Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

"die reihe" at ACF

I know a place where Webern song recitals sell out.

All right, so their hall is small and their concerts are free, but that certainly doesn�t make the Austrian Cultural Forum any less cool. Last night a dedicated crowd listened to the intense musicians from Vienna�s �die reihe� hack and pluck their way through works by Webern, Hanns Jelinek, Shih, Egon Wellesz, and John Cage. I had heard of only three of these composers, and one of the other two I�m not sure I want to hear from again. But nonetheless, listening to obscure twentieth and twenty-first-century chamber music at the ACF remains one of New York�s greatest musical pleasures. And the (free) wine afterwards doesn�t hurt either.

The concert opened with Webern�s short and spacious �Satz f�r Streichtrio� from 1925. Published without an opus number, the music�s constant melody floats from instrument to instrument as pizzicato exclamations bounce around, throwing the lied into high relief. Brief and poignant sighs bring the work to a close. Jelinek�s much more traditional �Trio from �Zw�lftonwerk� for Violin, Viola, and Violoncello� followed. Jelinek (1901-1969) taught composition for years at the University for Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna, and his music doesn�t always steer clear of the stiff and academic. But, while I still find something conceptually amiss about writing a twelve-tone work in sonata form, Jelinek�s piece really grew on me last night with its long singing lines, pungent harmonies, and sudden eruptions into ostinato. The program�s first half concluded with Shih�s �Ein Takt f�r Pi-Pa und Streichquartett� featuring Pei Ju Tsai on the Chinese fretted instrument. Languid, homogeneous textures dominate Shih�s work, and sometimes the results are cloyingly introspective and pretentious. But here he cuts loose and writes music that�s both brutally exciting and stunningly virtuosic. The crowd loved it.

The second half opened with two multi-movement works by Egon Wellesz (1885-1974). Wellesz, in addition to being a composer, was an active musicologist who did important research on Handel and Fux and was friends with Webern and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. But neither his �Suite for Clarinet Solo, Op.74" nor his �Four Pieces for String Trio, Op. 105" could command my attention. Both seemed structurally flat and the motivic material was limp and unimaginative. Much better was John Cage�s �Variations III� from 1963, scored for pi-pa, clarinet, and string quartet. While the texture is often restless and percussive, Cage�s piece finds a way, through tonal sonorities and good old fashioned tunes singing somewhere just out of sight, to convey a subtle yet resonant happiness. It brought the program to a wonderful close.

�die reihe� plays again tonight, but, if that�s not enough notice for you, fear not: the ACF�s �Mostly Modern� festival, of which this concert was a part, extends well into November.

posted by David Salvage 9/16/2005