Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Wilma delays, but doesn't stop, new music in South Florida

Just as the musical season was getting under way down here in South Florida, Hurricane Wilma came along (on Oct. 24) and gave us quite a beating. The storm temporarily derailed what was beginning to be rather an interesting season with plenty of new music on various programs.

Here's a brief look at some of them:

Festival Miami, the annual October music blowout at the University of Miami, featured a concert of 10 works by nine faculty members: Thomas Sleeper, Ferdinando De Sena, Dennis Kam, Colby Leider, Raul Murciano Jr., Robert Gower, Lansing McLoskey, Scott Stinson, and J.B. Floyd.

For me, the two most persuasive works were the Sonata (Ibis) for violin, violoncello, clarinet and piano, by Kam, and the Seven Miniatures for violin and piano by Sleeper, both composed this year.

Kam's piece, played by the Ibis Camerata for which it was written, is a tightly argued, serious work in one 12-minute movement that makes wide and satisfying use of its basic material. It's a contemporary take on old-fashioned sonata form, and it works beautifully, from the opening statement in the piano to the bluesy five-note motif that becomes a critical signpost throughout the piece.

Sleeper's Seven Miniatures, meanwhile, is a good example of how to say a lot in a small space. The short individual pieces include a lovely slow meditation built around a four-note motto (No. 3) and an aggressive, Bartokian finale (No. 7). Whirling, buzzing triplets in the violin dominate No. 2, while two repeated, dry pizzicato notes provide the nagging momentum for No. 5. There is a larger arc to the work as well, with miniatures 3 through 6 acting as a kind of slow movement. It's a fine piece, and one that deserves more hearings.

I also enjoyed De Sena's Directed Ambience, a serious, often sparse piece for solo harp. What stands out here is the thematic focus of the writing, which gives prominence to melodic lines and subtle chord changes rather than atmospheric effect. It's intimate music with something personal to say, and it says it well.

(I reviewed these pieces in two postings at my blog: Six of the pieces were for traditional forces; four were sound collages of one kind or another. Here's the link.)

Wilma disrupted two other new-music events: the Florida premiere of the Mass by David Maslanka (rescheduled for February) and the world premiere of the Symphony No. 2 by Roberto Sierra, which will now take place in April.

In the meantime, the New World Symphony (the orchestral academy steered by Michael Tilson Thomas) in Miami Beach opened its season with the Lichtenstein Trilogy of Kenji Bunch. The concert was sold out, but it was broadcast live on local public radio. I found Bunch's piece very accessible, cannily crafted, and colorfully orchestrated, but too beholden to its pop-culture sources. It makes an attractive concert piece, but it's too derivative to make a memorable statement (here's my full review).

Elsewhere, in a new, tiny concert series in Boca Raton, the principal cellist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Robert deMaine, presented a fascinating program in October of music by Bach, Hindemith, Cassado and deMaine himself.

The three �tudes-caprices deMaine performed are old-fashioned showpieces, but not in terms of melodic or harmonic language. They were composed in 1999 and collected under his Op. 31. No. 4 in D (Reveries) was a passionate exploration of harmonics, double stops and glissandi that was dominated by a climbing, soaring melody that often rose into the high registers.

No. 3 in G (Brasil) uses two Brazilian folk songs to memorable effect, the first a gorgeously harmonized, sweet, slow tune; the second a dazzling dance in which deMaine builds the tension with a recurring half-step twitch that allows the music to gather its breath before dashing out for another round.

DeMaine's other �tude-caprice (No. 12 in B-flat) was a set of three extravagant variations on The Star-Spangled Banner. I think the piece could have used another variation or two (perhaps make it a separate work, broken out from the rest of the etudes); as is, it's a delightfully showy number with built-in audience appeal.

Finally, Klavier Records, also of Boca Raton, released a disc this month featuring the last concert recorded by Alfred Reed, the veteran composer who died in September at 84. Many of us who've spent time playing in concert bands (I was in the horn section) venerated Reed; this July 2004 live concert recorded in Tokyo with Kawasaki's Senzoku Gakuen Symphonic Wind Orchestra is an impressive overview of Reed's work.

In addition to his gritty Third Symphony (1988), Reed conducts the Japanese ensemble in two works inspired by Shakespeare, two works with Spanish and Caribbean accents, and a wind band arrangement of his Joyeux Noel, written in 1998 for brass ensemble.

The disc is a good Christmas present for lovers of symphonic band music, which doesn't get the credit it deserves for the fundamental role it has played in American classical music.

posted by Greg Stepanich 12/26/2005