Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Last Night in L.A. - Can Monday Be Saved?

Last year was not a good year for L.A.�s two major art institutions--the Getty and the Los Angeles County Museum--and in my mind the press coverage of the problems has not been nearly as critical as the executives and some board members deserve. One of the less noted problems with LACMA (highly noted in our local music world) was management�s decision to end the music program, canceling Wednesday concerts at the end of last season, ending the Monday Evening Concerts after this season, and discontinuing its sponsorship of residencies for two local groups, California E.A.R. Unit and Xtet, both vital factors in the performance of contemporary music.

True, the programs were not self-supporting. Attendance was low; looking at the audience it is hard to come up with a rationale for giving us a subsidy. No marketing was provided or initiated by the program. There wasn�t much creativity in programming nor in trying to link the music program to the broader activities of the museum. Organizations like PianoSpheres, Southwest Chamber, and (recently) the Jacaranda series of concerts were offering strong competition for the time and attendance of the ticket-buying audience, often offering new faces, new voices, and attractive programming. UCLAlive occasionally offers a concert worth attending, and REDCAT at Disney and Zipper Hall at Colburn School both provide better venues for serious music than does the auditorium at the museum.

It would have been quite understandable had LACMA initiated some major changes in an attempt to revitalize the program; the need for change was pretty obvious. But we never discussed that. So we waited while museum management decided to end the programs; shame on us. But more than that, shame on them for just giving up and for failing to see the value of the music program.

But, there is ray of hope. Monday Evening Concerts have been hard to kill during their sometimes bumpy existence. Alan Rich read a prepared statement to start the second half of last night�s concert, identifying himself as a member of a committee working to reconstitute the Monday Evening Concerts in a new, more hospitable venue. Four concerts are currently being planned for next season, less than half of this year�s total, but a respectable start. Now it�s up to the managing committee to come up with the approach to once again sell the series to an audience, and it�s up to us who want to be in an audience to support the new direction, to help it succeed.

The concert was by the Parisii Quartet (who said it was their tenth visit, I believe). They delivered a short tribute to the late director of the music programs, Dorrance Stalvey, and then began the program. Each half began with a slight work which was followed by a major one. The first major work was Ligeti�s Second String Quartet (1968), a piece thatincorporates all of his major concepts prior to that time. The Parisii played it well, making the whole even more interesting than the sum of the individual movements. I particularly liked their playing of the fifth movement with its clouds of color serenely riding over the busy mechanisms underneath and the third movement with its clocks ticking at different rates, gradually blending into each other.

The major work for the second half was Steve Reich�s Different Trains (1988), one of his masterworks. The Ligeti was written before he heard Reich�s music (and before he wrote his Self-Portrait with Reich and Riley), but the pairing of the two was quite apt, both with keen ears for subtle shifts in rhythm and tone, and both works with engines driving the exposition of the musical ideas. It�s probably easier to play the Reich at a minimally acceptable level, since the tape establishes the basic beat and the tonal background, but the players have to have the hearing and the flexibility to play the rhythms properly.

For example, at the end of the first segment the voice on the tape speaks, in order, �1939�, �1940�, and �1941�. As spoken, both 1939 and 1941 are five-syllable words with highly similar rhythms, but Reich�s music caught the fact that �39� spoken and �41� spoken have slightly different beats, and the music reflects this. The players have to hear this, and they have to be able to perform it. The Parisii men, again, did well.

The slighter works for the first and second half were by Jan Klusak and Kurt Carpenter, respectively.

A postscript concerning the two ensembles that have been residents at LACMA. With their CalArts ties, California E.A.R. Unit has established a home at REDCAT; with REDCAT�s overall marketing program and their customer base interested in the cutting edge of performing arts, this should be a good match between ensemble and venue. Xtet, led by USC�s Donald Crockett, apparently does not yet have a new home. Looking at how many evenings REDCAT is still unused, I think they would fit at REDCAT as well, but perhaps the Colburn-USC associations would make use of Zipper Hall a bit easier. I hope others feel as I do that the Xtet ensemble is simply too good and too valuable to let go unperformed.

posted by Jerry Zinser 2/08/2006