Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Last Night in LA--Soprano and Flutes

Last night�s Monday Evening Concert was given by the second of the two resident groups for which the museum provides the platform for the performances of contemporary music. This group is Xtet, an emsemble of from two to twelve musicians, led by Donald Crockett, composer, conductor and professor of composition at USC. The program began with the Villa-Lobos �Bachianas Brasileiras No. 6� (1935) for flute and bassoon. This was a nice warm-up for the ears. The first half ended with the performance of Book I and Book II of George Crumb�s �Madrigals� (1965). These two sets of songs were written for Jan deGaetani to sing and were the first of a series of Crumb compositions for voice to use Lorca�s poetic imagery. They were early works in the period when Crumb began receiving notice (and performance) for his distinctive musical voice. Each madrigal is built around a phrase from Lorca and the music is an �impression� using a range of colors Webern would certainly have liked for the glints and sparkles of sound. The three songs in Book I are for soprano, vibraphone and double bass; the three songs in Book II are for soprano, flutes (alto flute, flute, and piccolo in successive pieces) and percussion. These Madrigals are 40 years old, hard to believe because hearing them last night was to hear works that were fresh and alive.

John Steinmetz is the bassoonist of Xtet and a mainstay of the Opera and many studio recording sessions. His compositions extend the repertoire for his instrument and Xtet performed his �Simple Pleasures� (2003) for alto flute, bassoon, vibraphone, piano, viola, and cello. The work was commissioned in honor of the artistic director of a local chamber music society, and its six movements begin and end with one of the director�s favorite piano themes, a Grieg arietta. The movements keep the folk-like simplicity of the Grieg in a set of treatments which relate to Glass-like minimalism as well as to Harrison-like gamelan sounds. The folks in �Bang on a Can� should hear this and consider it as a possibility for one of their concerts. Steinmetz� most recent composition is a bassoon concerto, commissioned by three orchestras.

The concert concluded with an early composition by Russell Peck, �Automobile� (1968). At the time, Peck had received his first two degrees from Michigan and was a grad student working for his doctorate there. In the work, you can hear the young student, impressed by Boulez and Stockhausen, but attracted by early rock and pop ballads. In two movements, the work ends with a wild and funny combination of techniques from academic modernism, with random non-musical interjections, ending in a dead-serious performance by the soprano of a love-sick ballad from the 60s. It was delightful in performance.

A side-comment. I mentioned how fresh and new the �old� music by Crumb sounded, as did that of Peck, for that matter. Three days earlier we had been to a performance by a Chinese dance company of a dance performed to the complete recording of �The Wall� by Pink Floyd. Oh, did that music sound dated, firmly enmeshed in 1980, days long past.

posted by Jerry Bowles 3/08/2005