BMOP Concert
May. 22nd, 2004 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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epilimnion, her guy D., Other Kenjari, and I attended the last BMOP concert of the season. Before the concert, epilimnion, D., and I went out for the chinese dinner at Taste of Asia that has become standard practice anytime epilimnion and I go to a concert at Jordan Hall. (Other Kenjari couldn't make it due to his work schedule. We caqught up with nhim before the concert)
The concert was wonderful. BMOP do a great job. Here's the rundown of the program:
Sky Above Clouds - Elena Ruehr
Ruehr is the composer in residence with BMOP, so I have heard several of her pieces. She also came and spoke at the composer's seminar when I was at Boston Conservatory. She's just great. I consistently like her music, and this piece was no exception. It was inspired by a Georgia O'Keefe painting of the same name, and it had some of the same expansive, open qualities of O'Keefe's work. The music was a little bit minimalistic, but not as repetitive as such a description often denotes. It had a big, warm sound, and a child-like exuberance not often found in contemporary music.
Persistent Memory - David Rakowski
This piece was probably the one I liked least. The opening movement, Elegy, while having some good moments, didn't really seem to go anywhere or do anything that interesting. The faster second movement was better, but still paled in comparison to the rest of the concert.
Aurora - Augusta Read Thomas
I have heard a couple of things by Thomas before and liked them very much, so I was quite happy to hear another of her works. This piece was more atonal and modernistic in sound than the other pieces I'd heard, but it was very good. It was very challenging to listen to and required some effort and attention, but rewarded the listener well. This piece was something of a concerto, although not at all in the standard classical format. Bits of material that started in the piano were reflected back by instruments from the ensemble, and vice versa. The orchestration was very good, too - a lot of clarity as well as richness and variety.
Concerto For Clarinet and Orchestra "Landscapes with Blues" - Stephen Hartke
This piece was terrific. The first movement, "Senegambia", was amazing. It evoked both safari music and blues without every falling into cheesiness or banality. The other two movements, "Delta Nights" and "Philamayork", kept it all going. The work as a whole was beautiful and dynamic. The clarinet provided most of the bluesy material while the orchestra provided a large, jazzy, backdrop reminiscent of Copland or Gershwin. It was a very focused piece and very successful. Listening to it was a complete and satisfying experience.
War Chant - Evan Ziporyn
I loved this work, absolutely loved it. The form and some of the sounds of the music was based on a short airplane ride. The inspiration came from the music of Iannis Xenakis and from the work of Henry Mancini and Juan Esquivel. And despite all these extremely disparate sources, the music worked, it really worked. The first few minutes of the piece were meant to evoke the taxi down the runway and liftoff, and it was so dead-on effective that not only could I hear the moment of leaving the ground, I could almost feel it. The middle of the piece was a brilliant blend of modern music and orchestral bachelor pad music of the 1950s and 1960s. And them came the landing. It was a fantastic piece.
As a side note to the concert, I find myself lamenting the fact that MIT has no doctoral program in music composition. Both Elena Ruehr and Evan Ziporyn teach there, as well as John Harbison (a composer I greatly admire). They have these three amazing people, and only an undergraduate music program. Damn! And yes, I realize that I could study privately with any of these people, but the hard reality is that to do what I want, I need a degree.
epilimnion, her guy D., Other Kenjari, and I attended the last BMOP concert of the season. Before the concert, epilimnion, D., and I went out for the chinese dinner at Taste of Asia that has become standard practice anytime epilimnion and I go to a concert at Jordan Hall. (Other Kenjari couldn't make it due to his work schedule. We caqught up with nhim before the concert)The concert was wonderful. BMOP do a great job. Here's the rundown of the program:
Sky Above Clouds - Elena Ruehr
Ruehr is the composer in residence with BMOP, so I have heard several of her pieces. She also came and spoke at the composer's seminar when I was at Boston Conservatory. She's just great. I consistently like her music, and this piece was no exception. It was inspired by a Georgia O'Keefe painting of the same name, and it had some of the same expansive, open qualities of O'Keefe's work. The music was a little bit minimalistic, but not as repetitive as such a description often denotes. It had a big, warm sound, and a child-like exuberance not often found in contemporary music.
Persistent Memory - David Rakowski
This piece was probably the one I liked least. The opening movement, Elegy, while having some good moments, didn't really seem to go anywhere or do anything that interesting. The faster second movement was better, but still paled in comparison to the rest of the concert.
Aurora - Augusta Read Thomas
I have heard a couple of things by Thomas before and liked them very much, so I was quite happy to hear another of her works. This piece was more atonal and modernistic in sound than the other pieces I'd heard, but it was very good. It was very challenging to listen to and required some effort and attention, but rewarded the listener well. This piece was something of a concerto, although not at all in the standard classical format. Bits of material that started in the piano were reflected back by instruments from the ensemble, and vice versa. The orchestration was very good, too - a lot of clarity as well as richness and variety.
Concerto For Clarinet and Orchestra "Landscapes with Blues" - Stephen Hartke
This piece was terrific. The first movement, "Senegambia", was amazing. It evoked both safari music and blues without every falling into cheesiness or banality. The other two movements, "Delta Nights" and "Philamayork", kept it all going. The work as a whole was beautiful and dynamic. The clarinet provided most of the bluesy material while the orchestra provided a large, jazzy, backdrop reminiscent of Copland or Gershwin. It was a very focused piece and very successful. Listening to it was a complete and satisfying experience.
War Chant - Evan Ziporyn
I loved this work, absolutely loved it. The form and some of the sounds of the music was based on a short airplane ride. The inspiration came from the music of Iannis Xenakis and from the work of Henry Mancini and Juan Esquivel. And despite all these extremely disparate sources, the music worked, it really worked. The first few minutes of the piece were meant to evoke the taxi down the runway and liftoff, and it was so dead-on effective that not only could I hear the moment of leaving the ground, I could almost feel it. The middle of the piece was a brilliant blend of modern music and orchestral bachelor pad music of the 1950s and 1960s. And them came the landing. It was a fantastic piece.
As a side note to the concert, I find myself lamenting the fact that MIT has no doctoral program in music composition. Both Elena Ruehr and Evan Ziporyn teach there, as well as John Harbison (a composer I greatly admire). They have these three amazing people, and only an undergraduate music program. Damn! And yes, I realize that I could study privately with any of these people, but the hard reality is that to do what I want, I need a degree.
