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Reviews
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
All-Star Ringer
By David Bithell
Bang On a Can All-Stars
(11/5/04)
EARLY MUSIC
Wien! Wien!
CHORAL
Vocal Challenges Met
CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
By Special Arrangement
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
New Sounds From a Master
EARLY MUSIC
New Ensemble, Same Manze
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
Broad Spectrum
CHAMBER MUSIC
A Blend of Styles
RECITAL
Rare Pair
LETTER FROM BOISE
Lively Un-Dead, Far from Metro Transylvania
MUSIC NEWS
'Priceless Music' From SFCO
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Responses to Our 11/2/04 Question of the Week
By Rebekah Ahrendt
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
Janet See
(11/5/04)
By Jules Langert
Volti
(11/7/04)
By Michelle Dulak Thomson
Kremerata Baltica
Gidon Kremer
(11/6/04)
By Mark Alburger
Sacramento New American Music Festival
(11/5-6/04)
By Joseph Sargent
The English Concert
Andrew Manze
(11/7/04)
By Jonathan Russell
BluePrint Project
(11/6/04)
By David Bratman
Vilnius Quartet
(11/7/04)
By Heuwell Tircuit
Benjamin Simon
Christopher Froh
(11/5/04)
By Janos Gereben
Opera Idaho
Nosferatu
(11/6/04)
By Janos Gereben
Robert Commanday, Senior Editor
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What does it take to see what's going on new-music-wise in the Bay Area? Well, a Symphony tour and a small break in the Opera schedule make a good start, yes? Dim the sun and the moon, and you can see the stars.
Look at the reviews opposite to get some sense of what is happening here. Within a week's time we've had:
- The opening of the Sacramento New American Music Festival;
- Bang on a Can All-Stars;
- Volti's season-opening concert;
- The BluePrint Project's second program, centered on Weill but including new music as well;
- A recital by Benjamin Simon (viola) and Christopher Froh (percussion) that included a lot of new music, and indeed one premiere
Quite something, is it not? And as a matter of fact, it isn't all that unusual for the Bay Area; it's just a little more concentrated schedule-wise than it ordinarily is.
If you want new music, you might possibly get it from your local orchestra; but you are far more likely to get it from your local chamber ensemble. Orchestras do tend to prefer new music in small doses (even — well, especially — the allegedly cutting-edge San Francisco Symphony), but the main reason is that much of the best recent music is written for small ensembles.
Why? Partly, of course, because composers know that orchestras are risk-averse (they aren't "afraid of the new," per se; they just want to be sure it sells, and a whole genre of music-sure-to-sell has developed in the last decade or so; call it L'école Masterprize). Apart from a few "name" composers, who can get major-orchestra commissions here or at least copious letters of recommendation from Europe, writing for orchestra is an especially time-intensive way of not making any money.
But there's also the matter of style, and what sort of ensemble best fits it. A style that demands precision of ensemble and gesture is a perilous thing to entrust to orchestras, even the best ones, where rehearsal time is so limited and rehearsal technique so haphazard. I will never forget having played (as a member of the UC/Berkeley Symphony) the second set of performances of a work by a member of the UC/Berkeley composition faculty. The premiere had been by the San Francisco Symphony, and the set of parts we used was the set they had used. There were innumerable uncorrected errors — things that a bunch of musical amateurs could spot in a few rehearsals, but that the Symphony players hadn't corrected, possibly because they hadn't had a few rehearsals, only a run-through or two.
Well, there are musical styles that don't survive haste like that, that demand high standards of one kind or another, be it note-accuracy or ensemble precision or only a genuinely shared vibe. That is the sort of thing you get from small ensembles of long standing, or ensembles dedicated to a particular kind of music. It is difficult to inculcate such things in a rehearsal or two.
And then there is the dual search of composers for new timbres and of chamber musicians for new repertoire. You can see the results in our concert calendar. New sounds, new combinations of sounds, fascinate composers; but new uses of sounds fascinate players, and there is a symbiosis there that makes for tremendous potential for composers for small ensembles (who, unlike orchestral musicians, generally get to decide what they play). The burgeoning field of new-music-for-old-instruments is just one example of what happens when a bunch of players eager for something else to do and a bunch of composers eager for new sounds make contact. (Another vivid memory: manning a booth for a sheet-music store at the first Berkeley Early Music Festival, and watching every piece of new music for old instruments we had vanish in the first day; György Ligeti's two harpsichord pieces were snapped up instantly.)
Look at what new chamber music is being played today, and you'll find the variety quite astonishing. You want High Modernism? Minimalism? Totally-anarchic-let's-just-see-what-we-feel-like-playing-today-ism? All there. All (within reasonable limits) fun. All interesting.
(Michelle Dulak Thomson is a violinist and violist who has written about music for Strings, Stagebill, Early Music America, and The New York Times.)
©2004 Michelle Dulak Thomson, all rights reserved
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From September 1, 1998 to September 21, 2004, we have published, in addition to the Music News, feature pieces and weekly editorials 1898 reviews of Bay Area performances by: 50 symphony orchestras (409 reviews), 78 chamber groups (220), 33 new music ensembles and programs (201), 36 opera companies (257), 26 choral groups (122), 15 music festivals (85), 32 early music ensembles (140), 21 chamber orchestras (81), 6 musical theater groups (14), world music (14), recitals (333), youth music (10), Other (12).
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