Read George Grella's diary on Ostrava Days in ClassicalTV.com!
...It’s great to bear witness to all this music, great to see people lying
on the floor as Robert Ashley, Cornelius Cardew and Feldman sink in to
them, and it’s even greater to hear how this music is now to the point
where everyone has something to say, something to think, other than
"well, let’s see how it sounds."...
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Into the Night at Philharmonic Hall on Tuesday was close to a mini-marathon
with five consecutive concerts, which began before sunset and did not end
before 2 a.m.
Ostrava Days Institute’s alumni were the stars in “Part I,” which showcased
compositions by Katherine Soper, John Lely, James Saunders, Pablo Chin, and
Alex Mincek, as well as Carolyn Chen’s lush and meditative Wilder Shores of
Love.
“Part II” and “Part III,” featuring short works scored for various instrumental
configurations (from solo to small orchestra), demonstrated not only the range,
and sometimes complexity, of today’s compositional processes - including
innovative ways of playing acoustic instruments - but also the incredible
talents of the performers. The versatility of harpist Rhodri Davies (a
performer/improviser at ease in both classical music and the experimental
scene) “subverted” conventional harp literature with several solos which
stretched the performative and sonic possibilities of this instrument. These
included Christian Wolff’s For Harp Player and Yasunao Tone’s Ten Haikus of
Matsuo Basho – a calligraphic score which resulted in utterly unusual,
sometimes ethereal, sonic strokes. Other featured world-class interpreters
included violinist Conrad Harris and cellist Arne Deforce in dazzling
performances of Xenakis’ music, violinist Hana Kotková in Charles Ames’s inquisitive
Concurrence and Pierre Boulez’s Anthèmes II, as well as Daan Vanderwalle in the
world premiere of Czech composer Petr Bakla’s Melody and Accompaniment.
After Baritone Thomas Buckner’s powerful performance of Robert Ashley’s
operatic Odalisque (accompanied by Ostravaská banda), resident students staged
Cornelius Cardew’s The Tiger’s Mind. Two improvisational pieces were performed
at the same time but remained separated in space with some of the performers
gathered around one piano, lit up, and the others around another piano, kept in
darkness. This staging of sounds gradually built up, alternating between
stillness and furious outbursts, always surprising.
More than 50 audience members, lying on a gigantic floor mat or sitting on
chairs placed in a semicircle, stayed for “Part V” – a night performance of
Morton Feldman’s Trio, which began on the stroke of midnight. Conrad Harris on
violin, Arne Deforce on cello, and Daan Vanderwalle on piano gave a powerful
performance of this ‘proustian’ chamber work written by Feldman in 1980.
With 120 minutes of small, pulsating gestures, quietly building in a
constantly varying meter, time blurred and the listening experience became
somewhat mystical.
