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Making Music: Peter Eotvos: Barbara Hannigan (soprano), Brandon Ridenour (double-bell trumpet), Peter Eötvös (conductor and pianist), Ensemble ACJW, Zankel Hall, New York City, 29.1.2009 (BH)

Peter Eötvös, Conductor and Pianist
Barbara Hannigan, Soprano
Brandon Ridenour, Double-Bell Trumpet
Ensemble ACJW
Jeremy Geffen, Series Moderator

Peter Eötvös: Shadows (1996)
Peter Eötvös: Encore (2005; U.S. Premiere)
Peter Eötvös: Octet plus (2008; U.S. Premiere)
Peter Eötvös: Psy for Flute, Cello, and Piano (1996; U.S. Premiere)
Peter Eötvös: Derwischtanz (1999; US Premiere)
Peter Eötvös: Snatches of a Conversation (2001)


Music doesn't get any more vivid than the work of Hungarian composer/conductor Peter Eötvös, who was the subject of the latest Making Music program at Zankel Hall, with Eötvös himself leading the Ensemble ACJW in two of the works.  He began with Shadows, for large chamber ensemble arranged in a semicircle, with two groups of strings on either side of the stage, and woodwinds and brass in front at left and right.  In the first movement, spare textures lean and groan, against the quiet spine of a snare drum.  The second movement has a mechanical feel, clicking and chugging, ending with the snare's rat-a-tat-tat.  Growling strings characterize the third, anchored with double bass and bass drum, and the final section calls on the flute and clarinet, as other instruments creep in.  I doubt anyone will hear it performed as well as the ensemble did here, under the composer's fluid leadership.

Eötvös wrote Encore for the 80th birthday of György Kurtág (whose music is featured in other concerts under the umbrella Celebrating Hungary).  For string quartet, it begins with brusque strokes leading to a calm, almost sorrowful conclusion.  After an errant mobile phone user had been silenced, the four players gave this short valentine its due.

Following the 2008 death of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Eötvös wrote Octet, which places winds and brass in a clump on the left side of the stage, the soloist at the right.  Barbara Hannigan was the sensational soprano, using texts from Samuel Beckett's Embers.  Like the play, the music is notable for its use of silence.  As the ensemble surged forward, Hannigan offered syllables mostly flickering in quietude, with occasional leaps into violence.  If only the carefully created mood hadn't been slightly spoiled by a woman loudly entering the hall, who noisily made her way down to the front row.  As the piece ended, the woman turned to face the audience, taking a curtain call of her own.  (At intermission, the police arrived and escorted her out, apparently intoxicated.)

Delicacy was also prominent in the two works that followed.  In Psy, a trio generates sounds that seem to be hovering in place.  Yet compared to the austerity of Octet, its world seemed almost voluptuous.  And three clarinets are the protagonists of Derwischtanz (Dervish Dance), each player standing in pools of light.  As the piece progresses they slowly rotate, with melodic lines ever-so-slightly out of phase with each other, creating minute pitch fluctuations.

Overheard phrases form Snatches of a Conversation, for singer and chamber ensemble.  As a part of its chamber arsenal calls for an unusual double-bell trumpet, which enables the player to switch back and forth between muted and unmuted segments (or between two different mutes).  The texts are verbal fragments: "Soundcheck," "I think it's too fast," "Let's change the subject," "Life…it's a nightmare" and others.  As Ms. Hannigan tossed them out in hushed breathy tones—often with a sly smile—the musicians behind her created a kind of otherworldly jazz jam.

Bruce Hodges


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