SONGS SUNG, RHYMES RUED, PREMIERES PERFORMED
                    And a Steeplechase for the Soprano  
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of Oct.  6-13, 2009
                                                                  Vol. 12, No. 22
            A new song cycle by John Harbison is a deeply felt neoclassical reflection on life, love and death. But it’s hobbled by a poetry which was never written with singing in mind.

            The 22-minute commissioned neoclassical work, played only once before, in NYC, was presented by the adventurous San Francisco Contemporary Players series Oct. 5 at Herbst Theatre.
              Harbison, 71, who has spent his career on the MIT faculty, is one of the leading figures of East Coast composing, with a definite  leaning toward vocal music. Here in “The Seven Ages,” he set six visionary poems in blank verse written by Louise Glück  notable for erotic candor. The musical flow was slowed by a slew of consonants and too many lines ending in “ing,” providing its challenges to soprano Pamela Dellal, who nonetheless projected the sounds securely and intelligibly. The vocal line was wide-ranging through the singer’s compass, often sprinkled with broad leaps in a lively kind of musical steeplechase.  
            Harbison and Benjamin Britten sound to me like musical cousins, both devoted to the voice, avoiding harsh dissonances, and maintaining the appealing neoclassical tradition, now about a century old. But where Britten usually wrote for a tenor,  Harbison has done laudable service for the distaff side.
            The mixed ensemble under Sara Jobin’s baton furnished an animated counterpoint to Dellal. Jobin is one of several guest conductors we are likely to encounter during this search period in the wake of Berkeleyite David Milnes’ resignation as music director last spring after seven seasons. Jobin is an appealing podium personality, but her conducting style is ramrod stiff, rarely going with the flow.> 
            The audience appeared to love the minimalism of the solo flute in Steve Reich’s “Vermont Counterpoint” (1982), where Tod Brody nimbly kept pace with a bevy of prerecorded flutes---an extended allegro with magnetic intricacy.
            At the other extreme, when you want life to slow down, you turn to the late Morton Feldman. His “the viola in my life” has the solo instrument hitting only about seven notes per minute, with minimal accompaniment.
            Berkeleyite Edmund Campion’s “600 Seconds in the Worn-Out Model” is a throwback to the avant-garde of the 1960s, with fast-flying music that is taut, intense, ferocious.
            I admit I’ve never been a fan of the prickly music of the academic New Yorker Charles Wuorinen. But I like best his “Trombone Trio” (1985). It is lustrous, luminous, and resplendent with contrasting sound textures from the trio, including piano and a grand vibraphone part (impressively executed by Christopher Froh, who I think can keep  more mallets zooming along than a centipede has legs).
            Overall, the SFMCP ensembles seem to relish the most demanding tasks and scores, playing them with spirit and conviction. And the programming routinely takes on the leading composers of our day. At last count, the SFCMP had played no less than 1,150 contemporary compositions.
            MUSIC NOTES---The SFCMP’s changeovers aren’t just on the podium. There is now also a new executive director from New York, Chris Honett…. In a rare touring event, on Nov. 15 members of the SFCMP will perform in Nice, France, in the MANCA Festival. Next fall will mark the 40th season of this Bay Area flagship group specializing in small-ensemble modern music.
            Blink twice and you miss the avant-garde becoming the old guard. Longtime stalwarts like Reich, Glass, Corigliano, Harbison, Wuorinen and Del Tredici are now all in their 70s, John Adams is in his 60s. But don't expect retirement announcements any time soon---Elliott Carter, past his 100th, is still composing. Composing may well enhance longevity, as happened in the past with composers like Monteverdi, Verdi and Stravinsky.
            San Francisco Contemporary Players, at Herbst Theatre, S.F. Next: Nov. 2. For info: (415) 278-9566, or go online.

      ©Paul Hertelendy 2009
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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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