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SEQUENZA21/
340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019

Zookeeper:   
Jerry Bowles
(212) 582-3791

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David Salvage

Contributing Editors:

Galen H. Brown
Evan Johnson
Ian Moss
Lanier Sammons
Deborah Kravetz
(Philadelphia)
Eric C. Reda
(Chicago)
Christian Hertzog
(San Diego)
Jerry Zinser
(Los Angeles)

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Jeff Harrington


Latest Posts

Ferneyhough�s Shadowtime at Lincoln Center Festival
�We�ve �ad nothin� but maggoty bread for three stinkin� days!!�
Lumina String Quartet at Europe/Asia 2005 Festival of Modern Music in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia � Part 5
Webcasts for Corigliano and Dutilleux London premieres
Hot Stuff
�Food for Worms�
Marin Alsop
It Ain�t Over Till It�s �
Department of Oversight
Guten Morgen


 

Record companies, artists and publicists are invited to submit CDs to be considered for review. Send to: Jerry Bowles, Editor, Sequenza 21, 340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019


Sunday, July 24, 2005
Jay Gottlieb at the International Keyboard Institute and Festival

An absolute treat yesterday at Mannes, the inimitable Jay Gottlieb presented a terrific program of compositions by Ives, Donatoni, Wolpe, Messiaen, and others. Gottlieb, an American expatriate living in Paris, is a commissioning machine who has worked with a veritable who�s who in post-1950 contemporary music: you made not have heard of him, but Michael Tilson Thomas, Kent Nagano, Gunther Schuller, Pierre Boulez, Magnus Lindberg, Poul Ruders, and John Adams have.

After a fidgety introduction in which he spoke of the work�s "Himalayan" monumentality, Gottlieb opened with the "Emerson" movement from Ives�s Concord Sonata. Gottlieb gave the piece a spacious, romantic reading filled with rubato and sensuous sonority. Ives felt more like an old master in Gottlieb�s hands than a radical modernist. (Richard Taruskin would have been pleased.)

The far-out mood established by the Ives was sustained by Giacinto Scelsi�s "Four Illustrations on the Metamorphosis of Vishnu." The work�s four short movements � Shesha, Veraha, Rama, and Krishna � were played with color and conviction, but Scelsi�s indulgent style and flabby sense of form left me far from satisfied with the work as a whole.

Fortunately things lightened up when Gottlieb turned next to excerpts from Franco Donatoni�s "Fran�oise-Variationen." These casual musical doodles, each only a page long, charmed the audience with their unashamed insouciance. Their slippery gestures disappeared just a second or two before overstaying their welcome, leaving a sweet taste in their wake.

Last on the first half was Stefan Wolpe�s "Stehende Musik." Played with great power, the work�s visceral brutality gave an invigorating shot of adrenaline to the ears.

A smattering of Messiaen opened the second half. Gottlieb proved equal to the extremes of touch demanded by "Le Chocard des Alpes" from the Catalogue d�oiseaux. The more introspective "Regard du Temps" from the Vingt Regards sur l�Enfant-J�sus followed, and the set concluded with "La Parole Toute-Puisante," a thunderous, explosive recitative also from the Vingt Regards.

Gottlieb then presented a suite of short works by various composers under the title "Four Pianissimo Pieces." The group consisted of Charles Koechlin�s wistful "Le Chant du Chevrier," Henri Dutilleux�s mysterious "D�Ombre et de silence," Luciano Berio�s shimmering "Luftklavier," and George Crumb�s mystical "Agnus Dei" from the Macrocosmos. After a series of rather combustible pieces, this pleasantly somnambulant suite was a small masterstroke of programming.

The concert closed with John Adams�s "Phrygian Gates." Due to the work�s length, Gottlieb frequently only plays the second half. Of course, he chops the piece in two at precisely the work�s most magical moment, but his reading yesterday was effervescent nonetheless, and it was all the more impressive considering he played from the score and turned the pages himself.

I can�t remember a program with so much music on it I wanted to hear. Gottlieb�s taste in repertoire could hardly be improved on and, even if his speaking style is a tad unhinged, one wishes him many returns to this side of the Atlantic.

 



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