Mirror Visions Ensemble (2/3/18)

Of Beasts and Brutes
Vira Slywotzky, soprano, Scott Murphree, tenor, Mischa Bouvier, baritone, Margaret Kampmeier, piano, Richard Lalli, director

This was a program that looked better on paper than the finished product did on stage. Clocking in at twenty-plus individual pieces, not every one will be spelled out. The first half of the program consisted of Older Beasts and Older Brutes. The Beasts represented were crickets, grasshopper, ant, kingfisher, guinea hen, falcon, geese, and cuckoo. As for the Brutes, there were Brutus (as in, Et tu, Brute?), Napoleon Bonaparte, and King Pompey.

In tribute to Leonard Bernstein’s centennial (born in 1918), there was a divertissement with Take Care of This House, from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and I Can Cook, Too, from On the Town. Except that I Can Cook, Too was scrapped and replaced with a Bernstein Anniversary, for solo piano.

The second half had (quel surprise) Newer Beasts and Newer Brutes. These Beasts were the American kestrel, ringtail cat, wolf, duck, pigeon, and rooster. And the Brutes were Fussy Mummy and Auntie, and dark doves. To round out the program there were Ukrainian birds: Nightingale, skylark, linnet, and cuckoo. All told, the program was a little convoluted and slightly overcrowded.

I did like the music and a few of the ideas. Early on, there were two very different settings of the exact same text—La cigale et la fourmi (The Grasshopper and the Ant)—by André Caplet (1878–1925) and Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921). The first was sung by Mr. Bouvier while the second was sung by Mr. Murphree. The concert opened, however, with a piece for solo piano, The Cricket Marries, by Béla Bartók (1888–1945), followed by a vocal trio, The Cricket, by Josquin des Prez (1450–1521). And the program was varied, with solos, duets and the occasional trio. Another trio was Et tu, Brute? by Scott Wheeler (b. 1952), which was a premiere of a commission composed for this group, with the composer in the audience. A couple of pieces toward the end of the first half were spoken texts over the music of Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) and William Walton (1902–1983) though there was some singing, too.

The second half also featured newer composers and premieres and commissions. Three from An Oman Odyssey, by Francine Trester (b. 1969), was a commission and a premiere, as was Of the Dark Doves, by Christopher Berg (b. 1949) and both composers were also in the audience. And I particularly enjoyed Three from A Nash Menagerie (The Duck, The Pigeon, The Rooster), by Richard Pearson Thomas (b. 1959), which was a commission but not a premiere. Mr. Pearson was not in attendance.

The Ukrainian Birds section featured music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1849–1893), Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857), and Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1942).

So, all in all, it was an interesting program that was nice, if slightly out of kilter from a programmatic standpoint. Still, it’s great to hear a variety of music that also includes music by living composers. The program will be reprised (though not for free) on March 12, in Greenwich Village. Once, though, was enough for me.

ConcertMeister