a piccolo, seems to rise and fall on waves of sound. The music's modal underpinning brought out its sensuous gypsy flavor, enhancing the hypnotic, trance-like flow of its melodic motion. The final work was Bioplasm, by Los Angeles composer Alex Shapiro, which flirts with theatricality and runs an eclectic gamut of styles, beginning with the pseudo-ritualistic entry of the quartet onto the stage, rhythmically clicking the keys of their instruments and blowing short, sharp breaths into the finger-holes. Later, there are passages that seem to evoke a more "tropical" mood and one episode of vocalizing along with the sound of the flutes, before the quasi-Andean music of the opening returns. This piece was a particular favorite, receiving strong gusts of applause and even shouts of approval. As such, it was a well chosen finale, sending the audience home in an elated mood.
(Jules Langert is a composer and teacher who resides in the East Bay.)
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