Global Rhythms with Alexander A. Wu (Piano)

Wow. Where to begin? I know that I’ve blogged about Alex Wu  before. The 10/13/12 concert was not quite a lecture/concert performance, although Mr. Wu did speak about most of the pieces, and that added quite a bit of depth to the afternoon and to the performances. There were 17 pieces on the program—while I made notes for all, they might not all get full development here.

Global? Yes. USA, Dominican Republic, Canada, Brazil, China, Mexico, Japan, Italy, and France. Rhythm? Yes. Jazz, Tango, Samba, Ragtime.

We started out with a pleasant, light, almost “easy listening pop” Valentine by Fred Hersh (USA). My next favorite was Malgré Tout, (Mexico, Manuel Ponce). This piece (“after all” or “all the same”) was composed for left hand only, in honor of the sculptor who, one-handed, created a sculpture by the same name. I learn so much exploring NYC.

Argentina—Piazzolla—nuevo tango—Libertango. This was a transcription for piano of the landmark Piazzolla composition. Throughout, Mr. Wu’s technique and musicality were just great. A Brazilian three-fer gave us a Choro (very showy technique), a generation-defining tune (La Garota de Ipanema), and a Samba with very lush, dense writing.

My notes for the Choro include “SC”. To me this was music that I can imagine hearing (or imagine seeing others listening to, in old black and white films) in fancy supper clubs. The type of music that is in the background but is oh, so much more important than just being background music. Others in the SC category included two Earl Wild transcriptions of George Gershwin songs—Somebody Loves Me and a wicked version of Fascinatin’ Rhythm (this one garnered an SC+).

In a mini-Far East set, there were two Tan Dun works, Herdboy’s Song and Sunrain from his Opus 1. The first was an evocation of a folk tune while the second seemed to be a Western-music take on a folk tune. Hey, it was Opus 1—an early work. These were followed by a feathery arrangement of Sakora, a traditional Japanese folk song that took me back to the fourth grade. This tune was in our school music book and it was (to my fourth-grader’s ears) the most exotic thing I’d ever heard. That’s the power of folk songs.

Along the way, we heard nods to new age, minimalism, and blues. Truly global. While the Fascinatin’ Rhythm was a tour de force, the closing piece—Blue Rondo a la Turk (Dave Brubeck)—was classic(al) jazz.

Mr. Wu’s playing, and his clear and concise explanations, turned this into a wonderful afternoon of truly global rhythms.

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The Silent Clowns—Sort of (10/6/12)

The second program in the new series threw us a curve ball, as in, instead of a short followed by a feature, we had the feature followed by the short. And the feature was preceded by a “Coming Attraction” trailer for the feature next in the series. Are you still with me? Here’s the method behind the madness—and there was madness and mayhem!

In addition to the topsy-turvy programming, the feature wasn’t even a comedy. Saturday’s bill was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) starring John Barrymore. The short was a comedy—Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde (1925) starring Stan Laurel.

The Barrymore version was very interesting and very well acted. The print we were viewing had some odd tints to it, which made the viewing a little difficult. But it was really a very moving portrayal of the macabre Robert Louis Stevenson story. Apparently Barrymore insisted on “doing the first transformation scene in one long, unbroken take sans special effects,” per the program notes, and very effective it was.

In contrast, and according to the onstage program notes—yes, the co-producers actually speak and explain things to the audience before the films are shown—the short was a travesty (not parody) of the feature. Well, any program notes that send me to the dictionary are A-OK in my book. Travesty: (n) a composition that imitates or misrepresents somebody's style, usually in a humorous way. I’m thinking that the difference is that the Laurel short didn’t rewrite the original, but told the original story (and used some of the specific visual styles of the original) in a humorous way. And, boy, was it humorous! As Dr. Pyckle, Laurel was a round-bespectacled, milquetoast sort of fellow. When transformed to Mr. Pryde, we saw the characteristic goofy grin we came to know and love in the Laurel and Hardy comedies. (It reminded me a great deal of a Dick Van Dyke imitation of Stan Laurel.)

And while the transformations of John Barrymore were played to fine dramatic effect, Laurel’s transformations—and the speed at which they took place—were pure comedy.

As always, the films were presented beautifully and the hard-working team putting it all together did a great job. And, as always, I will single out Ben Model for his unflagging, enthusiastic piano accompaniments to these silent films that I’m so lucky to be able to see.

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p.s. There will be some bona fide concert posts in the near future.

Shhh! The Silent Clowns Have Returned (9/22/12)

A new season has started at the Library for the Performing Arts. The kickoff of the series of silent films brought us Just a Husband (1927) and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928). Here’s a shout out to the team of Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa and Ben Model.

Just a Husband was a slight two-reeler that had some nice slapstick moments. I was rather fond of the title slides that read, “The road to Marriage is paved with good intentions,” and (regarding the ex-husband of the divorcée getting married) “They wanted him to be the Best Man—he just wanted to give the bride away!” After the ceremony, the happy couple head off to the desert for their honeymoon. Falling rocks and a screwball sign reversal end up with them being stranded in Death Valley with no food or water, paired up with three ne’er-do-wells, and then threatened by four other fellows (the real bad guys). Who knew the desert was so well populated? After the bad guys steal the new bride, the other four find, attack, and drive off the four bad guys. Then the three ne’er-do-wells and the happy couple celebrate with GROCERIES. Did I mention that this was a slapstick comedy?

Steamboat Bill, Jr. is a true Buster Keaton classic. Buster is a Boston boy sent out to the Mississippi to join his father, the captain of the Stonewall Jackson. But there’s a new riverboat in town, the King, sponsored by Mr. Rich Guy, by the name of King. Mr. King’s young daughter is also on the scene—and she and Bill, Jr. (Keaton) know and love each other. Of course, both fathers are dead set against the kids getting together. Stormy weather causes all kinds of problems (and all kinds of cinematic slapstick). One of my favorite scenes involved Keaton taking bread to his father who is in jail. Of course, all sorts of tools were baked in, which then fall out and get Bill, Jr. in trouble, as well. During the storm, many buildings are destroyed or fall over, including a famous scene where a wall falls on our hero, but the open window on the second story miraculously falls right where our hero is standing, so he remains unscathed. In the end, Bill, Jr. saves the girl, saves his dad (by piloting the Stonewall Jackson through the floating away jail), then jumps back into the river and saves the girl’s father, too. Everybody is happy! So why does Bill, Jr. jump into the river one more time? To rescue a parson so that our two youngsters can get married! Did I mention that this was a slapstick comedy?

Once again, Mr. Model at the keyboard added a great amount of enjoyment to the afternoon.

It’s good that a great series is back. Also, autumn brings the return of other performance series. And a new season that I am definitely looking forward to.

 ConcertMeister

Moving Sounds—JACK Is Back (9/15/12)

Boy, I really wanted to like this better than I did. Too much of a downer?

So this was my second hearing of the JACK Quartet and my second concert of the Moving Sounds festival. There were two pieces on the program—String Quartet No. 5 (2007), Georg Friedrich Haas; and häuten: Paramyth (String Quartet No. 1) (2012) (World Premiere), Clemens Gadenstätter. (I’m not making this up, you know.)

In the first piece, the quartet members were spread throughout the hall—two on stage (violin and cello), one in the back of the house (violin), and one in the balcony (viola—I know, because I was there, too). From the program notes: “The listeners find themselves inside the sound, inside overtone chords …” OK, I heard overtones; in fact there was a lengthy overtone section. But once I experienced it, I didn’t need to be listening to it again and again and … well, you get my drift. The opening was a long glissando (slow) that led into the lengthy overtone section. Next, a tune (a snippet) was actually introduced, but it didn’t last long. I actually saw a man in the front row covering his ears. I’m glad I was in the balcony. There was, once again, no discernible movement format.

Moving on to häuten: Paramyth. It had an explosive opening leading into tone bending, biting bow strokes, quite a few screeching, scratching sounds and aggressive bowing, exploring sound for sound’s sake not (to my ear) music for music’s sake. Every once in a while, there was a “meow-like” sound from individual instruments. Really, that’s the entirety of my notes. Oh, wait. Both the cellist and violist had horsehair(?) dangling from their bows—the violist from both ends of his bow. The cellist pulled horsehair(?) off three times. The violist never did. As stated earlier, I really wanted to like this more.

In fact, I think I’d like to hear JACK play some mainstream string quartet repertoire. Maybe Mivos quartet, too.

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Moving Sounds—Mivos Quartet (9/13/12)

Moving Sounds is a festival sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum NYC. In this case, it was a series of concerts, lectures, and performances over a three-day period. On Thursday, after work, I wended my way to the German Consulate General, near the UN, to hear the Mivos Quartet (Olivia de Prato and Joshua Modney, violins; Victor Lowrie, viola; Mariel Roberts, cello) play works of Reiko Fueting and Carl Christian Bettendorf. Not exactly household names, though perhaps they will be, eventually.

Moving Sounds is giving us contemporary—as in up-to-the-minute—classical music. The pieces were, in order, Il y a l’Océan for string quartet (2005, rev. 2007), Bettendorf; tanz.tanz for solo violin (2010), Fueting; Souvenir for viola and live electronics (2012), Bettendorf; and “…und ich bin Dein Spiegel” after Mechtild von Magdeburg for soprano and string quartet (2000), Fueting.

As this was “new” music, there are few noticeable (to me) forms, so my notes on the pieces and playing are also pretty much free-form. The first piece opened with all of the players playing at the same time and usually together. The first section was quiet, with unisons/octaves and a bit of pitch bending. This was followed by a louder, more forceful section—a lot of rapid bowing (a lot like the rapid portions of Vivaldi string writing), and then a return to a quiet section, but with a little more tonal variation.

The second piece was played by Ms. De Prato. The score was spread across three music stands. From the program notes, the general form is based on an analysis of a Bach Chaconne. What we got were fairly small snippets of phrases that were linked together. The piece used pretty much the full range of the violin, and had a repetition of phrases with subtle differences. Toward the end, a mute was added, which sort of “dulled” the string sound. The overarching form of the piece was the violinist slowly moving down the length of the score. When she got to the end, the piece ended.

After a brief panel discussion with both composers, we returned to the music.

The third piece, for viola and live electronics (Nina Young, offstage), contained some of the same types of electronic sounds I experienced at the last Rite of Summer concert—a looping/echo repetition of part of the phrase that had just been played by the violist. And then there were some other electronic sounds introduced that complemented the viola phrases. (I think I even heard part of the theme song from the “Twilight Zone” —doo-dee-doo-doo, doo-dee-doo-doo.) And sometimes the electronic echo sounded “beefier” or more “amped up” than the original. Speaking of original, apparently there was a first version of this piece for solo viola. I think I wouldn’t mind hearing that version.

The last piece, for soprano (Nani Fueting) and string quartet had, from my notes again, small segments strung together, including some spiky vocal intervals. There was also an extended sequence of dramatic/loud/angry(?) phrases for all four strings. The vocals were secure throughout, including spoken and whispered portions.

So, my take? The playing was quite good throughout, but I found the compositions just a little disjointed. There were many small phrases and segments but very few through lines (with the exception of the violinist in tanz.tanz). However, compared with some of the other avant garde music I’ve heard along the way, this was quite a bit more enjoyable.

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2012 Rite of Summer Music Festival (9/3/2012)

Kudos to the artistic directors for this second annual series. I stumbled on the inaugural season on Governors Island last year, and I’m pleased to report that I attended all three concerts this summer season. I didn’t necessarily embrace all of the music I heard but at least I expanded my aural horizons. This included the Labor Day Monday concert—Todd Reynolds and Friends. Those friends were Mathias Kunzli, drums/percussion; Michael O’Brian (sp? his name was not in the program), bass; Johnny Rodgers, glass/electronics/mandolin(?); Jordan Tice, guitar; and of course, Mr. Reynolds, violin.

I guess the overall description would be bluegrass/newgrass/electronics/eclectic. I wish I could claim ownership of newgrass but it was unashamedly stolen from Mr. Tice’s bio.
Mr. Tice and Mr. Rodgers were also the bulk of our composers for the one-hour concert. I caught the 1:00 p.m. performance but didn’t feel compelled to stick around for the 3:00 p.m. rendition.

Well, what  can I say? Bluegrass/newgrass pretty much sums it up. The percussionist had a nice variety of instruments at his disposal. Mr. Rodgers and his tuned wine glasses (per bio—not seen) had some of the more interesting sounds. He also included electronics, in that he would lay out a glass-tune phrase, then you were suddenly aware that it was looping. He’d add keyboard and/or vocals, and then they were looping as well, at rhythmically interesting intervals. I’m not a huge electronics fan, but this was very effective.

Some of the bluegrass/newgrass was also effective, though I preferred the bluegrass. Some of the other was a bit too New Age–ish for my taste. That said, the eight pieces I heard were relatively varied, the performances were uniformly good, and I’m glad I went. The musical offerings might have been a bit too experimental for some, as I saw more than a few folks leave during the set. Maybe they were just headed to other excitements on Governors Island. Maybe. I don’t think so.

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Bryant Park After Work (8/29/12)

Fortunately, I made it to this concert, the last in a 13-week series. I had planned on attending at least two others, but 6:00 p.m. in summer in NYC is always iffy weather-wise, and the weather, indeed, put the kibosh on my earlier attempts. This concert, the John Farnsworth Quintet, was a great way to cap off the series.

Many years ago, I penned my first online profile which stated that I like classical music and “not-too-frantic” jazz. When the quintet—John Farnsworth, tenor sax; Freddie Hendrix, trumpet; Harold Mabern, piano; Paul Gill, bass; and Peppe Merolla, drums—began, I was a little bit afraid that it just might be too frantic. The first piece featured really driving rhythms and the volume was up there. So I moved farther away from the speakers (and I think they made some sound system adjustments), and the next piece, “Junior,” was gentler but still powerful, with more of a discernible tune. I was safe from “too frantic.”
The first piece was composed by Mr. Mabern while the second was composed by
Mr. Farnsworth.

This was followed by “Unchain My Heart”(?)—the tunes were announced on the fly, so my notes can be a bit faulty—which had more of a Latin beat. Next we heard a boogie-woogie piano solo, composed by Mr. Mabern. There were two more pieces on the program that were pretty much in the same vein as the others. In general, while the playing was heavy on unison sax/trumpet lines, each player—really all five of them—got a chance to shine (both the sax and trumpet would occasionally step out to let the others be featured), and the overall playing was quite good. And when the sax and trumpet separated and gave us some additional harmony, I liked it even better.

This was really good playing to round out a series that I hope to see more of in the future.

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