A NEW DEAL, SHUFFLING POPS AND CLASSICS
                    With Deft Cello Arrangements of Pop Hits
<>                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of Jan. 9-16, 2012
                                                                  Vol. 14, No. 34
            The ex-Bay Area cello star Matt Haimovitz, 40, is an innovator. He paired up with another classical artist, pianist Christopher O’Riley, for a bountiful set of fusion and cross-over music, bringing pop music into a classical concert format---at a jazz club.
            O’Riley, who had already played countless arrangements of Radiohead’s music in recent years, worked over pieces by Blonde Redhead, Arcade Fire and others for one of the most varied cello-piano recitals ever, tossing in a few classics along the way.
            What made their Jan. 5 recital so memorable was not just playing a jazz club date (at Yoshi’s San Francisco) before a healthy crowd that maintained a pindrop silence, but also hiphopping back and forth between the genres---“like pushing ‘shuffle’ on an iPod,” as the artists explained. The two threw themselves into the mixed bag with gusto.
            Fortunately, O’Riley’s arrangements were deft, inventive and idiomatic, calling on  the cellist’s considerable virtuosity, bringing some slimmed-down opuses into full bloom, adding dimension in unexpected places. Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song” got Therenim-like glissandi, and tricky double stops on the cello. Their “Fishes/Arpeggi” got a perpetuum mobile treatment. High cello harmonics festooned Arcade Fire’s music. And “In the Back Seat” got tricky double stops on cello and a rolling momentum.
            While the focus was on the star cellist, a lion’s share of the credit went to O’Riley’s skilled arrangements, available also on audio albums.  Blonde Redhead’s “Misery Is  a Butterfly” offered intriguing, vaguely Spanish reflections.
            These were mixed with more traditional classical pieces---a lament by Martinu, “Variations on a Slovak Theme,” Anton Webern’s aphoristic “Three Pieces,” and generous swatches of Stravinsky’s ballet-like “Suite italienne.” There was also the unaccompanied Bach, plus parts of Janacek’s “Poháska” fairy tale, one of which sounded like Broadway’s “Favorite Things.”
            All told, this was one of the most stimulating recitals of the year, all over at Yoshi’s, where manhattans and sakes are much more familiar cocktails than Martinu and Stravinsky.
            ORIGINS---Haimovitz, a strapping, long-haired artist vaguely resembling Franz Liszt,  had nostalgically led off with a sinewy rendition of the opener of Bach’s C Major Unaccompanied Cello Suite, which he had played as a child in Berkeley’s Junior Bach Festival 30 years earlier….O’Riley is best known for his youth work, as pianist-host of the award-winning radio show “From the Top.” He had also given master classes to promising young performers in San Jose three years ago. Hia arrangements however are all too easily overlooked. 

          ©Paul Hertelendy 2012

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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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