Juliana Trivers: wallpaper
Mario Davidovsky: Synchronisms
#10
Peter Gilbert: Ricochet
Steven Mackey: Myrtle
and Mint
Keynote address by Peter Plagens
LoVid: PsychOut
Mary King: Drip
Mario Davidovsky: Festino
For
this engaging exploration, now in its third
year, director David Gordon lined up an intriguing
assortment of composers, performers and visual
artists – a mix of old and new – all dedicated
to the aural and the visual and how they intertwine
and comment on each other. On opening night,
unfortunately one of the participants – the
Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, who was scheduled
to perform Poulenc, Stravinsky and Morton
Lauridsen – had to renege at the last minute.
Too bad, since the works they were to perform,
such as Lauridsen’s popular O Magnum Mysterium,
would have sounded refreshingly unusual in
this context.
Coming
to the rescue on very short notice was composer
Steven Mackey, whose Myrtle and Mint
had something to do with his colleagues at
Princeton being inspired by Wagner, and his
puzzled reaction to their passion. With Mackey
on electric guitar while speaking some snippets
of text, the piece might have been subtitled
"Wagner Channeled by Jimi Hendrix."
Eventually a female assistant plunged some
dry ice blocks into a bucket as overflowing
mist began spilling onto the floor, and shortly
afterward carefully placed a gold-painted
crown on Mackey’s head. I will only add that
I don’t expect to see a well-known composer
wearing gold headgear of any kind at any venue
in the near future.
Before
the concert began, as the crowd circulated
in the gallery Juliana Trivers’ ambient wallpaper
filled the space. Engineering credit was given
to Mimi Brown, who transformed Trivers’ violin
into shimmering waves echoing off the high
white walls, making a smart complement to
Bill Henson’s mysterious, noirish photographs,
whose work even all by itself would have made
the evening worthwhile. (Think David Lynch
mixed with a little Magritte and you will
have some idea.)
Dan
Lippel did a wonderful job with Mario Davidovsky’s
Synchronisms No. 10 for guitar and
electronics, the latter entering dramatically
about three or four minutes into the piece.
As with the composer’s other Synchronisms,
this one asks the instrument and the electronics
to dance, combine, and realign themselves,
to comment on each other, and Lippel couldn’t
have been more intent or persuasive. Peter
Gilbert’s Ricochet, winner of the 2004
Look and Listen Award, was also shown to great
advantage by Lippel, and perhaps coincidentally,
its bristling language seemed nicely paired
with the Davidovsky.
For
me the only clinker was PsychOut by
LoVid, a duo whose unarguable talent somehow
seemed squandered here. After spending a few
minutes attaching small video monitors (five
each) to their bodies, they stood behind a
table and (apparently) juggled electronic
controls, with aural results humming through
speakers and visual counterpoint displayed
on the monitors. For such fascinating preparation
– watching Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus adorn
themselves with electronics – the results
seemed disappointingly meager. I would have
liked a more thorough, detailed technical
explanation – in the program notes or as a
verbal introduction – of the processes they
used and how their explorations translated
into what we heard and saw. Invite them back,
since on paper, LoVid would seem to be ideal
for Look & Listen’s mission.
After
this came flutist Pat Spencer in the brief,
charming Drip by Chicago-based composer
Mary King. The piece is generated by flute
pulses separated by silence, and in this case,
no doubt completely by coincidence, also made
a nice complement to Henson’s visuals. The
final work, Davidovsky’s Festino, combined
guitarist Lippel with Jessica Meyer on viola,
Joanne Lin on cello, and Troy Rinker Jr.,
on bass, who closed down the evening with
the composer’s intricate, buzzing rhythms
brought to vigorous life.
As a
postscript, unfortunately I could not attend
the two subsequent evenings, but friends who
went on Friday commented on the excellent
reading by pianist Lisa Moore of Martin Bresnick’s
For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise,
and an equally stimulating discussion with
Bresnick, John Corigliano, and Joan Tower,
as well as visual artists Philip Pearlstein
and Peter Plagens. And later in the evening,
the Daedalus String Quartet apparently brought
down the house with Ligeti’s String Quartet
No. 2. Kudos to David Gordon and his colleagues,
who seem firmly committed to opportunities
inherent in combining shrewdly chosen music
with provocative visual statements.
Bruce
Hodges
For more information
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