Notes From Cabrillo
Friday, August 6, 2010
After a 2-hour delay at the SD airport, Marty and I were on our way to San Jose (as the saying goes) and then to Santa Cruz for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. We settled in, Marty on a friend’s boat and me at his sister’s lovely apt. in Capitola. I love Capitola.
First event of the evening was joining his friend, Ch!p (sic) and his wife for drinks, then off to the Pre-concert dinner. The dinner was mediocre at best: outside and too cold for that, the food was, well, let’s just say ordinary and not worth the ticket price. However, onward to the auditorium where we had good seats (love that) and the music began.
First, “Scherzoid,” by Mark-Anthony Turnage from London. This was really fast (hence the name), and rhythmically complex. Nice, but I won’t buy the CD. Second – “On a Wire” by Jennifer Higdon. The Cabrillo Orchestra with Eighth Blackbird. It began with the 8BB members huddled around the piano playing inside – bowing, plucking, strumming. A nice start. The composition made really good use of percussion, including the marimba. Lush sounds. And I liked the way the orchestra and 8BB were integrated – sometimes 8BB as a solo ensemble and then swept up by the orchestra; they were beautifully woven together. It was lovely and mellow. I am glad to hear the music of the much-lauded Higdon. While lovely is nice to experience, what came next was much more than that!
After intermission, wow: Michael Hersch’s World Premiere of his “Symphony No. 3.” I snapped-to as soon as it began and was mesmerized throughout. Dramatic and emotional, this work was exciting. I don’t really know why but it reminded me of “Black Angels,” a lament for the Vietnam War. It evoked those images to me, right or wrong. I found the instrumentation fascinating – including 2 harps, ominous trombones and bass bassoon. There were moments when the music crashed, swooped and sent warnings to us all. There were moments of delicacy, effective silences and swarming. We met with Oscar after the concert for a few beers for them and more club soda for me – we were all exhilarated and full of animated conversation about Hersch’s piece which led to long animated talk about contemporary music around the world. I took voluminous notes from Oscar about what else I should be hearing as well as concerts and Festivals worldwide. A very nice night.
Saturday, August 7th
This night of concerts continued to be good. Good is good, but not great.
There was the work of three composers. Anna Clyne’s “rewind” which I think I liked best of the night. Nice sounds, it hurries along at a steady pace, which was fine as it was a shortish piece. Had it gone on longer, I think it would have needed some variance.
Jennifer Higdon’s “Percussion Concerto.” I should probably like her work better than I do. It’s lovely, even lush, as were last night’s, but I find that lovely is just that. Not so engaging. The music was played really well, and the percussionist, Colin Currie, was terrific, although I am spoiled from hearing lots of great percussion from Steve Schick and his red fish blue fish ensemble. The section that did grab me was when Colin played along with the other percussionists, sans orchestra.
The last two pieces were by Mark-Anthony Turnage (London). I like his sprightly personality after hearing him speak a few times, but his music was, to me, not so interesting. “Chicago Remains” had a great beginning – horns, clarinets and rather haunting. It grew to a city/nightlife hustle and then back to plaintive. “Drowned Out” seemed much the same to me and maybe that was really my problem, but, hey, this is my opinion/blog. I was tired by the end of the night and it all began to sound the same.
Sunday, August 8th
After a really fun dinner with Oscar, his two brothers, and Marty, I was ready for an exciting night of music. The first set was that. Eighth Blackbird performed three pieces and I liked them all. “Still Life with Avalanche by Missy Mazzoli, was great and perhaps I am prejudiced because I like Missy personally, but still I liked what she created. It was melodic without being boring, great instrumentation including harmonicas now and then.
“Catch” by Thomas Ades was written when he was 19 and included the taunting refrain of nah, nah, nah, nah, nah nah, You know the one from playground days. Fun but also smart. “Meanwhile” was the bigger piece by Stephen Hartke. I had heard of him but never heard his music before so that was nice. The ensemble played this from memory and with staging as they moved around the stage during the piece. I have heard complaints about this “arty” way of performing but I like what they did and the piece was engaging – that was what was missing last night: engagement.
The Kronos St. Quartet performed the second set. I went to lots of their concerts when I lived in SF from 1983-86 and have always admired their selection of music as well as their playing. They continue to be dazzlingly good but somehow . . . what? They played “Aheym” by Bryce Dressner, which was really fast – always a crowd pleaser; “Raga Mishra Bhairavei:Alap” was a lovely raga with drones etc, and solo viola, which was gorgeous. Final piece was “. . . hold me, neighbor, in this storm . . . ” by Serbian composer Aleksandra Vrebalov. Is Kronos focusing on music from other lands now? I guess that’s fine but I miss their earlier focus. And for this performance, I loved the stage lighting even more than the music.
It was a good weekend of music and conversation with friends, old and new. I will go to this each year. I just wish I had written about the Ojai Festival as it really is the very best I have ever attended. Next year I will.
posted by admin at 12:42pm
