Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

ACO at Zankel

Steven Sloane led the American Composers Orchestra in four modern works at a sold-out performance at Zankel Hall in Midtown last Friday night. Three of the four works were world premieres. The musicianship was first-rate, as one would expect from this ensemble so there isn't much to add on that front.

The first piece was the non-premiere: Study No. 7 by Conlon Nancarrow, a chamber orchestra version of a Nancarrow player-piano piece from the early 1950�s, orchestrated by Yvar Mikhashoff. Being familiar with only a few of Nancarrow�s works, I was surprised at how easy-to-follow and (mostly) tonal the work was. The cohesion was certainly helped by the orchestration; melodic lines at different tempos spin out in a similar register, and hearing a unique instrumental timbre for each line helped the ear separate them in a way that would not have been possible in a piano version. The ensemble navigated the obvious rhythmic complexities of the work without any strain.

The second work was marked in the program as Jose Serebrier�s Symphony No. 3 but it quickly became clear that something was amiss. The orchestra started playing in what was clearly a Minimalist-influenced style, while a soprano sang deconstructed lines from proverbs. Eventually I realized that we were, in fact, hearing Four Proverbs by Michael Torke. At no point was this program change announced, leaving the audience to (hopefully)figure it out for themselves. I wonder how many concert-goers left cursing �that damn Minimalist Serebrier.�

The Torke work was a little too staid for my taste. With its slightly crunchy modal harmonies, syncopated rhythmic patterns mixing twos and threes, a texture where some instrumentalists hold chords for a few bars at a time while others harmonize with the voice in rhythmic unison, and its biblical text, it immediately struck me as a second-rate version of Steve Reich�s Tehillim. (However, a quick Google search revealed that Reich himself calls Four Proverbs �a beautiful, melodic piece.� This comment might say more about Reich than about Torke.)

The second half of the concert began with the now long-awaited Serebrier. Symphony No. 3 was scored just for string orchestra and was masterfully orchestrated. It had by far the most textural and timbral variety of any of the evening�s works, while boasting the most limited resources (no winds, brass, or percussion). The material itself, however, was often uninspired post-romantic clich�, with allusions to Bartok and Berg. The performance of second movement in particular suffered from its own sense of romanticism; an extended cello solo was marred by excessive vibrato, as if the speed of the left hand movement was linked directly to the soul. The last movement featured an off-stage soprano whose voice burst through the hall�s sound system at an inappropriately high level. If she were meant to sonically cover the string texture, I would have liked her to appear on stage; there was something jarring about an invisible presence overwhelming the visible musicians� sound.

The final piece, Lucid Dreams by Edward Bilous, incorporated dance and video projection with questionable results. Two dancers on stage mirrored the two �video dancers� projected above the stage (with varied levels of nudeness and clothedness). Though the music achieved some notable textures and colors and considerable rhythmic variety, it was often upstaged by the awkward contortions and feats of strength by the dancers, and I found it difficult to focus on both at once. Perhaps an orchestra-only version would have been more successful.

posted by D. Edward Davis 11/15/2005