SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

 Points of Contact - A Tribute to Karlheinz Stockhausen: Talea Ensemble, Roulette, New York City, 24.9.2009 (BH)

Jonathan Harvey: Tombeau de Messiaen (1994)
James Tenney: Ergodos II (for John Cage) (1964)
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Kontakte (1958-60)

Talea Ensemble
Anthony Cheung, piano/percussion
Alex Lipowski, percussion
Victor Adán, sound projection


Yesterday a percussionist friend expressed a mix of weariness and awe, that the young upstarts in the Talea Ensemble would tackle Kontakte, Karlheinz Stockhausen's aural explosion for piano, percussion, and 4-channel electronic sounds. The piece demands an extensive electronic setup, for some perhaps more trouble than it's worth. If that is the case, I feel doubly lucky to have heard it, the centerpiece of a fascinating evening at Roulette. Apparently many others felt so as well, since the place was so full, extra chairs had to be brought in.

But before the Stockhausen came Jonathan Harvey's Tombeau de Messiaen, a fascinating homage to a composer Harvey calls a "protospectralist," in the sense that Messiaen was "fascinated with the colours of the harmonic series and its distortions." Harvey's tribute ingeniously exploits what can be done with piano and tape recording; the live piano is tempered normally, whereas the taped piano is tuned harmonically to the twelve pitch classes. The result is a gorgeous collision, bursting with microtonal color. Anthony Cheung sounded terrific in Roulette's intimate space, with just the right balance between the live and recorded pianos.

James Tenney's Ergodos II (for John Cage) is an artifact from the 1960s, for tape "with instrumental responses," and was the last work Tenney completed while at Bell Labs, a beacon for computer music research at the time. The word "ergodic" refers to a process whereby every segment or sequence of a whole is equally representative of that whole, and further, as Tenney interpreted it, trying to "remove traces of dramatic intent." Yet in imposing a strict form, what emerges is an ear-opening result. Raucous notes purr like bees, then return in altered forms later. Soft brushes mix with burps and scrapes; glissandi combine with tinny whistles in a pleasingly unpredictable palette. Cheung and percussionist Alex Lipowski might have been doctors in an operating room, surrounded by equipment and giving the piece the serious attention it requires.

But after intermission came the Stockhausen, clearly the big draw for many in the audience, with the most elaborate electronic setup I've seen for any concert in months. The piece opens with a howl of gongs and cymbals before immersing listeners in cauldrons of white noise and cowbells, and unusual percussion effects like metal pellets shaken over a drumhead. Its sparkling storm of live instruments and electronics moves around the room like airplanes taxiing on a runway. Victor Adán, ready at the laptop, was credited with helping the sound in its traversals around the room. If there is any justice, the talented Talea musicians will decide that the elaborate setup needed is worth it after all. I'd attend a repeat performance in a minute.

Bruce Hodges