Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Last Night in L.A. - Minimalism, European Style

This weekend offers two programs in the Minimalism Jukebox festival, each program being given twice. All of the music is being recorded for release on the iTunes Store. An announcement last night said that the editing will be completed for release of the music on Tuesday, April 4. This is a great start to a new venture.

The second installment of the Minimalism Jukebox festival changed continent and decades--from California in the Sixties to Europe in the Seventies (and last year). The featured composer was Louis Andriessen , and the program included the U.S. premiere of a new work, Racconto dall�Inferno(2004). The work was supported by the conductor and the soprano from the world premiere in Cologne, Reinbert de Leeuw and Cristina Zavalloni, respectively. It is a setting of extracts from Dante�s �Inferno� in which a portion of the descent into hell is guided by ten devils who are called out by name. The soprano is accompanied by winds and percussion, with just a few strings: 3 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 A clarinets, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 2 pianos, cimbalom, guitar, bass guitar, loads of percussion and about ten strings, without violas. Lots of color. To my ears, the music was a major shift of Andriessen�s style, and if a style had to be named, it would be post-minimalism, or, possibly, post-Stravinsky. This is a dramatic work, and it was beautifully played and sung by a singer who deserves comparison with Cathy Berberian. If you download only one work from last night�s concert, get this one. It�s a feast for ears.

The concert began with Arvo Part's beautiful Tabula Rasa (1977) for two violins, prepared piano, and strings. The two violinists were Geoff Nuttall and Barry Shiffman, co-founders of the St. Lawrence String Quartet. The two made the music a real dialogue between the two violins.

The evening closed with Andriessen�s De Staat (1976). The times have long passed in which we would hear politics in Andriessen�s music or think of him as a political radical. I found it surprising to read of his attacks against the Concergebouw, attacks in print and in disruption of a performance. Andriessen has now become an establishment icon himself and it�s hard to hear De Staat now as any kind of protest. The extracts from Plato�s �Republic� against which Andriessen argued, merely seem sounds produced by four sopranos, not political ideas. Disney Hall shows surtitles making the text of lyrics quite legible, but the text is separate from the sound. (One of the stylistic changes in Racconto is that the music amplifies the text.) Nevertheless, the music makes Staat remain an important work. It surges and churns and has emotion.

This should be a good lead-in to the afternoon of music by Steve Reich which we have ahead of us on Sunday.

posted by Jerry Zinser 3/25/2006