The Week Over-Heard #4
Diamonds Are Forever
If you’re wondering how I find out about concerts, that answer is my barber, Carmelo, at Persons of Interest (which is, conveniently, attached to a rather overpriced record shop).
Carmelo was the one to tell me about “My Brightest Diamond,” whom I saw at Joe’s Pub on Sunday, March 24.
Also attending the late show was Laurie Anderson (her order: a veggie burger and fries).
Shara Nova is classically-trained, having written a baroque chamber opera You Us We All. (Next month, she will be appearing in Sufyan Stevens’ Illinoise on Broadway.)
It shows. Her voice is open, resonant, dare I say, gleaming.
“We have confidence,” she sang, whipping her pink faux-hawk (who does her hair?) and strumming a sparkly purple guitar (one of four played during the night). Indeed, she does.
But vulnerability was the theme of this solo show, full of new songs. Whenever there were technical difficulties, Nova joked about firing her “band in a box.”
Nova’s head voice soared above the pounding beat in “Rocket in my Pocket.” For “Black Sheep,” she passed out paper masks, braying, “I’m baaaad.”
Then, Nova’s phone rang. “Granddaughter, apple of my eye,” went Anderson’s recognizably vocoded voice, “practice what you preach.”
“Sh-Sh-Sh-Shara, now get to work,” Nova sang. “Be brave, dear one. Be changed or be undone”
In the Andersonian tradition, Nova treated the audience to a “somatic exercise” of laughing and crying.
And when she said, “let me sing something pretty,” she delivered. With theremin-like voice to a violin backing track.
The concert ended with a lullaby: “I have never loved someone the way I love you,” she sang, adding, so tenderly, “you’re okay.”
Don’t Be Alarmed
“Uh oh, we’re supposed to be hearing something,” said conductor Alan Pierson at the start of Alarm Will Sound’s “Heard” on Tuesday, March 26 at Zankel Hall.
Indeed, throughout “Heard,” the voice-over and TED-talk-like projections seemed more trouble than they were worth.
The program, curated by Tania Leon, began with the composer’s syncopated Toque, and ended with her Gran Toque (arranged for full ensemble by John Orfe).
Leon, raised on serialism, cited as the program’s inspiration her father’s question before he died, “Where are you in your music?”
For the diverse young composers included, a sense of presence was palpable.
Chris P. Thompson’s Hanabi was inspired by marching percussion, with in-ear metronome, whirly tubes, and bubble wrap “fireworks.”
Christian Quiñones’ Hasta que no pueda was meant to sound like “old vinyls” or “being underwater.” But, for a piece about hearing loss, it was loud. In it, alarms did sound
I had high hopes for Damon Daivs’ Ligeia Mare, a “Black rap space opera.” Though the Afrofuturist gospel choir reminded me of X, the rest of the writing was closer to Wicked than Sun Ra.
Not to mention the clearly AI-generated images, and repetitive lyrics (“here” rhymed with “here,” a cardinal sin.)
Elijah Daniel Smith’s Vermillion Glare, which is about being blinded by the sun on a joy ride, reminded me a bit of snoozing at the wheel
Texu Kim’s Līlā drew on Korean shamanic gut and evangelical drumming. With a “driving beat” and Reich-esque clapping, it was surprisingly similar to Hanabi.
But I laughed hardest at Bora Yoon’s deadpan delivery in Casual Miracles: “God is a crafty bitch.”
It’s noteworthy that out of seven composers, only two were female, with Leon being one of them. And why was there such a divide between tonal and atonal, risk-taking and playing-it-safe?
If It Ain’t Baroklyn
“I reimagined what Bach might have done at the keyboard of a modern piano,” writes Philip Lasser about his continuo realizations for Simone Dinnerstein’s concert series at Columbia’s Miller Theater.
It’s a provocative statement. As playing Bach’s keyboard works on anything but harpsichord or organ is contested among purists. I’m not a purist, but I am picky.
At the first of Dinnerstein’s three concerts with Ensemble Baroklyn — on Thursday, March 28 — her playing was as plump as a rum-soaked raisin. Not at all desiccated, like Gould.
Dinnerstein isn’t afraid of the sustain pedal.
In the speedy Brandenburg no. 6, Baroklyn added an undulating Glass-like intro in the cello and bass. With frenetic vibrato, the four violas traded gut string attack for metallic bite.
Less exciting was the trio sonata, arranged gaspingly for two, with Dinnerstein and oboist Peggy Pearson, which ended quietly, a bit glib.
Likewise, violinist Rebecca Fischer sounded timid in her C minor sonata. I wanted more messa di voce on the long notes, which came out slightly choked.
But the rest of Baroklyn had a full, legato, even “heavenly sound,” in Bach’s cantata Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust. Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano had no trouble being heard.
In one aria (with the Poison Put to Sound-esque line “mouth full of snake’s venom”) the theme was passed around the violins and violas (all 10 of them), like an awkward icebreaker game. The final aria had Dinnerstein dancing, with jolly trills.
Nonetheless, the cantata’s recitatives, realized by Lasser, didn’t quite work, and here’s why:
When the continuo section is harpsichord and baroque cello, the latter’s role is to extend and “round out” the former. (Phoebe Carrai tells students to imagine themselves in the harpsichord’s rosette.)
But when it’s piano and modern cello, there’s too much sustain. If you’re not careful, things can get soupy.
Out the Window
I wonder what Bach would think about David Hoey’s latest, piano-filled Bergdorf-Goodman window creations.
In one, a giant white ear is affixed to an upright that is piled high with luxury purses, a bust of J.S. himself, and two more baby grands.
In another, a mannequin in orange sits at a runway-length piano, reading from hot pink sheet music, as her friend, in shiny green, is voguing. A spray-painted Beethoven watches disapprovingly.
In the final Surrealist window, a checkerboard-wrapped bass leans on a giant metronome, as Dali’s melted keyboard hangs from a tree branch.
As requested by readers, a preview of what’s coming this month:
Heartbeat Opera’s The Extinctionist and Eugene Onegin run Tuesday, April 2 through Sunday, April 14
Fort Greene Orchestra’s “Titan Symphony” runs Wednesday, April 3 through Saturday, April 13
Wayne Koestenbaum at the Francis Kite Club on Friday, April 5
Art Bath presents “Art Is Gay” on Tuesday, April 9 and Wednesday, April 10
“Number Our Days” at the Perelman Arts Center runs Friday, April 12 through Sunday, April 14
Alkemie presents “Love to My Liking” at the Brooklyn Public Library on Saturday, April 13
Cecile McLorin Salvant at the 92nd St Y on Saturday, April 13
Kronos Quartet and the Ghost Train Orchestra play Moondog on Tuesday, April 16
Nuova Pratica plays as part of GEMS Midtown Concerts on Thursday, April 18
Death of Classical’s “Tiergarten” runs Wednesday, April 17 through Friday, April 19
Alexi Kenney and Xuan’s “Shifting Ground” runs Thursday, April 25 through Saturday, April 27