Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Last Night in L.A. - Music From New York

Last night�s Monday Evening Concert at the County Museum presented the New York New Music Ensemble for what has been its annual visit, not just to Los Angeles but to California. The program was titled "Anti-War & Mildly Violent: Music Mirroring the Moment." I suppose this was intended to be appealing. Personally, however, I would be no more inclined to go to a concert about politics than to see a dance on architecture, or to hear Tom DeLay give a talk on opera or sing some arias. (I imagine the latter example being roughly equivalent to going to a Florence Foster Jenkins concert; I�m not enough of a masochist to want that.) But the subtitle was somewhat contrived.

The program of five works, all contemporary, all in the style of academic modernism, included two world premieres. Morris Rosenzweig premiered Past Light for quartet of clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. Rosenzweig�s web site provides several sound clips of his music and his range of voice. Steve Ricks composed Mild Violence for the sextet, with flute and percussion added to the four. The title of the work came from the ranking on a videogame: E, with �comic mischief, mild violence�. His web site offers a unique experience; I suggest you listen to the Vice Versa first.

The climactic work was by one of those talented hyphenates, composer-flutist-conductor-professor-advocate Harvey Sollberger, who deserves a better web site. NYNME performed his powerful The Advancing Moment (1993) written for sextet. Sollberg�s notes state that the climax of the work was suggested by CNN�s coverage of attacks in the Middle East, with sirens screaming and forces unleashed. Opening the concert were Flashbacks (1995) for sextet by Mario Davidovsky and Coleccion Nocturna (1982/1983) for clarinets, piano and tape by David Felder. This was a good choice for Los Angeles, since Zita Carno, the Phil�s outstanding pianist for many years, was the first pianist of the work.

NYNME has some really excellent musicians, and Jean Kopperud on clarinets was particularly impressive in last night�s concert. A guest on percussion, Tom Kolor was also a standout.

Sunday�s Phil concert at Disney Hall displayed some clever programming. Prokofiev�s 5th Symphony was the major work but the first half of the concert opened with Alfred Schnittke�s (K)ein Sommernachtstraum (1985). This �(Not) a Midsummernight�s Dream� had a lovely, Mozart-inspired minuet as its spine, but the music kept disintegrating into other feelings, sometimes hostile, sometimes comic, as at a Mad Hatter�s tea party. This overture was followed by Mozart�s Piano Concert No. 20, and the kaleidoscope of the Schnittke piece set the stage perfectly for the minor key in the Mozart, as well as for the emotions of the Prokofiev. I had heard the Prokofiev on LP when growing up, and knew it and some other then-contemporary works much better than the German romantics. But hearing this in Disney Hall was a special experience. The hall is so friendly to bass notes that the performance of the Prokofiev allowed me hear lines I had not been aware of before. It helped that while Salonen is away in Europe, we had a good guest conductor back again, the young and talented Vladimir Jurowski.

posted by Jerry Zinser 11/08/2005