San Francisco Classical Voice

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC REVIEW

Engaging Sounds

January 23, 2005

Christine Brandes

Richard Festinger

Laurie San Martin

By Miguel Galperin

A concert dedicated to Northern California's new music was beginning on Sunday, and the Empyrean Ensemble's Tod Brody calmly walked with his flute to the center of the Studio Theater stage at the Mondavi Center, Davis. A stand and microphone awaited the opening of Mathematica, a piece for flute and quadraphonic tape by Ed Campion. Interestingly, however, the music had already begun, as this fascinating piece begins musically and dramatically in medias res, in the middle. So, as Brody worked his way through the stage, Campion's tape smoothly surrounded the audience with a pulsating blanket of sound that occupied every corner of this small hall, as if the music had always been there. Such was the unusual beginning of an enthralling evening.

Once Brody had reached the center of the stage, Mathematica presented the flute seamlessly joining the tape's texture by sounding long notes in the low register and forming generally directionless, somewhat atmospheric, phrases. But as this first section evolved it became clear that the idea behind the piece's beginning responded to a careful large-scale plan: the flute began to break away from the electronic sound-environment and ventured into much higher and agitated gesturing. As it did so, a musical dialogue was clearly put in place and, with it, the clarification of the work's unique start. That is, as Campion's work established its “about” as that of a dialogue between a “subject” (the flute) and an “environment” (the tape's ambient textures), the in medias res beginning was illuminated by the light of meaning: just as conversations commonly start without much introduction or preparation so did Mathematica, a piece about dialogues.

Clearly, then, and from the very onset of the piece, imagination played a big role in my experience of it: I had to imagine that it had already begun, and as the work evolved I was also “forced” to imagine a very specific type of dialogue. In short, I think this piece's value rested in its evocative powers and that it worked particularly well because it was the first piece of the night. I didn't think Mathematica was a very solid piece formally (the ending, especially, seemed very prosaic, almost sounding Hollywoodesque in its simplicity) but it certainly was very imaginative. The roles were “acted” perfectly, with the tape playing a veritable counterpart to Brody's superb playing. Technically, that is very difficult to do technically when a computer is responding in “real time” to a live performer.

Felicitous setting

Another of the creative pieces of the program was a setting of Rilke poems by long-time Bay Area resident Eric Moe (Earplay, this venerable “new music” institution, was partly created by Moe, who now lives and teaches in Pittsburgh and New York). If Campion's piece had a good beginning, the striking moment in Moe's Sonnets to Orpheus, which featured soprano Christine Brandes and guest conductor Karla Lemon, was its ending. Not that the close was the only engaging moment of this ambitiously long piece (it occupied the entire second half of the concert); but as it wound down here, the expressive slowness of the music empathized Rilke's dark words superbly. And the very last gesture of the piece (a quick and large leap by Brandes into her extreme high register) was especially intriguing. It seemed to symbolize a final passing into the delirious Nacht that Rilke's poem suggested all along.

Even being satisfied with what came out as a precise interpretation, I would briefly note an aspect of the vocal rendition of Moe's piece. Periodically, Brandes would simply look at the audience, or let her body express the vibrant rhythms of the music, and at those times, her body and facial expressions became part of her uniquely gifted voice. As that happened, a welcome dimension was opened in the music. Suddenly I felt that I was not just experiencing a serious and correct reading of Moe's work but was being immersed into a poetic world with a potential that the rest of the interpretation didn't explore. Perhaps certain areas of Rilke's text resonated more easily to Brandes than others (that would only be natural considering the nature of Rilke's aesthetics); but in the overall effect of the work, I didn't see a reason not to explore more involved modes of interpretation.

The rest of the evening was successfully divided between two other interesting works, a proof of the care with which the Empyrean Ensemble are designing their programs of late. Laurie San Martin's L“nea Negra, for solo marimba, a collection of imaginative small sections that account for five minutes of pure vibrancy in a solid overall design, was fantastically played by Chris Froh, who is quickly becoming an essential part of the bay area new music scene. His performance (from memory) of this technically demanding work partly explained why: his playing was intense, precise and expressive, and Mr. Froh seemed to enjoy every single (and incredibly fast) note of it.

Completing the evening, the unusually small audience was exposed to a world-premiere by Richard Festinger, Laws of Motion. The work features another of Empyrean extraordinaires, cellist Thalia Moore. Interestingly, Festinger did not set out to create a chamber concerto. Rather, the overall plan of his complex opus calls for the cello engaging each of the other members of the quintet (viola, clarinet, flute and piano) in a series of duos. What most attracted me, beyond the general lyrical vein of the work and the virtuoso writing for the cello, had to do with how the musical story was able to link the different duos convincingly. In this sense Feistinger's piece was particularly satisfying. It always seemed driven by a clear narrative force. I particularly enjoyed an energetic cantabile duo that Thalia Moore and Ellen Ruth Rose, on viola, shared as the piece reached a climactic point.