Elliott Carter’s String Quartet No. 1, by Laura Emmery, Cambridge Elements, Music Since 1945, Cambridge University Press.
Laura Emmery has done a great deal of analytical research on the music of Elliott Carter, and her book on his string quartets is a valuable resource for anyone interested in learning how he composes. Emmery’s latest publication is part of Cambridge University Press’s Elements series, one of several slender and specific books that each deal with a particular topic. Here, it is Elliott Carter’s String Quartet No. 1, which was composed in 1950-’51 and is widely regarded as a watershed work in the composer’s output, as well as a key example of High Modernism. Rather than focus on technical elements of the music, Emmery looks at the genesis and reception history of the piece. Biographical myths that, with the help of sympathetic people in Carter’s circle, have persisted are called into question. The co-opting by American government officials of homegrown modernist music to use as soft power in Europe is also given considerable attention.
A native New Yorker, Carter traveled south to compose the first quartet, staying in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona while on a Guggenheim Fellowship. But, as Emmery notes, it was hardly a monk-like existence, with Carter spending time with other artists, particularly visual artists, He traveled to Mexico to visit with the expat composer Conlon Nancarrow, whose sophisticated proportional deployment of rhythm encouraged Carter’s approach to polyrhythms and metric modulation in his own music. He even used a brief quotation from Nancarrow’s work in the quartet, as a tip of the hat. Emmery points out that this was hardly like the solitary creation myth that some of Carter’s supporters have portrayed.
In the 1950s, the composer Nicolas Nabokov was instrumental in promoting Carter’s music in Europe. At the time, Nabokov was Secretary General of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, or CCF, which was backed by the CIA and aided in the presentation of American concert music. Today many people think of modernist music, if they think of it at all, as confrontational and its presentation, at best, discounting of audience reception. The US government promoted all kinds of American concert music, not just modernism, but composers like Carter were thought to represent the sophistication of Western music in the face of the hypernationalist jingoism of Eastern Bloc creators. For instance Shostakovich came in for particular criticism from Nabokov for caving in to Stalin and altering his compositional approach. Another facet to the European entanglements of Carter’s String Quartet No. 1 is its winning of, and subsequent disqualification from, a string quartet composition competition in Liege, Belgium. It is a knotty tale, and Emmery does an excellent job disentangling its various threads.
How much Carter abetted the soft power stratagems is called into question. Emmery acknowledges that it is likely that the composer had some understanding of the reasons that his music was flourishing in part due to this type of promotion, but he didn’t do anything to prevent it from being used for political ends. That said, she doesn’t suggest that he was an activist for the Cold War cause either.
Carter may have taken until his forties to develop his distinctive mature style, but he continued to compose until after age 100. The premiere of String Quartet No. 1 proved to be the launchpad for Carter’s career ascent. Having dealt comprehensively with the musical elements of the quartet already, Emmery’s explication of extramusical factors that helped to support both its genesis and reception history is eloquent and clearly rendered. This book will likely be an eye-opener for anyone wanting to learn more about the crafting of Carter’s persona and modern music’s Cold War backstory.
Composer Kati Agocs (photo courtesy Visconti Arts)
It’s rare for a new work to have even a second performance, but Kati Agócs’ Rapprochement received nine plays in a single day. Agócs was commissioned by the Banff International String Quartet Competition to write a composition that each quartet would be required to play in the 2025 competition.
The title of her nine-minute piece means “to bring together.” Agócs, in a pre-performance conversation with BISQC director Barry Shiffman, explained that it is in variation form, in which the harmonic underpinning is important to the melodic line. It’s a lyrical piece, and the instructions call for a lot of fluidity with beautiful solos for each member of the quartet. In an introductory video, she said, “The score leaves room for players to shape nuances of dynamics, articulation, balances, and color.” Agócs worked individually with the competing quartets as they learned the piece.
Quatuor Elmire (Photo by Rita Taylor, courtesy of Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity)
There were nine quartets participating in 2025 BISQC: Viatores Quartet (from Berlin), Arete Quartet (Seoul), Cong Quartet (Hong Kong), Quatour Magenta (Paris), Quatour Elmire (Paris), Quartett HANA (Munich), Nerida Quartet (Bremen), Quartet KAIRI (Salzburg), and Poiesis Quartet (Cincinnati). Naturally, each gave its own spin on the work. This was a great opportunity for the audience to hear the ensembles back-to-back-to-back. Over the previous four days, the quartets performed one round of works from the romantic era and one round of a quartet by Franz Josef Haydn paired with a 21st century work. You can watch all of the performances on demand on the BISQC website.
I asked Shiffman why he chose to program all of the premiere performances of Agócs’ piece in a single concert. He said, “Look at the audience. It is the most popular concert of the competition.” He said that most of the audience are not avid new music listeners, and it’s helpful to them to hear many interpretations at the same time.
The Arete Quartet pulsated the rhythms as if inhaling and exhaling. Cong gave special attention to a steady eighth note all through the piece, which was one of the instructions in the score. Magenta leaned into the dissonances at the opening, and gave the rhythms a jaunty swing. Elmire made the most of the hemiola rhythms near the beginning and gave the jolly rhythms a sensual twist, ending with panache.
HANA did a great job of “singing” lyrically (another instruction in the score). Nerida gave the ethereal opening an especially mystical feel and their upward glissandos were especially gossamer. KAIRI seemed to have an especially good handle on the transitions between sections, and Poiesis showed a confidence above the others. They were especially birdlike in the chirps that came just before upward glissandos, and did a great job of varying the sound of each iteration of the theme.
Agócs, who is Canadian-American-Hungarian, teaches at New England Conservatory in Boston. She has written two other quartets, Tantric Variations for Cecilia Quartet and Imprimatur for Jupiter Quartet, both previous BISQC winners.
The first Banff International String Quartet Competition was in 1983 and it’s been held every three years since then. It takes place at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity which is in Banff National Park, a breathtakingly beautiful location in the Canadian Rockies. The winner of the 2025 competition will be announced on August 31.
2025 Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood – July 24 – July 28, 2025
Tanglewood Music Center in the cool green Berkshires of Massachusetts (credit Aram Boghosian)
Every summer since 1964, the Tanglewood Music Center presents its Festival of Contemporary Music. According to Tanglewood’s materials:
The Festival of Contemporary Music (FCM) is one of the world’s premier showcases for works from the current musical landscape and landmark pieces from the new music vanguard of the 20th century. FCM affords Tanglewood Music Center Fellows the opportunity to explore unfamiliar repertoire and experience the value of direct collaboration with living composers.
Over the four FCM concerts (of the total of six) I heard carefully honed performances by the Tanglewood Fellows, Fromme players and the Mexican percussion quartet Tambuco.
Gabriela Ortiz is the director of FCM this year, the latest in the many high notes that the Mexican composer is enjoying. In the past season, she was composer in residence at Carnegie Hall, Curtis Institute, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León; her commissioned works were premiered at New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, and she won three Grammy awards.
Ortiz’s FCM programming traced the lineage of Mexican composers from Chavez to Lavista to Ortiz herself and to her student Diana Syrse, showed off the versatile talents of the Mexico-based percussion ensemble Tambuco and the incredible capacity of the Tanglewood Fellows to learn and perfect carefully honed performances of a mountain of new music.
Two beefs: Each program ran at least 25% longer than its stated duration. Each was densely programmed, and the ultralong set changes between each piece (often involving dozens of percussion instruments) were not accounted for in the production schedule. Nor were the often-lengthy introductions by Ortiz.
And, rather than presenting a spectrum of works by a range of composers, Ortiz programmed a great deal of her own music with a smattering of other works to provide context. This was in contrast to previous years in which a broader survey of music was presented.
Ortiz’s music is high-quality and thoughtful, employing interesting sounds and techniques, rhythms and sonorities, often telling a story in vivid colors and gestures. But pretty much every piece wore out its welcome, going on long after I felt it should have ended, without bringing in new ideas or furthering the experience of the piece.
A member of Tambuco playing the marimbula at Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music 2025 (credit Gail Wein)
Which brought to mind a question that nags me from time to time – why don’t composers have editors? Authors of books have them. Journalists have them. But no one seems to be telling a composer, “Draw a double bar already, would ya?” Come to think of it, it may be the test of time that serves this purpose. There’s a lot of music written over the past 500 years that is justly neglected. Conversely, there’s good reason that many war horses in the canon have endured. It’s collective taste making, standing the test of time.
The program on July 25, “Mexico, Cuba, the U.S., and One Hundred Years of Percussion” featured, predictably, a barrage of percussion, and in every piece at least one unusual instrument was on stage. In Ortiz’s Rio de las Mariposas for two harps and steel drum, the disparate instruments blended surprisingly well. The glass harmonica gave Mario Lavista’s Musicas de Cristal a soundscape all its own. The soft slow music was enhanced by the ambient rustle of trees outside Ozawa Hall. Amadeo Roldán’s Rítmica V and Rítmica VI included a cascade of diverse instruments, the most unusual of which was a marimbula, a cross between a giant mbira (African thumb piano) and a cajón (a wooden box which the percussionist slaps with their hand). Hearing the mechanical sirens in Edgard Varese’s landmark Ionisation, was the peak of a memorable performance of that iconic 20th century work.
On July 26, the program “Music of Migration and Exile” included music by Ortiz and the Mexican-American composer Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. This program, as all the others that I heard at the FCM, were marked by truly spectacular performances by the fellows. All around they play like much more seasoned pros, and with an enthusiasm and bravado that more experienced hands sometimes lack.
Zohn-Muldoon’s Suite from Comala is an extract of a larger work based on Pedro Páramo, a classic Mexican novella by Juan Rulfo. Zohn-Muldoon added guitar to this score for Pierrot ensemble plus percussion and guitar. The combination worked especially well in this alluring work, as the guitar sometimes aligned with the strings, and at other times with the percussion.
In addition to the programs I detailed above, the festival highlighted the talents of the American composers Ellen Reid and Gabriela Smith. It was great to hear some concert music from Mexico that doesn’t often get to U.S. stages. And there’s nothing like getting to revel in the sounds of contemporary concert music for four days, especially in the picturesque environs of the Tanglewood Music Center.
Composer Tobias Picker won a Grammy for his 2020 operatic version of The Fantastic Mister Fox, and many pianists have first encountered him through the diatonic piece The Old and Lost Rivers. Picker has another side to his musical persona that is in no small measure reflective of his time as a student of Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, and Charles Wuorinen. The Bright Shiny Things recording NOVA includes chamber music that celebrates these high modernist roots, as well as forays into postmodernism.
The title work is the latter, a riff on both the appropriate accompaniment, at least in Manhattan, for a bagel and cream cheese, as well as a send-up of one of Franz Schubert’s most enduring chamber pieces, the Trout Quintet. The result is lively, with tongue in cheek humor giving way to expert writing for the instruments, the composer distinguishing himself as a performer, undertaking the piano part.
The recording sessions for NOVA were completed at various times, and some of the performers are no longer living. The late Lynne Harrell’s performance in Suite for Cello and Piano is memorable. He plays with yearning legato in“Serenade,” its first movement, and puckish pizzicato in “Daylight,” its second. Ann-Marie McDermott, who is still with us, also distinguishes herself, with expressive and assured playing throughout. The third movement, “Lament,” is more dramatic than doleful, and Harrell performs with incendiary phrasing. The suite’s final movement, titled “Alone,” is still a duo, but it is lonesome and solitary in its demeanor. Another departed musician, Peter Serkin, plays Three Pieces for Piano with sensitivity and virtuosity in equal measure, elucidating the complex phrasing of “Svelto,” its first movement, emphasising the dynamic and rhythmic nuances in the second, “Liberamente,” and, performing the assertive gestures of the “Feroce” third movement con brio.
Happily most of the performers are still around to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Pianist Ursula Oppens makes multiple appearances, with Charles Neidich in “Nocturne,” a brief, gentle duet, and solo in the more extensive “Pianorama.” Violinist Young Uck Kim and Emmanuel Ax collaborate well on Invisible Lilacs, a three movement piece with an opener marked “Fast,” which it certainly is here, a pensive “Elegy,”, and a concluding “Moto Perpetuo” movement that is impressively played.
The disc’s final piece, Blue Hula. features Speculum Musicae, a chamber ensemble that boasted some of the best performers of modern classical music. It is a formidable piece that suits them well, with a finely etched gestural profile of corruscating lines. As the piece progresses, its rhythmic drive increases, culminating in the breakneck pace of the third movement, marked “very fast.”
NOVA presents another side of Picker’s music, one that embraces complexity but sacrifices none of the directness of expression that characterizes his more recent music.
Midsummer Musicfest at Kaufmann Concert Hall, 92nd Street Y
July 9, 2025
NEW YORK – July often finds New York-based musicians playing in summer festivals well outside the city. The 92nd Street Y’s Midsummer MusicFest enticed a small handful of luminaries back to town to play chamber music at the venue’s Kaufmann Concert Hall. Violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Steven Isserlis, and pianist Jeremy Denk have joined forces before, but not for a while in New York. In 2024, to commemorate the one hundredth year of his passing, they toured programs of music by the French composer Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924). They revisited these works at the Y on Wednesday, July 9 and Saturday, July 12.
As Isserlis pointed out in remarks from the stage, Fauré isn’t usually mentioned in the same breath as Debussy and Ravel, but he probably should be. The likely reason is that relatively little of his music was large-scale, and of these only the orchestral arrangement of the Pavane and the Requiem are regularly programmed. On the other hand, his songs and chamber music are a rich repertoire demonstrating abundant compositional gifts; memorable melodies, vivid harmonies, and consummate craftsmanship. Isserlis’s case for Fauré was eloquent, and the playing by the trio, joined by violinist Irène Duval and violist Blythe Teh Engstroem, even more so.
One of the most challenging aspects of playing Fauré’s music is the issue of tempo, namely how much rubato one should use. Reports of the composer’s frequent performances as a pianist suggest that he preferred steady tempos, with flexibility where indicated, seldom admitting extravagances. This became even more true in his late performances, where profound hearing loss meant that coordination with collaborators became all the more important.
In their renditions of the Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Major, Opus 13, Bell and Denk proved that one can be amply expressive without excessive rubato. Their version of the sonata presented its many beautiful tunes and intricate phrasing with both detailed attention and luminous warmth. Its soaring first theme is tempting to exaggerate in the aforementioned manner. Bell instead played expressively, never overdoing it. The audience at the Y couldn’t restrain themselves from bursting into applause after the conclusion of the first movement, enthusiasm trumping any worries about a faux pas. Fauré was ambidextrous, and even when they are not virtuosic, his piano parts can prove challenging. Denk enjoys a good challenge, and he inhabits Fauré’s music with estimable suavity. The sense of ensemble reminded one that these are avid chamber musicians who, by long association, are attuned to one another with razor focus. The second and third movements were no less impressive, and the applause after the entire work’s conclusion was no less resounding.
Isserlis joined Denk for a duo version of the Barcarolle in F-sharp Minor, Opus 66. The cellist has performed Fauré’s Cello Sonata with Denk, but on this evening he contented himself with arrangements of some of the composer’s best-loved piano pieces, their melodies underscored by the addition of cello. In the second half, he also performed the Sicilienne, Opus 78, and Berceuse, Opus 16. The pieces recast in this way underscore memorable melodies, and elsewhere resonant bass notes are doubled and thereby amplified. Denk made sure that the piano, despite inherently different attack and decay profiles from the cello, was in sync with the string instrument, making for a beautiful blended sound.
Photo: Michael Priest.
Duval and Teh Engstroem performed with the trio in the Piano Quintet No. 1 in D minor, Opus 89. The resulting group had a simpatico interaction, its opening allegro movement’s interlacing lines being given particular attention, and throughout a buoyant sense of phrasing. D minor is often used in funereal contexts, the Mozart Requiem and Bach’s D minor Toccata for solo violin to name two. Even in its lyrical slow movement, Fauré’s Piano Quintet never seems to plumb dolorous depths. Instead, the piece feels like a dramatic journey that seldom loses hope for a destination. The concluding third movement was an ample payoff. Instead of ending in minor, it is in D major, with its main theme principally scalar in design. There are little modal inflections around the edges, imparting an impressionist ambience. The performance itself was effusive and unerring, with pinpoint execution of complexly overlapping entrances, thoughtfully nuanced dynamics, and rousing tutti passages. Its close was triumphal in character.
There may not be many hits among Fauré’s orchestral works, but the quintet is chamber music writ large. It is an ambitious piece cast in three sizable movements that clocks in at around a half hour in duration. The composer took great pains to create the version that audiences hear today, starting it around 1887 and taking nearly twenty years to finalize the score. He wrote a second in C minor, completed in 1921, and they both have set a high standard for the genre. The Y’s Midsummer Musicfest fete of Fauré did well by him, and one hopes that it doesn’t take an anniversary year for further championing of this fine composer.
Unseen World is a new release by composer Mara Gibson on the Mark Masters record label. The album consists of five works composed between 2020 and 2024 that are inspired by vivid visual art that is both expressive and complex. Various instrumental ensembles are employed including a piano and cello duet, a brass quintet, trumpet duet, woodwind duet and a large chamber orchestra. The meticulous writing present in the scores, the outstanding technique of the musicians and remarkable efforts by the soloists make Unseen World an impressive realization of contemporary musical expression.
The first piece on the album is Swansongs (2022). This is a three movement work that features Albina Khaliapova at the piano and Eduard Teregulov on cello. The piece is inspired by Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862-1944), and was commissioned by the performers.
“Hilma’s Symmetry (and Chaos)”, the first movement, opens with a deliberate series of strong and dissonant piano chords that rise successively in pitch. This soon changes to a rapid, running line in the piano accompanied by long sustained tones in the cello underneath. A sense of anxiety builds as the lines weave in and around each other. The cello adds to the tension with sharp pizzicato phrases and bright arco passages. About two thirds through, there is a sudden slowdown, with a mournful cello solo accompanied by single notes from deep in the piano. The movement ends with a solitary low note in the lowest piano register. The piece is just three and a half minutes long and the liner notes suggest that this movement is reminiscent of the “…expressionistic paintings of the beginning of the 20th century.” A very apt description.
“Hildegard”, the second movement, opens with a low growl in the cello followed by a quickly running stream of piano notes in the upper registers. Right from the beginning there is a sense of heightened tension. The cello soon joins in with faster gestures and the lines again weave in and around each other, alternating between conflict and cohesion. The low tones from the cello contrast nicely with the higher moving notes in the piano. About midway, the piano and cello are heard in the same middle/low register and this replaces the tension with a feeling of chaos and confusion. The tempo slows from its frenetic pace, and quietly subdued notes are heard from the piano at the finish. The fast tempo, changing dynamics and complex texture of this movement highlight the seasoned technique that the two musicians have brought to this piece.
The final movement, “Lock and Key”, begins in a completely different direction with soft piano notes. A mournful, sustained tone is heard high in the cello, bringing a painful feel to this. The cello continues in its slow, expressive line with the piano grimly accompanying underneath. The two performers of this piece write in the liner notes: “Hypnotizing harmonies of the movement force the listeners and performers to detach from the fast-paced reality and focus on their inner world.” “Lock and Key” is a satisfying contrast to the first two movements and provides a fittingly solemn ending to Swansongs.
Next is Fight|Flight, (2020), written in close collaboration with the Atlantic Brass Quintet, who premiered the piece in 2022. The piece was inspired by both the human responses to danger and the making of honey by bees. A strong buzzing sound is heard at the opening, produced by the brass players using only their mouthpieces. This establishes the unmistakable context of frenetic flight. Warm brassy tones are soon heard, as if we are in the presence of a large swarm of bees. A sharp and loud trumpet call enters, announcing the more militant ‘fight’ motif. Soon all the brass players are exchanging sharp phrases back and forth, as if sparring. The various horn lines soon dissemble into a general melee. The technique and dynamic interplay in this section is impressive and the result sounds like more than just five players. The congenial mouthpiece buzzing returns in the last minute of the piece, as it slowly fades to its finish. Flight Fight is an inventive combination of the diverse sounds that can be conjured from a single brass quintet.
Pranayama (2021), is a woodwind duet performed by Melody Wan, flute and Thomas Kim on clarinet. The inspiration for this piece comes from yoga breathing practice and the painting “Ringing Lung”, by Anne Austin Pearce. Low, slow clarinet tones open the piece suggesting intentional patterns of breathing. The flute joins in and the flowing tones weave their way through various registers and colors. There is a meditative feel to this with just the slightest tinge of sadness. A rapid trill in the flute, then followed by the clarinet, add some energy and optimism along with loud and quick runs up and down a series of scales. The dynamics rise and fall suggesting the movement of air in breathing. As the piece proceeds, the occasional dissonance and pitch bending add intensity to the textures, matching the fluidity of the visual art. The piece ends as quietly as it started. With its many moods and nuances, Pranayama rests squarely on the virtuosity of the performers, and they do not disappoint.
Snowball (2024), was inspired by a Susan B. Anthony quote: “The older I get, the greater power I seem to have to have the world. I am like a snowball – the further I am rolled, the more I gain.” This piece is for two trumpets, performed by Jena and Matthew Vangjel who recorded this piece just a week before the birth of their second child.
Snowball opens with a muted solo trumpet repeating a line of solid, declarative notes. The second trumpet enters, similarly muted and in the same register with a lovely harmonic interleaving of the two parts. The mute on one trumpet is then changed and this provides a striking contrast in timbre. As the piece proceeds, the mutes are alternately changed – or removed – producing an ever-changing series of surfaces and colors. The tempo and rhythms are steady and direct, but with a just enough complexity to engage the ear. Towards the finish, the dynamic levels increase, bringing out the familiar forward boldness inherent in two solo trumpets. Snowball artfully reveals many surprising sonic possibilities, all lurking in the conventional trumpet.
Escher Keys (2021) is the most ambitious work of the album, a full blown bassoon concerto in three movements with a duration of 26 minutes. The soloist is Darrel Hale and the 39 piece chamber orchestra is conducted by Scott Terrell. Lithographs and a woodcut by the artist MC Escher provided Gibson with the visual inspiration for this piece and the result is a rich mixture of intense abstraction and powerful expression. As the liner notes explain: “Each movement juxtaposes traditional and non-traditional instrumental relationships between Hale interjecting his statements and the orchestra responding with atmospheric tessellations…”
“Ascending and Descending”, the first movement, opens with solemn, sustained tones in the strings with a quiet drum beat underneath. The bassoon enters in the same fashion and immediately rises to the top of the texture. Woodwinds and the brass join in with bold notes of dissonance accompanied by tense rhythms in the strings and anxious tones from the bassoon. Rapid runs by the soloist and short repeating phrases in the orchestra add to the tension. About midway, the tempo slows and the sustained tones briefly return with the bassoon leading the way. An ascending run of pitches in the winds and brass add energy, followed by a lonely bassoon solo that brings an isolated and melancholy feel. The bassoon playing is very expressive here and the solo continues with slowly descending notes to quiet conclusion. A final deep tone is heard in the string bass at the finish.
Movement two is “Three Worlds” and this begins with solitary and tentative growls from the bassoon, slow and sustained at first, but escalating into bouncy and rapid rhythms. Now the bassoon is heard in a higher register, accompanied by the strings and an oboe trading short, snappy phrases. More woodwinds join in and the various lines alternately separate, then join in tutti chords. There is a wonderful mix of cascading and descending pitches always on the move, playfully chasing and swirling around each other. Towards the finish, a solemn bassoon solo produces a more introspective feeling and the piece ends quietly on a low tone. “Three Worlds” exhibits excellent musicianship and coordination between the soloist, especially given the many complex responses summoned from the orchestra.
The concluding movement for Escher Keys is “Day and Night” and “Waterfall”. There is a subtle, rural feel to this, as the liner notes explain: “Beginning in the sky of the first image, the listener moves back and forth, side to side.” The movement opens with high, sustained flute tones that establish an air of mystery. The solo bassoon enters with a moving line – at first with a curious feel, then with bolder declamatory passages. The rapid notes could suggest the activity of birds in a field. Long, flowing orchestral passages are soon heard underneath, suggesting a pastoral river scene. This becomes progressively more complex as the various orchestral sections follow with independent lines that weave in and around the soloist.
After a brief silence there are low, growling tones by the solo bassoon that suggest a bit of sadness and frustration. Warm string tones enter as the bassoon and a solo violin exchange phrases, building tension. A breathy sound is heard from the bassoon, followed by a more conventional, solitary notes. Concerto for Orchestra springs to mind; “Day and Night” delivers a level of atmospheric mystery similar to the Bartok classic.
Strings enter with ascending figures comprised of blurred pitches. Loud percussion and the bassoon are heard in the foreground – more anxious now. The concerto concludes with a long sustained tone in the bassoon and a high, questioning violin note. Escher Keys is abstract music inspired by abstract art. The vivid expression heard in the ear matches the intensity of the optical experience of the eye. The fidelity of the music to the visual is result of Mara Gibson’s masterful score, the precise playing in the orchestra and the virtuosity of soloist Darrel Hale.
Unseen World is available as a digital download or physical CD from Mark Custom.
Pianists Adam Sherkin and Anthony de Mare (courtesy of the artists)
The Canadian pianist/composer Adam Sherkin shares music from his home country on an extensive program at Merkin Hall in New York on March 15, 2025. “Composers in Play XV” is presented by Piano Lunaire, an organization launched by Sherkin and his colleagues in 2018. On this occasion he joins forces with the American pianist Anthony de Mare.
Together the two perform music by (mostly) living Canadian composers for one and two pianos.
Each of the performers has connections with some of the creators. In Sherkin’s case it is himself as the composer of Ink from the Shield for two pianos, which has its world premiere performance this program. De Mare has a 30+ year friendship with Rodney Sharman, and was one of the people who encouraged the composer to write a series of “Opera Transcriptions,” three of which are on this program.
The composers represent a geographical cross section of Canada: Vivian Fung hails from Edmonton; Ann Southam (the sole non-living composer on this program) was from Winnipeg; Kelly Marie-Murphy from Calgary, and Linda Catlin Smith and Sherkin from Toronto.
On Thursday evening in New York, Momenta Quartet’s October festival – now nine years running – closed with an assorted program, enthusiastically curated by violist/composer Stephanie Griffin. Griffin is the last founding member still actively performing with the group. Noting that this festival has ever featured the opportunity for each member to have curatorial carte blanche on one night only, Griffin nodded to the overall 2024 theme – Charles Ives at 150 – while admitting that “this is not a thematic program, but rather a joyous collection of pieces that I saw fit to celebrate the genius of Charles Ives and my own twenty years as the violist of Momenta.” As such, her own instalment was themed Momenta at 20. Griffin’s rather fine and comprehensive program notes are recommended ancillary reading, and can be found HERE.
The first musical offering was from Mexican composer Julián Carrillo: his String Quartet No. 3 “Dos Bosquejos.” Opening with muted strings and an effective microtonal chorale, this music veiled itself in mystery, dark and lush, a perfect selection with which to begin the evening. The piece continued to unfold like a set of exercises – or experiments – in string writing, with novel techniques (ca. 1927!) and textural effects. The first movement, “Meditación,” eventually burst a romantic vein, with solos and extended techniques eliciting vaguely integrated call-and-answers.
The second movement, “En Secreto,” felt eerily expressionist. (Griffin likens Carrillos’ music “to the work of surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí and René Magritte.”) While related in mood and material to the first, the “secrets” revealed in this second and final movement were whispered between instruments in a matter-of-fact, straightforward mode, a little too efficiently.
Momenta seemed to relish these coloristic experiments in extended space. Carrillo’s numerous homophonic passages prove especially demanding in their intonation and yet most octave unisons were handled judiciously by this group. Suddenly, just as this essaying music began to fatigue under its own weight, it was over: a mere eleven minutes in duration.
After this, Stephanie Griffin spoke to the audience about the quartet’s close relationship with the music of Carrillo. They “fell in love” with the string writing of this composer and have established an important connection with his unduly neglected catalogue. Griffin has proclaimed* the forthcoming recording of Carrillo’s complete string quartets on the Naxos label to be Momenta’s “most significant legacy.”
The remainder of the first half highlighted early music from Charles Ives. Brief and inconsequential, The Innate (1908) for string quintet and piano, is based on hymnal material. It stood out as a somewhat unquantifiable preamble to the composer’s early quartet – the Quartet No. 1 (1896-1902) – which has been a favorite of Momenta’s, as Griffin explained in her spoken introduction. It was a part of their first season in 2004-2005, twenty years ago.
This first quartet from the turn of the century is a high-energy, Ivesian romp in three movements, containing a great deal of musical irony: an irony sometimes missed by Momenta on Thursday night. Striking the right side of Ives’ mercurial nature can challenging, particularly in his earlier works. There exists a quirky dimensionality here, even in seemingly upfront and “folksy” material. During Thursday’s performance, a command of tempi and rhythm in the first movement could have been better established.
The rhetorical components of the first and second movements urge a singular vision of interpretation. This brave new music, (as it was in its own time), remains theatrical today. For Momenta, the blending and balance amongst the four instruments went astray at times, requiring more central grounding in the hopes of evoking a sense of play. Where was the element of surprise?
Conversely, the third movement read as well integrated and convincing. The individualistic approach from each player here yielded dynamic displays of line and texture. One was reminded of Dvorak’s string quartets: folk-inspired and generous. Through contrapuntal awareness and a dash of extra courage, Momenta brought the recital’s first half to a delightful close, gleeful and quicksilver; Ives himself, not to mention Dvorak, would have approved.
After an intermission during which the audience was advised to stay in their seats, this lengthy program continued with a world premiere by Stephanie Griffin, herself in the solo role. The Overgrown Cathedral (2019-24) for viola and lower string ensemble was inspired by a disused, ruined cathedral in Brazil, the Igreja do Senhor da Vera Cruz.
Griffin’s idiomatic writing for solo viola flattered the piece’s narrative musical structure. Her new work unfolded as a dirge-like processional, improvisatory in its droning, rolling lyricism and unusually self-contained. The pulse altered little throughout the single-movement and skillful writing for all players alike brought to mind successful spectralist composers as well as the more contemporary Scotsman (and friend to string players), James MacMillan.
Solos in other instruments – especially the cello – peppered Griffin’s soundscape. About midway through the proceedings, “mosquito” effects emerged antiphonally, forming an integral role in the narrative and echoed by accompanying violas. As the scoring was devoid of violins (!) this resulted in an attractive sonority. The constant lulling never ceased and, relievedly, never got in the way of prominent soloistic activity. Dipping in and out of familiar string effects like sul ponticello and glissandi, The OvergrownCathedral meandered its way to a final utterance, at the brink of being circuitous.
Photo credit: Nana Shi
As finale, and in diptych with Griffin’s Cathedral, Claude Vivier’s Zipangu was an impressive stroke. Interspersed between these two larger works for string orchestra was another short, innocuous piece from Charlies Ives: his Hymn of 1904. One craved more context for this curatorial placement, especially for its juxtaposition with Zipangu.
But Vivier’s vivid, brazen work for strings from 1980 remained an apt and powerful choice. Brimming with a depth of sound we had not yet heard on the program, Zipangu boasted its novel textures as a means of expression, easily engrossing even the most casual listener. Vivier himself claimed, “within the frame of a single melody I explore in this work different aspects of color. I tried to ‘blur’ my harmonic structure through different bowing techniques.”
Glimmers of microtonal Ligeti shone through the spectral haze of this work (*think* 2001: A Space Odyssey). After Griffin’s favoring of low registers, the arrival of Vivier’s upper strings scoring proved a dramatic and welcomed shift.
This branch of string writing is not always easy to interpret nor to refine, especially for a quasi pick-up orchestra. Nevertheless, the sheer impact and boldness of the material seemed to inspire the string players on Thursday, many of whom Griffin described as “Momenta alumni,” having played with the group over the past 20 years.
Photo credit: Nana Sh
For some time, conductor and artistic director, Sebastian Zubieta, had urged Momenta to program this music by Vivier. On Thursday night, it seemed to augment the quartet’s profile and manifest a compelling wrap-up to the 2024 Festival.
What’s more, the works of Claude Vivier are worthy of wider recognition, 41 years on from his death. Thanks to Momenta and their colleagues this relevant, near-cosmic, Canadian voice reached our sympathetic ears on Thursday night, straight on through the hurly-burly “blur” of a 21st century that Charles Ives would have almost certainly recognized.
Tuesday, October 15th: Sacred and Profane, Sirota and Clement at Symphony Space
Tomorrow, Robert Sirota and Sheree Clement, two New York based composers, combine forces to present Sacred and Profane, a shared portrait concert at Symphony Space (7:30 PM, tickets here). Sirota may be best known for his stints as President at Peabody and Manhattan School of Music, but he’s remained active as a composer all along. Clement has also been involved as an arts administrator, having served as President of League of Composers/ISCM, Executive Director for New York New Music Ensemble, and, currently, on the board of Association for the Promotion of New Music. Like Sirota, Clement’s primary activities are as a composer. Her works bring together political engagement, humor, and dramatic, often staged, presentations.
The musicians performing are a bevy of NYC’s finest contemporary players: soprano Ariadne Greif, baritone Paul Pinto, the Momenta Quartet, cellist Benjamin Larsen, pianist Hyungjin Choi, flutist Roberta Michel, violists Jonah Sirota and Nadia Sirota, and percussionist Katherine Fortunato. And yes, the two violists are Robert Sirota’s progeny, prodigious players with a number of ensembles and in solo contexts.
Each composer has contributed two pieces to the program. Sirota’s A Sinner’s Diary (2005) is for flute, two violas, cello, percussion, and piano, and Broken Places (2016) is for flute and cello. Receiving its premiere is Clement’s Mermaid Songs (2024)for soprano and string quartet. The live premiere of her vocal duet Table Manners (2020), directed by Mary Birnbaum, includes forty pounds of silverware in its staging. Who’s doing the dishes? You’ll only find out if you attend the concert!
Sequenza 21 readers know Carey very well through his insightful reviews of concerts and recordings in this publication. He is also a superb composer with a lengthy catalogue of varied works.
Christian B. Carey
Quintet 2 is scored for oboe, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, and Carey wrote it for the East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, who commissioned it and premiered it in 2016. In his program note, Carey writes that much of his music – including this work – is based on the idea of labyrinthine structuring. “Quintet 2 deals with a spectrum of harmonic shadings, from triads to microtonal verticals with a great deal expressed in between. Likewise, the short melody at the beginning is offset by long passages of linear counterpoint. A number of rhythmic layers corruscate to create overlapping and frequently syncopated gestures.”
Also on the program, music by Augusta Read Thomas, Oliver Knusson, Jeremy Beck, Jonathan Newman and the world premiere of “I Like Chocolate Ice Cream” by David Macdonald (me too, says the writer).
Performers include: Calvin Wiersma and Conrad Harris, violins; Daniel Panner, viola; Chris Gross and Peter Seidenberg, cellos; Huan-Fong Chen, oboe; Benjamin Fingland, clarinet; Jonathan Faiman, piano; Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, mezzo-soprano
