This past Friday and Saturday gave Ann Arbor new music seekers two compact and powerful concerts: the final concert of the year for the University of Michigan Contemporary Directions Ensemble (CDE) and a series of 8-minute operas created by graduate students in Music Composition and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan.  The CDE concert – directed by charismatic conductor Christopher James Lees – was about an hour in length, and packed into that time four vibrant works from Pulitzer Prize winners Leslie Bassett, William Bolcom, Jennifer Higdon and Shulamit Ran. Similarly, it took an hour to see all the brief operas performed on Saturday, which were on display at the beautiful Univeristy of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA).

The program for Friday’s concert featured a disparate set of pieces, which began with Jennifer Higdon’s Zaka for pierrot ensemble, written for and made popular by Eighth Blackbird. This was my first time hearing this piece – or any by Ms. Higdon, for that matter – and I was struck by how many other, later pieces I’ve heard by other composers, which resemble it strongly. With two opposing groups of material, Zaka is principally focused on rhythm and color, and – on its largest scale – contrasts incessant rhythmic drive with a placid chorale-like middle section, which she references towards the end.

Other writing about Zaka I’ve encountered likens the piece’s orchestration to Igor Stravinsky’s and notes how the work focuses on Ms. Higdon’s own instrument, the flute. I suppose the constantly shifting colors can be vaguely connected to the mischievous and convivial timbres of Petrushka or L’histoire du Soldat, but Zaka’s unusual sounds actually led my attention to a different member of the ensemble: the piano. For much of the work’s fast music, the pianist plays inside the piano, intermittently hitting open fifth ‘power chords’ along the way. Though the rest of the ensemble is subjected to similar extended techniques – none more remarkable than the clarinetist’s futile tapping on the mouthpiece-less opening at the top of his instrument – it seemed like the piano’s role in the piece was most significantly shaped by these uncommon colors, particularly because it leads the group in the work’s slow contrasting  midsection.

After Zaka whirled itself into nothingness, the audience was treated to Leslie Bassett’s Brass Quintet, a stark contrast to the Higdon in its traditional materials and nearly uniform instrumental color. The instigator in this work is the Tuba, which – from the outset – tends to challenge the textural status quo of the rest of the ensemble. Unexpectedly, only one movement uses mutes, but this overall stable timbre  suits the narrow scope of material transformation from the piece’s beginning to end. Brass Quintet stays close to home for much of its duration, and often references previous material sometimes for the purpose of establishing a landmark in unfamiliar musical territories or also developing earlier ideas a few movements later. Although the most reserved work on the program, Mr. Bassett’s Brass Quintet still shone brightly with its elegantly spaced sonorities, allusions to jazz and puckish Tuba part.

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Sunday was a big day for the brilliant young Slovakian contrabassist Roman Patkoló.  First, he played two new works commissioned especially for him by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation–Duo concertante for Violin and Contrabass by Krzysztof Penderecki and Dyade for violin and contrabass by Wolfgang Rihm–at Avery Fisher Hall with the dazzling Frau Mutter on violin. Then, after the concert, Mutter presented him with the first ever Aida Stucki Award, a new honor for gifted musicians named for her beloved childhood teacher.

“Aida is 90 now and we wanted to do something to honor her while she is still around to enjoy it,” Mutter told me.  “Good teachers don’t always get the recognition they deserve.  She was a wonderful violinist, one of the last students of Carl Flesch, and a keeper of that pedagogical tradition which she passed on to me.”

Mutter says the Foundation does not plan to give the award–which has a 10,000 euros prize–annually because “that would put too much pressure on us to find somebody deserving every year and be too time-consuming.”  Her plan is to give the award whenever she finds a young musician she believes deserves a little extra recognition and support–something she has been doing for a long time. Roman Patkoló is hardly a new discovery–her Foundation has been helping him since 1999.

I had a chance to ask Mutter a question I’ve always wondered about which is why she has been the most steadfast and enthusiastic supporter of new music among the top roster of violinists.  “I like to challenge myself and a lot of new music is like learning a new language,” she says.  “Older works can be challenging too but I love having the ability to work directly with composers, to sit down with them, and understand what they are trying to say.  Imagine having the opportunity to sit down with Mozart.”

Personally, I’d rather spend another hour or two with Anne-Sophie Mutter.

Not even two years old by students and alumni of Peabody Conservatory, the Figaro Project is one of several new opera companies that have sprouted up around the country, and it presented itself last night not only as an impressive collective of talented performers, but as a strong advocate for newly-written opera. Brought to life in the University of Baltimore’s Performing Arts Theatre (and for the low-low price of “free”!), thirteen singers and a small pit of 1-3 players provided the spark for three one-act operas by local composers Paul Matthews, Douglas Buchanan, and Joshua Bornfield.

Each work stood apart from the others in its own way and presented both highlights and challenges to the fledgling troupe. Matthews’ Piecing It Apart successfully attempted to incorporate flashbacks into the mix as two detectives interrogate a farmer for the possible killing of his mistress. Combining the patina, unreliable narrator, and overlapping plot lines of modern-day puzzle films, the work had some wonderful musical moments as the relationship between the suspected killer and his hapless victim emerges throughout the story. Lux et Tenebrae by Douglas Buchanan spiraled off in a completely different direction, forging together a mythological story of how shadows came to be through the adventures of a Child soon after the universe was formed. Utilizing the largest cast and pit of the evening, Lux showed both the advantages & disadvantages of such a menagerie – the spectacle and depth of the story was provided by the talented cast but one felt the need of a scorecard at points to figure out who was who (the stylized costumes definitely helped here), and the increased orchestration made balancing the singers in the reverberant hall a challenge.  The final work on the program, Strong Like Bull by Joshua Bornfield was the highlight of the evening for several reasons. The story, loosely based around the tenuous political upheaval in Russia in the years following the deposition of the Czar, seemed one part Kubrick, one part Marx Brothers and admirably showcased each cast member’s talents. Bornfield demonstrates that there is still room for humor in opera today, and one is optimistic that this work brought to life by other companies.

As mentioned, the casts of all three operas were quite good; standouts included Caitlin Vincent in Piecing It Apart, Nola Richardson in Lux et Tenebrae, and the quartet cast of Strong Like Bull – Jessica Abel (and her hand puppets), Jessica Hanel Satava, the scenery-chewing Nathan Wyatt, and Peter Drackley (whose ubiquitous cigar should have been credited as a member of the cast). Music Director Younggun Kim and conductor Jim Stopher performed an immense amount of material throughout the evening to great effect.

There’s one more showing of these operas tonight at 7:30 in the University of Baltimore’s Performing Arts Theatre – if you’re in the area you’d be hard-pressed to find a better way to spend an evening.

Among your name brand violinists, Anne Sophie-Mutter has been the most ardent champion of modern and new music.  There are few, if any, 20th century violin masterworks that she hasn’t played and/or recorded.  She rarely does a concert without modern pieces and her appearance with a group of  chamber music all-stars at Avery Fisher Hall at 3 pm this Sunday, April 3,  is no exception.  In addition to the Beethoven String Trio in G Major op 9, No. 1 and Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings, she will be teaming up with the brilliant young double bassist, Roman Patkoló, for the U.S. premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s  Duo concertante for Violin and Double Bass and the world premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s Dyade for Violin and Double Bass.

I have two pairs of tickets to give away for the concert to whoever can answer at least two out of three questions.  One of the answers is strictly hush-hush and won’t be announced until next Sunday’s concert but if you can attend the concert and want to take a stab, leave an e-mail address so I can contact you and tell you how to get your tickets if you win.

Ready?

1. Frau Mutter’s foundation has established a new award program for gifted musicians.  Who is it named for?

2. How did the person for whom the award is named get her first name?  (I don’t know the answer to this one myself but I have a theory and if your theory is the same as mine, you get points.)

3.  The first winner of the award in question will be named this Sunday.  Who do you think it will be?   Don’t forget to leave your e-mail with your answer because I’m not confirming the answer in print until Sunday night or Monday morning.

Lee Hoiby, one of the preeminent composers of song and opera in the 20th Century, passed away today at the age of 85. I was lucky enough to host Lee for a two-day residency here at SUNY Fredonia last September, which culminated in a concert of his works by students and faculty with Lee playing piano for every work…including a sing-a-long with the entire audience at the end. To see 20-year-old voice majors lining up after the concert to get his autograph was pretty special, and indicative of how much he meant to so many music lovers around the world. His publisher’s statement is below: (more…)