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CONTEMPORARY MUSIC REVIEW
San Francisco Conservatory
February 24, 2007
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A Composer With a Vernacular Voice By Mark Alburger
First there was Schumann’s "Hat's off gentlemen, a genius," in reference to the young Chopin. Then there was "Keep your hats on gentlemen, an idiot," bestowed on the fictional P.D.Q. Bach. Jonathan Russell, whose dynamic music was heard on Saturday at the beautiful Recital Hall in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's impressive new Oak Street home, is close to deserving Schumann’s word. He enlisted many of SFCM’s talented students as well as other first-rate performers in a heartening evening of new compositions.
Russell’s is a welcome new voice in Bay Area music. He has been "focused on integrating … vernacular music of various sorts and minimalism" into his compositions. As a single-reed performer of note, Russell's music is, like many composer-instrumentalists, informed by his hands-on experience, in terms of timbres and virtuosity.
He began the recital in home territory (so to speak) with a sensitive, yet pugnacious duet titled ...and the Beast... (2006), in which he was joined by fellow bass clarinetist Jeff Anderle, the two calling themselves the Sqwonk Duo. Through five motivically linked movements, Russell found the beauty in the Beast, as well as the malevolence and passion, in an essay that evoked the mysteries of John Gardner's "Grendel" and other beasties. The interest in perfectly tuned intervals of the fifth reflected at once a minimalist (La Monte Young, Philip Glass) and medieval influence.
Three Lonely Piano Pieces (2006) ushered in the highlight of the evening's enterprise, Technobabble (2007), one of the finest Pierrot-ensemble-and-percussion pieces that I have heard in quite some time. The composer largely succeeds in his aim to combine "Latin American dance music, techno dance music, and minimalist textures" in the first movement. This is large-scale, ambitious music that pleases and finds a balance that neither trivializes nor de-vitalizes its various influences. Commendations are due all around, first to flutist Laura Snodgrass (as "our lady of perpetual dancing motion," in the third movement), and then to clarinetist Anderle (who was given the most distinctive and knowing colors), percussionist Erika Johnson (who proved equally adept at trap set and mallets), and violinist Claude Halter, cellist Hannah Addario-Berry, and pianist Kate Campbell for overall excellence. Russell proved a capable conductor of his work, and I look forward to his future activities in this arena, as well. Runion (2006) was another basso single-reed outing, which upped the ante by employing four bass clarinetists. The ensemble that played it is known as the Edmund Welles Bass Clarinet Quartet, and consists of group founder Cornelius Boots, plus Aaron Novick, Anderle, and the composer. They evinced the kind of ensemble tightness that comes from many happy hours in consort. Runion rollicked and burped its way through a variety of territories, yet it opened and closed with the sustained beauty of a chorale derived from the music of Charles Mingus. J.S. Bach smiled gently over it all, despite a title derived from a melding of "red onions" and "Rumpelstiltskin." "Reunion" and "rutting" also came to mind.
The second half of the program was given over to Night Songs (2007), which, despite the title and the Federico Garcia Lorca settings, called to mind not so much Bartók and George Crumb, but Russell's own alternative musical universe. Starting up, and often continuing, appropriately enough, in the dark, this dramatic piece called for committed performers, requiring memorized music and hazardous processions in a half-lit hall. It is perhaps a piece only its composer could pull off, being a rather heterogeneous collection of his various ensemble enthusiasms: the Edmund Welles Quartet, a rock group called Oogog (Russell's alto sax, joined by electric guitarist Ryan Brown, pianist Josh Campbell, and electric bassist Damon Waitkus), Duo Fuoco (flutist Snodgrass and guitarist Jacob Kramer), new-music experts Eric Carter (baritone), Kelcey Gavaar (contralto), Johnson (percussion), and a string quartet, consisting of Halter, Nicola Drake (violin), Matthew Davies (viola), and Addario Berry (cello), all conducted, at times, by Joseph Gregorio. If the piece didn't really add up, perhaps it wasn't supposed to. The drama of the differently placed ensemble members (Edmund Welles initially in the balcony, for instance) was intriguing. The opening "Prelude/Chant" was especially evocative. Various groups were set against each other, but even more convincing were the more heterophonous moments, where virtually the entire ensemble was allowed to soar or shriek. The composer stayed one step ahead of his listeners, setting up delightful surprises and thwarting expectations. It was an enlightening evening, and I look forward to many more works from this fine young composer.
(Mark Alburger is an award-winning ASCAP composer of concert music published by New Music, editor-publisher of 21st-Century Music Journal, oboist, pianist, vocalist, and music critic.)
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