Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Jenny Lin’s Eleven Fingers at Arium

Sequestered as I am these days communing with Richard Taruskin and checking my email with needless frequency, it was great to come up for air last night for a glass of wine, hors d’oeuvres, and (best of all) Jenny Lin sharing some selections from her new CD, The Eleventh Finger. The host venue was a new place on Little West 12th Street called “Arium,” which seems to be taking a page from Tenri in presenting new music in an informal setting surrounded by contemporary art. The program consisted of two Ligeti Etudes (Nos. 16 and 18), Randy Nordschow’s “Detail of Beethoven’s Hair,” James Tenney’s “Chromatic Canon for piano and tape,” and Elliott Sharp’s “Suberrebus for piano and computer processing.” The concept behind the CD is to share pieces that expand the techniques of the piano, music that seems impossible to play with only ten fingers. Indeed, Lin has titled her CD perfectly: while all of the pieces evoke a certain magnified pianism, all ultimately leave the traditional role of the pianist in tact. In other words, eleven fingers will do just fine for this program – any more would be too much.

The standout on the program – in both good and bad ways – was Nordschow’s “Detail.” Whereas the Ligeti, Tenney, and the Sharp generally introduce new pitch material gradually, Nordschow’s work is dense and filled with rhythmic and textural contrast. Flippant riffs and growling, skittery passage-work punctuate a struggling melodic line, and yet the material is not so stubborn and thorny as to not allow momentary serenity or the dwelling on a trill. I was really enjoying myself, but then the piece suddenly ended. The Tenney and Sharp compositions complement one another nicely. Tenney’s is an obstinately mid-register minimalist canon that takes us from a perfect fifth on B-flat, through more elusive, chromatic sonorities, to a fifth on D – up a major third. The tape part, which the pianist pre-records (the piece was originally for two pianos), provides subtle timbrel shading, but this trick of piano unison doubling in music of such textural homogeneity began and ended for me with Piano Phase: for my ears – solidly constructed as Tenney’s piece is – it isn’t enough to sustain my interest. Sharp’s work, in which the electronics are applied live, is more successful. Opening with a lavishly arranged semitone E-F, the live sampling (courtesy of Mr. Sharp) finds its way quietly in between the piano's “cracks” as it were and lends beautiful micro-tonal ambience. The piece, which winds its way back to E, is a great example of elegantly utilized technology.

As usual, Lin’s playing left me little to do but cheer from the sidelines. There are probably any number of pianists in New York as good as she is. But Lin’s nose for interesting repertoire and her fantastic gift for programming give her enormous advantages over many pianists of equal technical proficiency.

P.S. The Eleventh Finger also contains works by Arthur Kampela, Stefano Gervasoni, and Claude Vivier.

posted by David Salvage 7/19/2006