Pierrot Throughout the World (9/22/14)

At the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, this diverse program was performed
with only tenuous connections to Pierrot. The last work on the program was
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (1912) of Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951). This was preceded by L’après-midi d’un Schoenberg (2012) by Richard Brooks (b. 1942) with libretto by Nancy Bogen (b. 1932) (World Premiere). And the concert opened with Danzón No. 2 (1994) by Arturo Márquez (b. 1950), (arr. by
Bobby Lapinski (b. 1989)). Whew! I think I’m done with diacriticals and parentheses. The entire concert was conducted by Dr. Arturo Ortega.

The tenuous connection is the “Pierrot” Consort—four singers, flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano—essentially the forces for the Brooks work. And most of the performers of the Brooks work have connections to the University of North Texas College of Music. The only connection I made with the Márquez is that Mr. Lapinski was the clarinetist in the “Pierrot” Consort. Clear as mud? Now, on to the music.

Danzón had a light tango feel, starting with piano and clarinet, then adding violin and cello, and then the flute. With all instruments playing, there was a full sound that picked up in tempo and volume. At one point the flutist doubled on piccolo, adding to the intensity. I was reminded of the tangos of Astor Piazzolla.

L’après-midi d’un Schoenberg had an interesting concept in that it took four photographs of Schoenberg and others (wife, child, two students, two unknown females) and superimposed a “what-if” scenario. The photos were presumably taken by Schoenberg’s brother, so we now have a cast of eight. As a result, our four singers represented two people each, one with props (hats, lorgnette, hair bow) and one without. An interesting concept that eventually fell a bit flat. The mix of English and German texts was OK, and the material was presented in a way that made it relatively understandable. The singing was uniformly good throughout. Overall, an OK work that I would probably not seek out again.

The same can pretty much be said for Pierrot Lunaire, a Sprechstimme song cycle of three sets of seven songs each. The singer/actress here used a more fluid (i.e., less jagged) interpretation of moving from pitch to pitch, which I found to be an improvement over other interpretations of the style that I’ve heard. I wasn’t overly impressed, but neither did I feel like sprinting from the room. Once again, I’m glad I went. I wouldn’t seek these out again, and will look more closely at ACFNY offerings before committing to attend. Hey, you can teach old ’Meisters new tricks.

ConcertMeister