13 January 2010
Eighth blackbird returns in fine form
By Janelle Gelfand
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The Grammy-winning group eighth blackbird is celebrated for performing the music of our time, because they enjoy "the enormous, crazy, off-the-wall bizarreness of a lot of it," flutist Tim Munro told a near-capacity crowd in Corbett Auditorium at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music on Tuesday night.
Maybe that's why nothing about their wide-ranging program was predictable, and everything was eye-opening, fresh and meticulously performed. Their program was mostly music of this decade, and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Double Sextet," which the revolutionary American composer Steve Reich wrote for eighth blackbird in 2007.
The sextet's appearance for Chamber Music Cincinnati was a kind of homecoming for the musicians - Munro on flutes, Michael J. Maccaferri on clarinets, Matt Albert performing violin and viola, Nicholas Photinos on cello, Matthew Duvall on percussion and Lisa Kaplan on piano - who were in residence at CCM for three years. They have returned annually over the past decade to participate in MusicX, a festival of new music organized by composer and CCM faculty member Joel Hoffman. Now in residence at the University of Chicago and the University of Richmond (Va.), the musicians remarked that they enjoy working with students. For Reich's "Double Sextet," they collaborated with a sextet of CCM students.
Each piece was not only an exploration in sound, rhythm and mood, but visually arresting as well, as the players moved about the stage in artful communion with each other. The concert's hallmarks included virtuosity and precision, but also a freshness of spirit, as they tackled immensely complex music mostly from memory.
They opened with "Still Life with Avalanche" (2008) by Missy Mazzoli, a composer who also crosses over into the world of indie rock. The players carried on an exuberant dialogue that gradually became mournful and less focused, as, in a personal stroke, the composer says she was shaken by a death.
George Perle's "Critical Moments 2" (2001) was a stark contrast. More in the musical language of Schoenberg, its instrumentation relates to "Pierrot Lunaire," with the percussion taking on the vocal part.
It was an exploration in subtlety and economy. Each of its nine movements unfolded like a miniature character piece, as snippets of themes bounced between instruments like so many sparks. Each note was delivered with passion and split-second precision, and nothing was mechanical.
Thomas Adès' "Catch" (1991) had a humorous "plot," as clarinetist Maccaferri dashed on and off the stage, playing a game of "pig in the middle" with three other instrumentalists. And Stephen Hartke's "Meanwhile," commissioned by eighth blackbird, was a stunning find. Hartke was inspired by Asian puppet plays, which was reflected in his instrumental colors - "prepared" piano, wood blocks, a water gong and Javanese gongs called Flexatone Gamelan.
It made an intriguing soundscape, as the group performed vibrant colors and rhythms with total commitment. "Cradle-songs," a serene moment, included the vibrating beauty of a water gong. The finale was a perpetual motion of brilliant rhythms, dispatched in a flourish of superb timing and virtuosity.
After intermission, CCM Chamber Players (Shauna Hodgson, Jeff Carwile, Nick Naegele, Amy Gillingham, Erica Drake and Mark Tollefsen) doubled the instrumentation for Reich's "Double Sextet." Back-to-back pianos and marimbas drove the "minimalist" outer sections, with a warm and sonorous dialogue for winds and strings at its center. It was a mesmerizing journey, and left the listener with the impression that eighth blackbird has forever changed the meaning of the words "new music" to mean "music that is alive."
