What is all the fuss about Mason Bates? The 31-year-old DJ cum classical and electronica composer, whose works have been championed by his teacher, John Corigliano, has received both a Rome Prize and an American Academy in Berlin Prize. Even before the San Francisco Symphony followed the lead of at least eight other orchestras and awarded him a commission for next season, the California Symphony, which has an enviable track record of championing young composers and artists who go on to major careers, had selected him as its 2007-2010 Young American Composer in Residence.
Certainly Bates is a personable and charming fellow. As the third person to address the audience at California Symphony's Sunday matinee in the packed Dean Lesher Center in Concord, he carefully introduced several sections of his four-movement Music from Underground Spaces, about to receive its premiere. After each explication, he tediously made his way to the back of the players, picked up his briefcase-sized electronic pad, and proceeded to merge his electronics with the orchestra in extended examples.
[Note to the California Symphony: I understand how hard it is these days for arts organizations to muster the financial support they need. But two consecutive PR spiels (one by Barry Jekowsky tooting his own horn), followed by an extremely long composer explication, delayed the start of the program by 18 minutes. Please give us more compact presentations in the future.]
When the piece finally got going, my impression was similar to what I experienced last August at the Cabrillo Music Festival. There, conductor Marin Alsop's reading of Bates's Rusty Air in Carolina led me to comment in American Record Guide, "Beyond the charming visuals, an affable jazzy middle section, and a genial feel, the orchestral writing seemed lightweight, the themes undistinguished." Here, I had trouble staying awake.
In Bates' words, "Music from Underground Spaces marries orchestra and electronics to vividly conjure up a variety of underground worlds." The first movement, "Tunnels," "where subways roar past kaleidoscopic orchestral figuration," supposedly includes "propulsive motives and driving techno rhythms" that transition from "blurry activity to slow-motion ambience." The subsequent "Infernos" purports to feature "surreal effects ... where a demonic techno groove, paired with flickering figuration, moves the work into one hell of a nightclub."
After the "sparkling netherworld" of "Crystalline Cities," the piece ends with "Tectonic Plates," an earthquake-country-inspired finale that features "beautiful and eerie earthquake recordings" processed by Peggy Hellweg of the Berkeley Seismology Laboratory.
Jason Victor Serinus regularly reviews music and audio for Stereophile, SFCV, Classical Voice North America, AudioStream, American Record Guide, and other publications. The whistling voice of Woodstock in She’s a Good Skate, Charlie Brown, the longtime Oakland resident now resides in Port Townsend, Washington.