Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

BMOP does Toru Takemitsu in Boston

Dear Rodney,

It was nice to see you at the Boston Modern Orchestra Project concert. I too enjoyed it a lot. (See Rodney Lister's review.)

The evening started with Ken Ueno's new "Kaze-No-Oka" -- written in memory of Toru Takemitsu and named after a crematorium build by architect Fumihiko Maki. The struture of the piece was inspired by this same structure. Ueno's program notes were quite illuminating, and an excellent example of the role good program notes can play. His explaination of the structure of the piece prevented me from having the difficulty that you had, Rodney, and in fact I found his structure strong and compelling, and in one sense downright brilliant: In his notes he writes "my piece begins with two bars of fast, loud music, music that never returns or relates in any structuralist way to the rest of the piece. It merely functions to introduce potential energy. In this way, I freed myself to be able to concentrate on the 'memorial' character in the rest of the piece." With this structure, the piece is one very long denuement, and so any lack of intensity during the piece is compensated by the residual intensity of the opening -- exactly what he required for the marriage of a "concert opener" and a "memorial piece." The music itself was strongly composed, and masterfully performed (I overheard the composer praising the level of the performance himself in the green room afterward), and I only lost interest at the end. As you mention, Rodney, Ueno structured the piece with an "extractable cadenza" -- the final section was for the biwa and shakuhachi alone and is designed to be playable as a piece unto itself -- and while the first third of the cadenza was enjoyable, and was still propelled by the structural energy I have mentioned, I found myself anxious for the second two thirds to end, and I suspect I would not enjoy the cadenza outside of the structure of the orchestral context.

I thought Tan Dun's "Water Concerto" stole the show, and clearly I enjoyed it more than you did, Rodney. The danger of writing a piece where the focus is a percussionist splashing water around is that if it is poorly written it could easily seem kitchy. Dun knew what he was doing, though, and he dodged the kitch bullet entirely. The performance was outstanding, with percussionist Robert Schultz putting on a spectacular show. The music itself was often humorous, but ranged from a dark, sinister humor to a light and playful one, with the audience laughing aloud on a number of occasions. The orchestral music was lush, and while somewhat fragmented always engaging -- it was clear to me that this music was composed by the same man who wrote the breathtaking score to "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" but that he was aiming for a somewhat more specialized audience in this case. BMOP was again, of course, excellent, in particular with the swoopingly affected glissando lines. I am not a string player, but I don't immagine that keeping those glissandos in unison is easy.

After the intermission it was All Takemitsu All The Time. I had never heard his work before, and was suitably impressed. (Less, I think, than you though Rodney. I would not rate Takemitsu in the same league with Ligeti -- but then not many composers are in that league.) I agree with Stravinsky that "Requiem for Strings" is a masterpiece; I enjoyed the "Three Film Scores," especially the Waltz; and I enjoyed "November Steps" overall, although I confess I found some of the Biwa/Shakuhachi duet tedious. And again, the erformance was outstanding, both from the soloists and the orchestra.

I only had two real problems with this concert, and I hesitate even to call them problems. First, Tan Dun's "Water Concerto" was, to my ears, the star of the program. Structurally, then, it should perhaps have been the closing number, but in a tribute concert one must close with something by the honored composer. Second, the concert was too long. It started at about 8:00 and didn't end until around 10:30 -- my musical brain was too tired to really give Takemitsu the attention he deserved, especially by the final piece. I might well have enjoyed "November Steps" more with fresh ears (the audience certainly gave it an extraordinarily warm reception). But when you can only play 5 concerts in a season they have to be long, so I certainly would not advocate keeping future concerts shorter than this one. As I say -- hardly serious criticisms. BMOP can chalk up another success, and the audience clearly agreed, demonstrating their enthusiasm with multiple curtain calls and, from about two thirds of the audience, a standing ovation.

I hope to see you again at some future event, Rodney. It was a pleasure to meet you in person.

posted by Galen H. Brown 5/31/2005