Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Anthony De Mare�s �Gotham Glory� at Zankel

Here�s the situation.

One of America�s most gifted and imaginative pianists, Anthony De Mare, takes the stage at Zankel Hall. Four of the six pieces on his program are world premieres � each inspired by New York City. One by one the pieces serve up Midtown-souvenir-style portraits of the city and utterly deny the complexity and diversity of living here. Then the concert closes with a thematically unrelated but nonetheless magnificent performance of Frederic Rzewski�s thrilling "De Profundis."

What�s a critic to do?

First up was Meredith Monk�s "Gotham Lullaby." This was one of the two "old" works on the concert, and, despite its kitchy arpeggios and the cruel vocal demands it makes on the pianist, it didn�t leave me angry like the next four pieces did; it just left me weirded-out. "Gotham Lullaby" was followed by Jason Robert Brown�s "Mr. Broadway," a four movement suite that took us for a trip down memory lane. Think of it as a Gershwin/Bernstein hodge-podge of pungent harmony and "fascinatin�" rhythm. Brown�s last movement, a tinny, saccharine bagatelle called "Hymn," destroyed any sense of formal balance the piece may have boasted until then. Next up was the reigning Pulitzer laureate, Paul Moravec. His brief "Isle of the Manhattoes." was a four minute whirl of tremolos and triads that built up no tension whatsoever and just came across as empty bombast. Closing the first half was David Del Tredici�s gargantuan multi-movement opus "Gotham Glory." Even though the work hasn�t yet been released on CD, you can get a good sense of what the fifteen-minute last movement sounds like: go to a keyboard and start playing a simple waltz. Any waltz will do. Repeat the theme over and over and over again. Then change the mode. Then begin to improvise a Lisztian coda. But then stop the coda to repeat said theme over again. Repeat ad nauseam.

The second half began with an innocuous little set of three genre pieces � a slow drag, a waltz, and a rag � by Fred Hersch called "Saloon Songs." They were easy to swallow, and the rag was a nice chromatic gloss on Joplin, but the artistic achievement was very slight. Finally De Mare played "De Profundis," and at last we were in the hands of a real composer, one whose sonic universe does not feel constrained by musical convention, but liberated by it; one whose dramatic imagination never rests on pattern and cliche, but thrives on novelty and contrast; one who knows how to write for the piano in a variety of wonderful ways, not just the ways passed down from dead composers.

I was disappointed the "Gotham" composers chose to fantasize in their pieces about New York rather than actually live. Reality in New York is never simple, and to confront such one-dimensional music inspired by the city makes one wonder how genuinely these composers absorb the environment around them. It was also disappointing because De Mare�s talents come to life most when he�s given music that is unexpected and challenging. For seventy percent of this concert, De Mare was playing music well beneath his level of artistry. Let�s forget about this bunch of bad apples and wish De Mare better luck in his next round of commissions.

posted by David Salvage 3/16/2005