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Music Review: Modern music ensemble embraces the 'new' new
Monday, February 19, 2001 By Andrew Druckenbrod, Post-Gazette Classical Music Writer
The New York New Music Ensemble is perhaps best described as being old hat at new music. For more than two decades, the group has occupied the compositional vanguard with rigorous virtuosity.
The chamber ensemble made its name championing an older generation of composers, such as Charles Wuorinen and Jacob Druckman. Since this repertoire is rapidly becoming "old" new music, it could've represented a crisis to the group, but it hasn't. The ensemble has forged forward to embrace the new.
Appearing in Pittsburgh Saturday night for the first time, it assembled a program of works composed in the '90s and beyond, though it still fit in Druckman (who died in 1996). Presenting the night was the University of Pittsburgh's Music on the Edge, an underrated series that adds much needed support for new music in town.
The event provided an opportunity to check out the newly renovated Bellefield Hall Auditorium in Oakland. With comfortable new seating, a sound shell above the stage and new lighting, it has been improved. The acoustics are fine, though the ventilation system was audible and caused some drafts.
With the prestige and distinguished commissioning history of the ensemble, it has played a strong role in deciding what music of the past century plays on, making a case for certain pieces and composers. The iron is hot for canon building, and we should pay attention to what the ensemble is striking.
Druckman has been on its list, and he was represented twice Saturday. There's no denying that Druckman was an American master, influential in turning heads away from serial music. But he veered into different user-unfriendly territory. "Glint" and "Come Round," performed last night, epitomize the surface tension of his music. Though he writes with creative approach to structure and often incorporates quotation -- two things I love -- much of his music has an unsettling, violent and even annoyingly busy exterior that I can't get past.
Consequently, there's little good I can muster to say about either piece's performance, though "Come Round" for six musicians and conductor (James Baker), was executed with precision because the performers were clearly listening closely to each other. The "new" new music, spoke to me more viscerally, though most of it drew upon strategies taken from the past.
The title of Stuart Jones' "Transmogrifications III" for clarinet and tape did it a disservice, for the piece was not bizarre, but magnificently crafted. Clarinetist Jean Kopperud's playing and the tape wove together seamlessly, creating the illusion of interactivity. Though the score, heavy in brisk passage-work, asked her to perform metronomically to keep up with the sampled sounds, an organic synthesis emerged.
A similar approach failed for composer Marina Rosenfeld, whose "flutescene" asked flutist Jayn Rosenfeld to play along with a turntable spinning a record of repeating samples. Although the composer often calls for manipulation of the record, DJ-style -- which would be more intriguing -- this turntable wasn't altered. Too bad, because the sparse flute part offered nothing remotely interesting -- not even in a Morton Feldman-esque manner. On top of that, Rosenfeld played weakly, making the whole enterprise forgettable.
Eric Moe, a co-director along with Mathew Rosenblum of the Edge series, composed "We Happy Few" for violin, cello and piano in 1990. It's fitting that he would write for such a traditional grouping as the piano trio because his music often dialogues with past forms and rhetoric.
His is an ebullient and optimistic musical language that invites the listener in without compromising depth or personal expression. It's not tonal, but it is smooth and consistent enough to be understood and appreciated. In addition to solid development and organization, the piece had a certain charm as the instruments vied to present the themes.
Jonathan Harvey's "The Riot" for flute/piccolo, bass clarinet and piano is a fascinating work that develops several themes as they are passed around, one of them transformed into a circle of fifths.
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