Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Last Night in LA--Visitors from New York

The New York New Music Ensemble made its annual appearance at the Monday Evening Concerts and presented another challenging, stimulating, rewarding concert. The concert began with a literal bang in Magnus Lindberg�s early work, Ablauf, (1983/1988) for clarinet and two bass drums. Jean Kopperud handled all of the technical challenges Lindberg threw at the clarinet, and while she couldn�t make it sound effortless, she made music from the sounds. She performed exceptionally well throughout the program. The first half included the Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano (1971) by Jonathon Harvey and a sextet, Exordium, Genesis, Dawn (1990) by Dorrance Stalvey, written for the Ensemble, and performed last night in honor of Stalvey�s thirty-some years as director of music programs, including the Monday Evening Concerts, for the LA County Museum of Art. Stalvey is one of the remaining links to the first �golden age� of Los Angeles new music, when Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and Rachmaninoff all lived on the West Side. Stalvey studied with Stravinsky at UCLA, and served as his copyist.

After intermission the Ensemble grabbed everyone�s attention again with David Lang�s Cheating, Lying, Stealing (1995) for bass clarinet, cello, piano and three percussionists. The piece pulsates. The conclusion was an early, but major, work by Christopher Rouse. Rotae Passionis [�Passion Wheels��] (1983), was Rouse�s first major commission, issued by Boston Musica Viva, and they got a keeper. The work is for seven musicians: violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet, piano, and percussion; using three percussionists, however, would not be out of order and would avoid some carefully-choreographed movements around the stage. The piece pulsates. The percussionist, Tom Kolor in a guest appearance, gave a good demonstration that he was not only ambidextrous, he was polydextrous as he kept one set of beats going with his right foot, another with his left hand, and a third with his right hand as he coordinated the ensemble with beats on section changes using his chin. The work begins with a lament for clarinet and percussion and then moves into the Fourteen Stations of the Cross in which the three strings maintain a spiritual progress as the rest of the ensemble narrates the events. The work is recorded, available from Amazon, with musicians from the Concordia Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop. It was better to be in the audience, but it�s good for a listen.

posted by Jerry Zinser 3/01/2005