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CONTEMPORARY MUSIC REVIEW
Serious Eclecticism
October 4, 2001
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By Benjamin Frandzel
The Paul Dresher Ensemble kicked off a three-night stand at San Francisco's ODC Theater last Thursday night with a program of premieres and recent works, presented with this ensemble's typical precision and energy. Dresher, quite busy as guitarist, artistic
director, and featured composer, offered a diverse trio of fellow composers the chance to work with this well-rehearsed ensemble, and the results pointed to both the possibilities and pitfalls offered by his unique ensemble and its musical approach.
Dresher has been a pioneer in the ongoing dialogue between contemporary classical music and rock. With the entire ensemble amplified and often processed, some traditional aspects of composition like dynamics are harder to work with, and the energetic approach borrowed form the rock world sometimes seems to be offered as a substitute for greater compositional invention or depth. Both the eclectic ideas of the
evening's composers and the varied level of success in their work suggest the potential for this ensemble of bass clarinet, bassoon, violin, electric guitar and keyboards, and electronic mallet percussion and drum kit, and the need to maintain compositional integrity
despite the excitement over the ensemble's novel possibilities.
The evening's most substantial work came in its second half, wholly devoted to Terry Riley's Banana Humberto 2000: Concerto for Piano and Electro-Acoustic Band,
with the composer as soloist. Banana Humberto, Riley's too-elaborate-to-summarize program note explained, is "a friendly, smiling, kind-hearted man of wisdom, living a simple life in a handmade shack in the tropics," and the four-movement work's wide range
of moods and styles suggested an almost picaresque portrait.
Riley, in fine form at the piano, delved into his jazz background for much of the piece, and freely mixed ragtime, stride, blues, and a more modern harmonic palette, and expanded his bag of tricks to include some Latin touches as well. It was a pleasure to hear Riley's imaginative freedom driving much of the piece, but he also had a tendency to rely on static vamping passages at various points, a technique that couldn't help but seem lame pressed up against such gloriously free music-making. Still, the ensemble seemed a little looser and more relaxed in this work, and violinist Tracy Silverman and bassoonist Paul Hanson made the most of their spots as featured soloists. Dresher also programmed a fine work of his own, his Concerto for Violin and Electro-Acoustic Band, from 1996-97, featuring Silverman as soloist in a sensitive and carefully-shaped performance. The piece is made up of two long and essentially independent movements, and although I found the slow second movement eventually became a bit mired in gradually varied repetitions, the faster first movement, with its intricate web of rhythms and well-chosen samples of prepared piano timbres, was a strong and very compelling work. Lois V. Vierk's Deep-water Waves, in its world premiere, proved to be a bit too much of a good thing. The work's slow beginning was inventive and lovely, with sparse electric guitar and violin glissandi moving in opposite directions, supported by sampled acoustic guitar and harpsichord-like timbres. The long buildup that followed, into the full ensemble playing slightly varied, telegraphic rhythms against each other in shifting counterpoint, had plenty of exciting moments, but its length wasn't fully supported by the rather limited content of the motives being traded around the ensemble. Although I've heard better work from Vierk than this piece, Dresher deserves thanks for highlighting an original composer who is very active on the East Coast but rarely heard in the Bay Area. The ensemble's precise interplay in this work was especially fine. The evening also included the premiere of Martin Bresnick's Fantasia on a Theme of Willie Dixon, for the ensemble and piano soloist Lisa Moore, from the Bang on a Can All-Stars. The theme in question is theriff from Dixon's song "Spoonful," but Bresnick's piece was based on the heavy blues-rock version recorded by Cream in the late '60s. Despite another tight, committed performance from the ensemble and Moore's skill with the work's virtuoso flourishes, it's hard to find a real artistic necessity behind the writing of this piece. More or less a reorchestration of the Cream version with some short variations and soloistic piano passages added, this work doesn't really add to the self-contained strength of the tune itself or go deeper than its later psychedelic transformation. (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.) ©2001 Benjamin Frandzel, all rights reserved |