Intrigued by John Zorn and Stephen Schwartz

Has anyone seen the set of concerts of music by John Zorn and Stephen Schwartz—and their new operas La Machine de l’être and Séance on a Wet Afternoon at New York City Opera? Except for Breitbart's short and dismissive description, I had seen only press releases about the music.


For example, the New York Times produced a super piece of expectation, but not a follow-up review that I can find. Similarly, the Wall Street Journal printed an in-depth interview. Even the respected blog Sequenza /21 produced a blurb about the Masada marathon and the Schwartz opera, but failed to attend and review. Barry Singer wrote a long piece based on his interviews of the NYCO impressarii on the need for monodrama to reach today's opera audience.

Until the New York Times published Tomassini's insightful and evocative review. And this interesting description by composer Drew Baker—it's a plus-plus that he includes a YouTube video interview. And this review by Bruce Hodges with superb stills of the productions. And though Paddy Johnson acknowledges he knows nothing about opera, he provides us with two intriguing photos. Finally, I found a terse, supportive piece of a review in Opera Today.

Thomas Adès conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic, 9 April 2011

A guest column by Charles Derry

The Philharmonic performed Adès' Polaris to the accompaniment of a video that was created by Tal Rosner, a collaborator (and boyfriend) of the composer. The video seemed good, but not great.  But it damaged the music, making the music seem "less than" rather than "more than."  With images, the music seemed an accompaniment, and less complex that it actually was.  When I looked away from the video, which I did a lot, the music seemed really great.  With the video, it was hard to hear the structure of the music.  Only at the end when the video became totally abstract did it seem to accompany the music, rather than vice-versa.  I hope that Adès drops the video in any future performances of Polaris , even though the video has an emotional personal connection for him.  Adès' music--in the world of new contemporary classic music--is superlative, whereas this video--in the world of video art--is just good.

The second part of the program consisted of Messiaen's Eclairs sur l'au-delà. Even though we were seated high in the Frank Gehry-designed concert hall, we were on the side, and the result was that we could hear the source of every sound and see the source as well, so there was a kind of virtual choreography as we watched the interplay of the orchestra--double bass from the far right, tympani from the back, etc, and I could see every single musician clearly. There were about 10 tympanists.  I could hear at every moment the specific source, as well as find the musician(s) who was(were) playing the music.  I have never had such a great visual experience of music as in this specific concert hall from these particular seats.  The sound, the texture, the clarity of the individual sounds, was extraordinary--shockingly good, in fact.  It was actually one of the few live experience hearing music where I thought the "live" situation made the music sound better than when listened to on a CD.

The last movement, lasting about 8 minutes, required the trianglist to vibrate the triangle continuously with his brush for the entire length, with virtually no cescendos or decrescendos. (A Tourette's nightmare for me).  It seemed also a feat of incredible virtuosity.  One could see the virtuosity everywhere, actually. I felt for the musicians, who were asked to learn extremely hard, and untypical music, for this single performance.  They were absolutely up to it, each and every one of them.

To my surprise, somewhat, this work is--except for its length and profundity--less like Turangalila than I had remembered (maybe because of the lack of onde martinot), but it was filled through and through with a multitude of sudden rests, caesuras, and then sudden attacks--hundreds, thousands.  It was like lightning suddenly illuminating something profound, and then the darkness of no sound, and then lightning again.  The audience seemed often to be holding its breath, as the conductor and all the musicians were constantly suspending, and then attacking.  And there was the sense, too, in other sections, of the music "breathing"--with ins and outs--particularly in the spectacular sections dedicated to "love music"--passionate, ecstatic....

Weirdly, to me, the 3rd to the last movement was conducted using a totally different method.  Instead of counting out the time, the conductor was holding up numbers with his fingers: 1, 3, 2, moving his fingers closer to the orchestra and then back, and using other signals that looked like American sign language.  It makes me think that that movement may be without a time signature and allows the conductor special leeway.  It's almost as if the conductor himself was talking to the birds in the orchestra with this new language.  I've never seen this method used... [See the break for additional information from L.A.Times music critic, Mark Swed.]

A very, very memorable evening

Liaisons: Reinterpretations of Stephen Sondheim

The increased access we enjoy today to new music benefits its composers and their performers, and it benefits the audience as well. Through a few well-chosen search engines, we can find examples of the work by a composer or performer. Sometimes with more focused searches or more exploration of a long list of results, we can even hear a composer's specific piece by a specific performer.

Absent such a lucky strike, we can glean an approximation of a piece by listening to online samples of other works by the same composer or performer. And often that approximate understanding is enough to decide on purchasing a new CD or set of audio files. That's the case today with information about a planned set of performances by Anthony DeMare. He has commissioned works from 30 composers that rework songs by Stephen Sondheim. The list of composer-interpreters has some surprises and some names new to me. (The links are to examples of each composer's music, often for piano, that are available on YouTube.)

• Milton Babbitt— "I'm Still Here" from Follies
• Mason Bates— tba
• Eve Beglarian— tba
• Derek Bermel— "Sorry-Grateful" from Company
• William Bolcom— "Anyone Can Whistle" from Anyone Can Whistle
• Kenji Bunch— "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" from Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Michaeld Daugherty— tba
• Peter Golub— "Children and Art" from Sunday in the Park with George
• Ricky Ian Gordon— "Every Day a Little Death" from A Little Night Music
• Annie Gosfield— "A Bowler Hat" from Pacific Overtures
• Jake Hegge— "A Weekend in the Country" from A Little Night Music
• Jerome Kitzke— "Sunday/Lesson No. 8 Move On" from Sunday in the Park with George
• Phil Kline— "Someone in a Tree" from Pacific Overtures
• Ricardo Lorenz— "The Worst Pies in London/A Little Priest" from Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Paul Moravec— "Losing My Mind" from Follies
• David Rakowski— "The Ladies Who Lunch" from Company
• Steve Reich— "Finishing the Hat" from Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Eric Rockwell— "You Could Drive a Person Crazy" from Company
• Daniel Bernard Roumain— selections from Assassins
• Frederic Rzewski— tba
• Rodney Sharman—"Beautiful" from Sunday in the Park with George
• David Shire— "Comedy Tonight" from On The Way To The Forum
• Bernadette Speach— "Liaisons/Send in the Clowns" from A Little Night Music
• Nils Vigeland— "Alma Mater/Merrily We Roll Along" from Merrily We Roll Along

Apparently the remaining six composers are not yet announced or arranged. Who might they be? Nico Muhly, Jennifer Higdon, Thomas Adès, Libby Larsen? ... one can only guess, although another source includes Stefano Bollani, Adam Guettel, Fred Hersch, Ethan Iverson, Gabriel Kahane, Tania Leon, John Musto, Thomas Newman, David Rakowski, and Mark-Anthony Turnage.

De Mare has distinguished himself among pianists in his development of the pianist as vocal performer. Perhaps the most expressive of such works is De Profundis by Frederic Rzewski, who set the text of Oscar Wilde's letter from Reading Gaol. This half-hour work asks the performer to alternate bravura pianistic moments with highly charged speech and other effects, both percussion and vocal. Although the listener may link the music to Schönberg's use of Sprechstimme, the vocal element is not always so carefully notated and the vocal production goes far beyond mere speaking voice. Much of the effect comes from the ability of the performer to transcend the bounds of speech and song, and De Mare explores his exceptional capacity so well that his recording of De Profundis comes to life, almost holographically.

It is through my familiarity with the recording Speak! that I anticipate the availability of Liaisons, which must await completion until several of the commissions are realized. In the meantime, Anthony De Mare has scheduled a concert tour that presents the working state of the suite in several cities and culminates with a full-suite première in New York City.

• Banff Alberta, 5 March 2011
• College Park MD, 2 April 2011
• Portland OR, 12 July 2011
• Chicago IL, 11 December 2011
• Fort Saskatchewan Alberta, 23 September 2011
• New York Century Club NY, 18 October 2011
• Hudson NY, 21 January 2012
• Fort Worth TX, 4 February 2012
• San Francisco CA, 12 March 2012
• New York Symphony Space NY, 21 and other dates April 2012, full suite première
• Kalamazoo MI, 1 and 3 May 2012

The performance at Banff is documented online with recordings of eleven pieces.