Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

La Pasi�n seg�n San Marcos at Lincoln Center

Among my acquaintances Osvaldo Golijov is a controversial figure. His fans hail him as an apostle of multi-culturalism � a composer who listens to sounds made around the world, and who delivers them to us in stirring, powerful music. His critics consider him little more than a plantation owner with the clout and resources to import musical �slaves� from other countries to do his work for him. Last Monday night�s performance of La Pasi�n seg�n San Marcos (The Passion According to St. Mark) was my first prolonged encounter with Golijov�s music. I�m happy to report that, as far as I�m concerned, both sides of the Golijov controversy are wrong.

Based on this piece, it�s hard for me to acknowledge Golijov as being a great composer. The work is simply too much of a patchwork, and the notated orchestral passages often sit uncomfortably with the improvisatory passages for the Venezuelan musicians. And, despite his ability to create effervescent textures, Golijov�s ostinati almost invariably overstay their welcome: in numerous places the music grows tedious.

But the overall architecture of the composition is satisfying. Golijov�s tried-and-true fast-slow-fast organization does the job. The Pasi�n�s slow central passages and interjections of austere material go a long way toward keeping the more exuberant passages alive. There may be dead spots, but the music never dies.

Even though many significant aspects of the Pasi�n are unnotated and realized more by individual musicians trained in a native style than by Golijov�s imagination and technique, and even though Golijov is listed on the program as the �composer,� to label Golijov a fraud is unfair. Golijov�s achievement is best situated somewhere between the categories of �producer� and �composer,� and we really have no title for what it is he does. He�s treated as if he were a composer in the Western mold only because that�s the most convenient category at hand. In fact, Golijov really is what he intends to be: a hybrid figure whose methods combine aspects of popular and classical music-making. Once one comes to terms with the fact that the Pasi�n is as much �assembled� as it is �composed,� once one stops trying to make Golijov into a modern-day Bartok or Jan�cek, one understands Golijov better and becomes more at peace with his reputation.

P.S. I admonish the production team in the �comments� section.

posted by David Salvage 2/23/2006