{"id":4508,"date":"2012-04-11T12:14:18","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T16:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=4508"},"modified":"2012-05-01T18:33:56","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T22:33:56","slug":"american-mavericks-part-2-the-tax-man-cometh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=4508","title":{"rendered":"American Mavericks, Part 2 (the Tax Man Cometh)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sedgwick Clark<\/strong><\/p>\n

I really should be working on my taxes . . . .<\/p>\n

Cage, Cowell, Adams, Var<\/strong>\u00e8se<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first concert to involve San Francisco musicians in the series, on Tuesday in Carnegie Hall, began with the most anticipated event of the series: Cage\u2019s whimsical 1970 Song Books<\/em>, with Jessye Norman, Meredith Monk, and Joan La Barbara the unlikely trio of vocalists, and Tilson Thomas miming various actions. Cage provides nearly a hundred numbers to be executed, organized by the performers. MTT chose a half-hour selection for this occasion. Frankly, the So Percussion concert LINK the previous evening provided far more fun in Dan Deacon\u2019s less pretentious Cage knockoff, Take a Deep Breath<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Cage said that Henry Cowell, whose Synchrony <\/em>(1930) followed, was \u201cthe open sesame of new music in America.\u201d Maybe. But except for an all-Cowell concert LINK by the American Symphony under Leon Botstein at Lincoln Center two years ago, performances of his some 1,000 pieces have been few and far between since his death. For all his purported innovations–the most influential being \u201ctone clusters,\u201d in which the piano keys are struck with the fist or forearm–all the works I\u2019ve heard seem to exist more as showcases for inventiveness than cogently structured music. Still, the nearly 14-minute Synchrony <\/em>begins with a gorgeous three-minute trumpet solo (beautifully played by SF\u2019s Mark Inouye) and contains lovely moments until its abrupt ending.<\/p>\n

A lot of people I respect venerate John Adams\u2019s music. His Absolute Jest <\/em>was composed for this Mavericks tour. It\u2019s a sweet, inoffensive piece inspired by (in the composer\u2019s words) \u201cthe ecstatic energy of Beethoven, who was the master of taking the minimal amount of information and turning it into fantastic, expressive, and energized structures.\u201d The problem with such an homage is, once Absolute Jest<\/em> ended, all I could remember was Ludwig van\u2019s Ninth Symphony scherzo and the opening movement of the Op. 131 string quartet. When a Stravinsky\u2014whom Adams often evokes rhythmically\u2014throws in a skittish reference to Rossini\u2019s Il Barbiere di Siviglia <\/em>in Jeu de cartes <\/em>or an elephantine rendition of Schubert\u2019s Marche Militaire <\/em>in Circus Polka<\/em>, it couldn\u2019t be anyone but Stravinsky. The well-received performance was undoubtedly a composer\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n

When influences from Stravinsky\u2019s early ballets seep into Edgard Var\u00e8se\u2019s Am\u00e9riques<\/em> (ca. 1918-21; rev. 1927), one smiles knowingly but can\u2019t possibly escape the gruff French-American composer\u2019s path-breakingly percussive voice. Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic performed Var\u00e8se\u2019s complete works LINK on two roof-raising Lincoln Center Festival concerts two summers ago. Gilbert\u2019s Philharmonic predecessors Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, and Lorin Maazel also played Var\u00e8se\u2019s music\u2014Boulez most distinguished of all\u2014but I don\u2019t recall any Var\u00e8se at Carnegie since the stupendous Philly\/Muti Arcana <\/em>in 1985 and Cleveland\/Dohn\u00e1nyi Am\u00e9riques <\/em>in 1989. Enter Michael Tilson Thomas and his virtuoso San Franciscans, who shook the rafters with a smashing, superbly played Am\u00e9riques<\/em>. Now Arcana<\/em>, please?<\/p>\n

Ruggles, Feldman, Ives Orchestrated<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tilson Thomas has been the master interpreter of Carl Ruggles\u2019s Sun-Treader <\/em>(1926-31) since performing and recording it in 1970 with the Boston Symphony. His Carnegie Hall performance at that time was the New York premiere. His complete recording of Ruggles\u2019s music later that decade for CBS with the Buffalo Philharmonic and various soloists was recently released on CD for the first time on the Other Minds label. It only amounts to 80 minutes of music, of which the ca. 16-minute Sun-Treader <\/em>is best known. At the Wednesday concert, the San Franciscans seemed a bit more refined than either of the recordings but without ever compromising this granite-hewn score. More Ruggles, Michael?<\/p>\n

I know I should \u201cget\u201d Morton Feldman\u2019s whisper-quiet notes and silences in Piano and Orchestra <\/em>(1975). I read in James M. Keller\u2019s astute notes of Feldman\u2019s aesthetic alignment to the painters of the New York School. A friend explains how carefully the harmonics and pauses are composed, but I\u2019m still left as cold as a white Rothko canvas. I\u2019ll keep trying, but Feldman performances don\u2019t come around often. There is no doubt, however, of the commitment and artistry of pianist Emanuel Ax, whose forays into 20th-century and contemporary music are admirable, the conductor, and the San Francisco musicians.<\/p>\n

Charles Ives composed his \u201cConcord\u201d <\/em>Sonata between 1916 and 1919; then he obsessively revised it until 1947. That\u2019s 31 years. The even more obsessive American maverick, Henry Brant, took five years longer to orchestrate it (1958-1994), calling it A Concord Symphony<\/em>. From the very opening the orchestral garb bears a strong resemblance to Sun-Treader<\/em>\u2019s dissonant palette, which makes sense because\u00a0Ives and Ruggles were friends and\u00a0knew each other’s music well. The San Francisco team\u2019s recording of the Brant orchestration was released earlier in the year on the orchestra\u2019s own (and very successful) label. Needless to say, it\u2019s a \u201cmust\u201d for all Ives fans\u2014what the record companies used to call \u201ca sonic spectacular.\u201d But the live experience struck me as even more stunning, revealing overtones in the woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings that perhaps only Carnegie\u2019s fabled acoustic can offer. Ives and Ives\/Brant provide a fascinating comparison, and I strongly recommend listening to the \u201cConcord\u201d <\/em>Sonata recordings by Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Teldec) and Jeremy Denk (Think Denk Media).<\/p>\n

Tax Deadlines Wait for No Munsonian\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Tune in next week for my pithy words on the last two Mavericks concerts.<\/p>\n

Looking Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

My week\u2019s scheduled concerts:<\/p>\n

4\/12 Avery Fisher Hall. New York Philharmonic\/Jaap van Zweden; Yuja Wang, piano. Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3. Mahler: Symphony No. 1.<\/p>\n