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Czernowin, Carrick, Hoffman and Lachenmann: Either/Or, Merkin Concert Hall, New York City, 26.3.2009 (BH)   

Chaya Czernowin: Sahaf (Drift) (2008)
Richard Carrick: à cause du soleil – Flow Trio (2009) (World première)
Elizabeth Hoffman: Pathological Curves (2009) (World première)
Helmut Lachenmann: Salut für Caudwell (1977)
Helmut Lachenmann: String Quartet No. 3, "Grido" (2001) 


Listeners familiar with a percussion instrument called a ratchet (usually made of wood) may not have been prepared for the way Chaya Czernowin uses it in Sahaf (Drift), the opening work on this program by Either/Or at Merkin Concert Hall.  Co-director and percussionist David Shively would often turn it slowly, in carefully timed single clicks, rather than the normal rapid rotation that produces its characteristic rattling scrape.  Czernowin writes in an uncompromising style that verges on noise, but never pushes itself over the edge completely.  Michael Ibrahim on saxophone, co-director Richard Carrick on piano and Kobe Van Cauwenberghe on electric guitar completed the arresting quartet.

Either/Or's other co-director, Richard Carrick, offered à cause du soleil – Flow Trio, which to these ears represented a new level of maturity in his already impressive compositional development.  His work is heavily influenced by the physical properties of sound, and the boundaries between pure texture and traditional pitched music, with North African melodic influences floating through, melded with a nod to Bartók. This work, in a series of intense, discrete sections, was played with verve and sensitivity by violinist Jennifer Choi, violist Dov Scheindlin and cellist Alex Waterman.

A bowed musical saw is at the core of Elizabeth Hoffman's intriguing Pathological Curves, also a world première.  The title refers to mathematics, and "phenomena that are profoundly bizarre in some way…counterintuitive and unpredictable, hard to explain and therefore seemingly illogical."  Hoffman's use of instruments, such as the aforementioned saw (delicately managed by Mr. Shively) piques the brain with unexpected combinations of timbre and rhythmic pulsations that some might term "jarring."  Although I wouldn't call the result bizarre, her ear — like all of the composers on this program — is keenly attuned to the fresh possibilities inherent in traditional groupings, and here the excellent Peter Evans on trumpet completed the Either/Or quintet. 

The program closed with two powerful works by Helmut Lachenmann, reprised from the ensemble's 2008 hit concert at the Goethe-Institut (see review) and if the explosive intimacy wasn't quite the same, perhaps there was even more growth in the interpretations.  Written for two speaking guitarists, Salut für Caudwell is a quietly prickly meditation on sound, pitch and dynamic levels (among other things), showing the composer's attraction to expanding the catalog available to the instrument.  The final few minutes, in which the two players rub the wood in softly timed shuffles, reminds one that untapped beauty can be found in unlikely locales.  The Third String Quartet, called "Grido," expands this idea into a veritable cauldron using every available sound the musicians are capable of producing, short of destroying the instruments.  It is all sparks and fog, wisps and steel, with every measure meticulously notated for maximum adventure at turn.  The superb violinist Ariana Kim joined Ms. Choi, Mr. Scheindlin and Mr. Waterman, and afterward, amid loud cheers, I couldn't help but think that one really has to see a quartet performing in a language like this to appreciate the massive artistry required.

Bruce Hodges


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