Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Issue Project Room Dispatch

Just got back from a svelte program of Silvestrov and P�rt courtesy of Jenny Lin and the Issue Project Room. Located in Brooklyn, the IPR holds all kinds of crazy programs in a small room atop a concrete tower overlooking the Gowanus Canal. To get there requires braving threatening looking streets, finding a virtually invisible door (so well is it integrated into a large iron gate along the street), crunching your way through a barren dirt-and-gravel lot, then walking up what must have once been a fire escape to get to the performance space. But, hey: when you get there, they�re playing Ligeti over the loudspeakers � so you know you�re among friends.

The first half was all Silvestrov. Jenny opened with the Piano Sonata No. 1, a smooth, polyphonic work that sits oddly between Bach, Debussy, and Shostakovich. The effect is novel, though, and sections of more dense material are woven nicely through the generally two-part texture. Next up was Silvestrov�s third �Postludium� for cello and piano. An overtly tonal composition whose harmonies allude to the Well-Tempered Clavier, the music is calm and simple with poignant dissonances propelling it gently along. (Loren Dempster played the cello.) The final Silvestrov piece, the �Post Scriptum� Sonata for violin and piano, however, crosses the line so far tonal indulgence goes. Its wistful tchunes aren�t too far from Alan Silvestri, and the ending, which reaches for infinity, just gets lost. (Cornelius Dufallo played the violin.)

Part two contained three warhorses by Arvo P�rt: �F�r Alina,� �Spiegel im Spiegel,� and �Fratres.� So long as P�rt doesn�t change sections, I think he�s a lovely composer. Jenny did her best with the upright piano to achieve the vast sonic spaces that are P�rt�s trademark. Things were going against though as a key got stuck during �Spiegel im Spiegel.� �Fratres� doesn�t work for me, but, as with the first half, the compositions benefitted from being rendered by terrific musicians who are friends and who were playing in a congenial, intimate environment. Jenny also showed her gift for great programming: Silvestrov and P�rt complement one another nicely without providing too much of the same thing.

P.S. A treat for P�rt groupies in �comments.� (B = B-flat.)

posted by David Salvage 11/12/2005