Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Last Night in L.A. - Glory, Glory

If we use the standard metric of palm pain per person, the applause at last night�s piano recital by Gloria Cheng was the most enthusiastic of the year. Gloria is one of our favorite pianists anyway, and this PianoSpheres concert at Zipper Hall was a delight from beginning to end, from Terry Riley to George Crumb. Ravel�s �Sonatine� (1905) served as the answer to the musical question �Which of these pieces is not like the others?�

The concert opened with Riley�s �The Walrus in Memoriam� (1991/1993), written to commemorate John Lennon. This piece is also the (sample-available) first track on Cheng�s CD of the piano music of Riley and Adams and she has the shifting colors and styles and rhythms of Riley�s work well in hand (and fingers). She followed this with Messiaen�s �le Baiser de l�Enfant-J�sus� (1944) from his �Vingt Regards�; she made this a mystical experience. The Ravel then preceded Salonen�s �Three Preludes� (2005), whose demands probably made the change of pace with the Ravel a useful break for the pianist. Two of the three preludes were among those written for Paul Crossley�s celebratory 60th birthday concert last year, and �Invenzione�, the last prelude in the set, was particularly demanding, and interesting to hear.

Works by George Crumb closed the concert after intermission. First was the 1980 �A Little Suite for Christmas�, which has had several recordings, one of which is available here. The seven movements in the suite involve a wide range of piano colors and extended techniques with the piano strings, as you would expect of Crumb. The closing work was Crumb�s best work for piano (at this stage in a great career!), �Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik� (2002). This �A Little Midnight Music� was written as one of a set commissioned to compose �short� piano piece to commemorate Thelonious Monk�s ��Round Midnight�; Crumb gave much more than asked for. One of the commissions, a short work by John Harbison was played first to establish the theme; Harbison�s �Monk Trope� (2001) is a direct variation of the Monk, so it established the base for Crumb�s inventive exploration. Over the course of nine variations Crumb explored Monk�s work and his own reactions to it, often with a Monk variation leading to thoughts about a theme from another composer. One movement, for example, is a midnight version of a rather unfriendly golliwog, on what is definitely not a cakewalk. How can you not like Crumb? The audience wanted more, but Cheng gracefully declined.

posted by Jerry Zinser 11/02/2005