Royal College of Music,
21 February 2013
Steve Reich's Tehillim, by ASKO and the Schoenberg Ensemble.
A satisfying
programme of contemporary music spanning the minimalist soundscape.
Variable Geometry, led by Jean-Philippe Calvin, is
apparently an RCM group dedicated to contemporary music, with a focus on
composer/performer collaborations.
This concert of highly rhythmic pieces was impressively
varied. Performance standards were high, and the musicians were visibly
enthusiastic about each piece, which is surprisingly important at a concert,
where there is usually little visual stimulation.
The weakest work was the opener, John Adam’s Chamber
Symphony. Surprisingly, given my expectations of this composer, I was bored even before the first movement had finished, and
the humorous movement titles did not translate into humorous music. However, at least the second movement, Aria with Walking Bass, grabbed attention.
Not Wanting to Say Anything About John, a collaboration
between composer Raquel García-Tomás and video artist Aïnoa Sarabia, was
charming. This in spite of its chance-influenced creative process, an homage to John
Cage’s piece on Duchamp, is probably best thought of as a mildly perverse way
of structuring the piece for the creators, rather than something which enhances
the experience for the audience.
The combination of images and music seemed appropriate, and
kept my interest, even if I felt the images were the most striking aspect of
the work, and the music effectively ‘mickey mousing’.
Workers Union by Louis Andriessen seems to have a similarly
complicated creative process, though again it didn’t seem relevant to this
powerful realisation. I didn’t notice the work resembling political action (as
the composer apparently intends) but the sense of tension and force was
conveyed, which may be similar.
Both these works made me wonder at the significance of an
artist’s methods. These give grist for academics, and that shouldn’t be
underestimated as a method of consolidating an artist’s position in the canon.
But the artist (or the work) first needs to be part of the
canon in order to receive attention from academics. Which normally means the
artwork must appeal to audiences, whether general or specialist. And I don’t
think that can happen based purely on theoretical methodologies, it must happen
because the work itself appeals directly. I think it is no coincidence
Schoenberg established himself with Transfigured Night before launching the
second and later string quartets.
The second half of the concert was devoted to Steve Reich’s
majestic Tehillim, settings of parts of psalms in Hebrew.
This is clearly a major work, though I don't think it was fully successful. The musical side is appealing, conveying ritual in a new way, and very beautiful. But the words of the psalms themselves sometimes blended and distended into oblivion. Certainly it was hard to follow the text.
If it is odd to link Reich with the polyphony of the late
European middle ages, it is appropriate – the music takes priority over the
text, and a sense of ritual takes precedence over both.
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