Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Last Night in L.A. - Kurt�g's Ghosts

The recitals by pianist Marino Formenti have been the best-attended concerts in the declining years of the Monday Evening Concerts at LACMA. Last night�s concert was no exception. With the same amount of publicity (i.e., none), attendance trebled as a result of word of mouth from fan to fan. (You imagine: "Have you heard? Formenti will be back. Let�s go!")

Last night�s concert was an homage to Gyorgy Kurtag . Since Kurtag wrote so many works for piano in which he recognized styles and emotions of earlier great composers, Formenti built a concert around Kurtag�s recognitions, interspersing the Kurtag homages with short works (extracts) of the source composer, all performed with only the briefest pause as the pianist moved between centuries and styles and philosophies and attitudes.

I�d like to copy the program, but that would take too much space; how to summarize? The first half included 17 short works by Kurtag, interspersed with extracts and works by 13 different composers from Machaut to Messiaen, from Bach to Stockhausen, from Mussorgsky to Bartok. The second half was a fraction more concentrated, relying much more on Schumann as a source for Kurtag, but there were still 35 different works listed in the program. This sounds as if it would be unsatisfying, but Formenti�s insight into the music led him to build sequences of works with relationships of feeling and sound. For example, the first half concluded with a sequence of works influenced by Hungarian styles: a short Kurtag, a Schubert Hungarian Melody, a Ligeti, a Bartok Hungarian Peasant Song, a Kurtag, another Bartok, a Beethoven Bagatelle, another Bartok, a concluding Kurtag. The second half exploded with fireworks of Schumann and Kurtag, but concluded more somberly with a sequence in "In Memoriam" works, with the concert finally ending in silence as the audience held its breath.

The Monday Evening Concerts at LACMA gave Formenti his American debut in 2001, with a series of four concerts. He repays the favor by giving the concluding concert at the museum next Monday night, a concert beginning at 7:00. Formenti�s web site says this will be "a celebration with wine and conversation between Formenti's performances of works by Salvatore Sciarrino, John Cage, Lachenmann, and Morton Feldman." And if you visit his web site, note that the photo is by Betty Freeman, our great lady and sponsor of contemporary music.

posted by Jerry Zinser 4/25/2006