S ome works begin their performance life in a shocking way but, with further performances, come to feel ‘more normal’. Not so with David Del Tredici’s ‘Syzygy’. It was composed in 1966, yet it retains all of its novelty and magic. It continues for me to be a source of wonder … and terror…” — Michael Tilson Thomas, introductory remarks, Zankel Hall, 29-MAR-2012.
A fine program at Zankel Hall last night! Excellent New York premiére of Mason Bates’s 2011 ‘Mass Transmission’ for choir, organ, and electronica. A chamber orchestra comprised of members of San Francisco Symphony members gave a stirring account of Lou Harrison’s 1973 ‘Concerto for Organ and Percussion Orchestra’. And Del Tredici’s 1966 ‘Syzygy’ was just as disturbing as Michael Tilson Thomas promised (esp., the pyrotechnics by soprano Kiera Duffy and Nicole Cash, French horn).
B ut the highlight of the program for me was the 8-person ensemble who performed Harry Partch’s 1958 ‘Daphne of the Dunes’, using Partch’s original one-off, home-made instruments that had been shipped cross-country in two semi tractor-trailers for Carnegie Hall’s ‘American Mavericks’ programs. (Performed by Dean Drummond, harmonic cannon & spoils-of-war; Joe Bergen, harmonic cannon & chromelodeon; Charles Corey, kithara, surrogate-kithara, harmonic cannon; jeffery irving, surrogate-kithara & harmonic cannon; Jared Soldiviero, boo, spoils-of-war, kithara; Bill Ruyle, diamond marimba; Joe Fee, cloud chamber bowls; Greg Hesselink, tenor violin, gourd tree, missile-cone gongs, pre-recorded tape.)
T he spatial arrangements of the instruments’ parts give rise to a spectrum of motions that lie well under the human hand. The physical distances between the strike-positions that produce the notes; the non-monotonic relationship of the parts’ positioning to their pitches; the practical biomechanics of what it is feasible for human arms, and fingers, and feet to do; the sensitivity of the parts, namely, how much force is required to generate a particular sound intensity: all of these contribute to the sonic qualities and musical tendencies of each instrument. The geometries of each instrument are associated with patterns and playing motions and sounds that are natural or characteristic for the instrument and the music to which it contributes. This is true of all instruments, of course; but we tend to under-recognize the fact when we listen to or observe performers of ‘normal’ instruments. With Partch’s compositions, the kinesthetics and biomechanics of the user interface are in our face.
F or example, plucking vertical strings that descend down by your knees, where you have difficulty seeing the strings in the shadows—leaning forward, bending down, and plucking them while standing, perched on a tall, narrow, possibly-catastrophically-tippy bench—while the music is located on a frail, kludgy stand way up above your head—these features impart an inherent, peculiar urgency and anxiety to the playing, which on account of these reasons is very different from the sound of a harp played by a performer who is comfortably and safely seated. The emotional quality of the sound is dramatically different, despite the fact that the mechanism of sound production is substantially the same in the two instruments.
W hat an evening!—showcasing compositions that have their own internal reasons for being, mostly refusing to cater to any external audience! And, with the exception of the Mason Bates piece (commissioned by San Francisco Symphony, with support of Michele and Laurence Corash), innovating things with slim expectation of popularity or compensation within the composer’s lifetime. Price of vision.
B ecause you're so close you have no choice but to feel a part of it... It’s really visceral!” — Neal Goren.
A ttended the 10th anniversary celebration performance of Gotham Chamber Opera last night, at Le Poisson Rouge. Founded in 2000 by Neal Goren, Gotham Chamber Opera is dedicated to producing rarely-performed chamber operas from the Baroque era to the present (including Piazzolla’s 1968 tango opera, Sutermeister’s 1935 ‘Die schwarze Spinne’, Britten’s 1947 ‘Albert Herring’, Haydn’s 1779 ‘L’isola disabitata’, and Handel’s 1733 ‘Arianna in Creta’). As last night’s performance demonstrated, GCO is also dedicated to new music combined with a hefty dose of comedy. Their concert included the première of a new work by Gabriel Kahane, ‘You left me, Sweet, two legacies’, a setting of the Emily Dickinson poem with that first line, performed by soprano Jennifer Check and pianist Neal Goren.
A lso on the program were Opera Company of Philadelphia composer-in-residence Lembit Beecher’s dark, poignant and beautiful ‘Heart Rhythms’ 2008 trio for bass clarinet (Amy Zoloto), violin (Nurit Pacht), and cello (Sophie Shao); Mozart’s ‘Quercia annosa su l’erte pendici’, aria No. 7 from ‘Il sogno di Scipione’, K. 126; Ravel’s ‘Chansons Madécasses’; George Lam’s and Benjamin Rogers’s ‘Variations’; Purcell’s ‘Sound the Trumpet’ 1694 aria/ode celebrating the birthday of King James II [Maeve Höglund, soprano; Gennard Lobardozzi, tenor; Keun-A Lee, harpsichord; Sophie Shao, cello]; Richard Strauss’s ‘Wie schön is doch die musik’ [Benjamin LeClair, bass] and ‘Marie Theres! Hav’ mir’s gelobt’ from ‘Die Rosenkavalier’ [with Eve Gigliotti, mezzo-soprano]; and ‘Les vents furieux’ from Rameau’s 1745 hit ‘La Princess de Navarre’. Gabriel Kahane and ensemble Miracles of Modern Science (MoMS) [Evan Younger, vocals/double-bass; Josh Hirshfeld, vocals/mandolin; Kieran Ledwidge, vocals/violin; Geoff McDonald, vocals/cello; Tyler Pines, vocals/drums] contributed comic and atmospheric pieces as well.
O ne of the works, George Lam’s and Benjamin Rogers’s ‘Variations On’, incorporated fragments of ambient/overheard conversations in public spaces combined with satirical quotes from recent pharmaceutical advertisement voiceovers. The latter were sometimes edited or transformed slightly (as, for example, with the one in the title of this blogpost, for Forest Laboratories’ Lexapro® escitalopram SSRI antidepressant), which makes the quoted material function as commentary on contemporary society—in a manner that is only incrementally more disturbing than the original ad.
T he audience in the sold-out LPR club loved the whole evening. Bravo! Happy GCO 10th anniversary! Many happy returns!
M odified #3 is the modification and expansion of sound... a future of what can be done electronically with timbre... a full composition from one sound, manipulated and transformed into many sounds.” — Gene Pritsker.
T he three solo pieces by Till Körber, Christof Cech, and David Lang each push the boundaries of bassoon playing in their own unique way.” — Matthias Kronsteiner.
P lease have a listen to ‘modified’, a wonderful CD by bassoonist Matthias Kronsteiner and collaborators Lisa Preimesberger (bass clarinet), Thomas Frey (flute), Ernst Weissensteiner (double bass), Philipp Sageder (voice), and Gene Pritsker (electronics; percussion), a CD to be released this coming Tuesday by CCR/Naxos. The disc opens with two movements from Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas brasilieras No. 6, W392, but the rest of the recording consists of new compositions by Till Körber, Christof Cech, Gernot Wolfgang, David Lang, Johannes Berauer, and Gene Pritsker.
V illa-Lobos’s entry into the Parisian art world took place in 1922, immediately before Modern Art Week in São Paulo. The composer was invited to a lunch in the studio of the painter Tarsila do Amaral where he met up with, among others, the poet, painter, and film-maker Jean Cocteau. After the lunch, the artists became engrossed in a lively conversation which drifted into a discussion on the art of musical improvisation. Villa-Lobos... sat down [at do Amaral’s grand piano] to improvise. Cocteau, known for his boutades and his playful behavior, sat underneath the piano on the ground, ‘so I can hear better.’ At the end of Villa-Lobos’s improvisation, however, Cocteau returned to his chair and launched a ferocious attack on what he had heard: in his opinion, the music presented by the composer was not futuristic at all, probably no more than an emulation of the styles of Debussy and Ravel. Villa-Lobos immediately began furiously improvising more. Cocteau, though, remained intransigent, questioning this time whether true improvisation could be made in this way, played-to-order. The two artists began a heated ‘discussion’ and thought about exchanging blows. Some years later, David Bowie took up improvising impromptu lyrics and melodies in this manner, the grandeur and menace of ‘Heroes’, and all.” — Paulo Renato Guérios, Museu Nacional/UFRJ, 2006.
T he brilliant pieces that make up this disc are each virtuosic in their own way. Agogic emphases at downward leaps and fast passages with wide-ranging excursions spanning the entire range of the instrument provide lots of dramatic interest. One senses an affectionate irony in writing things that make the bassoon do extremely dangerous leaps, with a high probability of hard landings. The cumulative effect of these essentially asserts the concreteness and everydayness of [virtuosic] bassoon-playing, denying its mystical, expressive side as the performer navigates these hazards. That the attempt is ultimately successful, and that it is carried off with panache, takes it beyond the everyday, though, and turns it into something redemptive or transcendent (something like playing Czerny at-tempo).
T here are lyrical, genuinely lovely passages and other spiky, vehement ones. The quality is incontestable throughout, compositions and performances of excellent artistry. To this are added the promised merits of inventiveness of ‘futuristic’ timbres—both in the individual [analog and digital] sounds, and in the formulas and orchestrations, which at times assemble themselves into pantheistic sonic agglomerations where the Great Unity cannot be separated into constituent parts (esp. the Pritsker piece).
T he minimalism that is evident in several of the works—notably the Lang piece—is like looking at a portrait for many tens of minutes, to understand and enjoy its charm. Beyond a certain limit, it becomes a form of Zen meditation or hypnosis. Whatever it is, it is enjoyable and valuable.
C omposers Concordance Records (link below) production values are excellent. The studio recording and engineering processes have nicely captured the all of the expressive bassoonism here—athletic, taut key-presses; sharp attacks; emphatic articulations—particularly on Kronsteiner’s playing in the pulsatile Lang and Cech pieces. Never too much key-noise or reed and breath sibilants... just enough so that you feel like you are there, as if up-close in a live performance.
T he intimacy of this Studio Weinberg recording is captivating. There are beginnings, middles, and endings in these pieces—they are not entirely linear, and they always have intriguing complexities, but they are not severe ones that diminish their accessibility or joy. This is no priceless ceramic vase or objet d’art or museum gallery! The pieces on this CD invite you to friend them and use them.
S ome years ago, I was interviewing for a quant job on Wall Street and, as one of the provocations to challenge the poise of his interviewee, the head of the firm abruptly asked whether I had ever been with a mulata brasiliera. I did not laugh. I replied, No, I was happily married, but I had been with Bachianas Brasilieras Nos. 1 through 6 and found them deeply intriguing and satisfying. He did not laugh. I do not know if it was a good enough answer.” — DSM.
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set her free.” — Michelangelo, on imagination and the creative process.
T he new CD by oboist Keve Wilson and colleagues is really good: 14 tracks showcasing her atmospheric lyricism. This CD was just released by CCR/Naxos on 04-JAN-2011.
T he account of Astor Piazzolla’s ‘Fracanapa’ in fast additive 3+3+2 meter or polyrhythm (almost in 1) is driven; conspiratorial—with Wilson’s blazing double- and triple-tonguing; juicy come-what-may bravado, interleaved with suspenseful diminuendos that withdraw into a secret, interior space but soon emerge again, like a wild animal from its lair. The ‘Imagination’ of the disc’s title is no lie; it is a promise kept.
T he Jeff Marder arrangement of the Lady Gaga hit ‘Poker Face’ is an adventure in 3+3+2 tango minimalism—microtonal passages convincingly convey confrontational aloofness and nothing-to-lose abandon that cohere with the spirit of the Lady Gaga original.
C an you imagine—imagine what I would do if I could do all that I can?” — Sun Tzu.
J eff Marder’s phrasing is particularly thoughtful—an example of collaborative piano at its best. The playing of Greg Heffernan on cello, Mr. Lei on erhu, Charles Pierce on guitar, Mat Fields and Michael Valerio on fretless bass (on separate tracks), Bernard Fox’s whistling on track #7 ‘Moonbeams’, and Andy Beall on percussion are compelling as well.
I t’s tough to blend double-reeds with other instruments, and doing so requires a lot of knowledge and experience of the tonal properties and the articulative and dynamic constraints—knowledge on the part of the composer/arranger and the performer(s) alike. Close harmony doesn’t necessarily favor the blend, and, given the prolific overtones that oboe and English horn have, wider intervals in the lower register of these instruments are especially risky.
W ith those factors in mind, I must say the blend here is superb, and the miking and mixing are first-rate. Keve’s finesse is all-over phenomenal, but the hairy figures she is able to navigate with panache and control in the lower register are nothing short of astonishing.
Y ou have to imagine it possible before you can see something. You can have the evidence right in front of you, but if you can’t imagine something that has never existed before, it’s impossible.” — Rita Dove.
T he need for sufficient rests or phrasing allowing for breathing: more risks that composers/arrangers may create for double-reeds. For Keve, such challenges are taken in-stride. Circular ‘snorkel’ breathing is likely how Keve accomplishes some of the very-long-duration feats and expressive effects in here (although I am unable to detect any wavering of tone or other evidence of it). Brilliant!
T hrough the inspired, empathetic playing and Joe Castellon’s and Mike Aarvold’s fine engineering/mixing/mastering, you also hear on this disc the considerable merits of the studio environment at Kaufman Astoria Studios (KAS). Without any acoustic isolation, everyone plays like they can hear everyone else perfectly, because, in fact, they can hear everyone else perfectly. These days, there are not many recording venues that are conducive to this, especially for small ensembles on a budget. The environment at KAS is one that is especially congenial to performers. The sonic result is not only clean and consistent and technically precise, but one that also embodies the players’ true selves or authentic identities—‘who’ the performers were and ‘who’ they experienced, each of one another, during the recording session. This is not a self-conscious experience per se; any musician who has spent time in recording studios will attest to this. Instead, it’s like encountering each other on a delicious, clear, and invigorating day—out in the open, breathing the purest of air, imagining anything you want, anything that’s possible.
B ravo to all who contributed to the compositions, arrangements, performances, and engineering and production of this wonderful disc!
T he most obvious effect of getting used to hearing one’s own recordings... is to be come highly self-critical about details... Making a recording becomes a process of detailed self-examination. There are also more subtle forces at work. If you hear the sound of your own voice [or instrument], you are made aware that you cannot hear yourself as others hear you. You learn to hear what others hear... You start adjusting it to something which sounds more like what you thought you were doing.” — Robert Philip, Performing Music in the Age of Recording, p. 25.
F irst-rate recording can achieve] a more effective unity between intensity of action and displacement of sound than could be afforded by the best of all [live concert] seasons at Bayreuth.” — Glenn Gould.
K eve is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and 1997 winner of the International Concert Artists Guild Competition. Keve studied oboe with Richard Killmer and dance with Elizabeth Clark in Rochester. She lives in NYC with her husband, trombonist Kerry Farrell. Keve is a co-founder of the chamber music series Project Accidental in Los Angeles and is solo oboist with Kristjan Järvi’s ‘Absolute Ensemble’. Apart from her concertizing and recording, Keve is deeply committed to educating the next generation and contributes to Pasadena Conservatory, Henry Mancini Institute, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Caramoor Center, and American Festival for the Arts in Houston and Argentina, as well as public school outreach programs in New York City and Los Angeles.
I doubt that the imagination can ever be suppressed. If you truly eradicated it in a child, (s)he would grow up to be an eggplant.” — Ursula LeGuin.
K eve’s up-coming performances include an appearance with Westchester Chamber Orchestra on 12-FEB and with Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas at Alice Tully Hall on 24-MAR.
R eligion...is a person’s total reaction upon life.” — William James, ‘Varieties of Religious Experience’, 1902.
A genuine first-hand religious experience like this is bound to be a heterodoxy to its witnesses, the prophet appearing as a mere lonely madman. If his doctrine prove contagious enough to spread to any others, it becomes a definite and labeled heresy. But if it then still prove contagious enough to triumph over persecution, it becomes itself an orthodoxy; and when a religion has become an orthodoxy, its day of inwardness is over.” — William James, ‘Varieties of Religious Experience’, 1902.
Y ou will enjoy and be inspired by the new recording by guitarist/composer Gene Pritsker and his ensemble, SoundLiberation.
Gene Pritsker, electric guitar
Greg Baker, electric guitar
David Gotay, cello
Mat Fieldes, double-bass and electric bass
Joe Abba, percussion
T he original chamber opera from which this VRE Suite derives was orchestrated for narrator, tenor, soprano, mezzo soprano, baritone, 2 guitars, cello, and double-bass.
[50-sec clip, SoundLiberation Ensemble, Gene Pritsker, Varieties of Religious Experience, ‘Everything Else Might Be a Dream’ (track 3), 2010, 1.6MB MP3]
T he Suite progresses in 8 tracks (64 min) from ‘Introduction’, a musical exposition of William James’ early views on psychology of religion, through James’ subsequent reconsiderations of his thought (‘Closer to Me than My Own Breath’, track 5), to an account of Tolstoy’s spirituality, to William James’ “conclusion” (track 8). There are myriad textures here that invite meditation. Accessible, stimulating chamber music throughout—although I do hope someday to experience the VRE opera. The theatrical gestures in here make me curious about the VRE libretto and staging. What texts did Pritsker choose, I wonder?
T he last peculiarity of consciousness to which attention is to be drawn in this first rough description of its stream is that it is always interested more in one part of its object than in another, and welcomes and rejects, or chooses, all the while it thinks.” — William James, ‘Principles of Psychology’, 1890.
M any of the published reviews of Pritsker’s work note that he challenges musical boundaries. Uh, yes he does. Exceptionally curious and inclusive rather than aggressive or confrontational, Pritsker and his collaborators explore passionate new expressions based on jazz, world rhythms, machine rhythms, lyricism, and the spirit.
W hat interest, zest, or excitement can there be in achieving the right way, unless we are enabled to feel that the wrong way is also a possible and a natural way?” — William James, ‘Dilemma of Determinism’, 1884.
T he VRE Suite is full of tasteful improvisation, sturdy melodies and voice-leading, strong ‘grooves’. Mystical it may be, but VRE Suite is far from ‘enigmatic’. It positively asserts that your cosmic, mystical experience is as genuine as my mystical experience; or as genuine as that of any organized religion.
R eligion, therefore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall mean for us the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men and women in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine.” — William James, ‘Varieties of Religious Experience’, 1902.
A ccording to theists’ Argument from Religious Experience, people have “religious experiences” — mystical or supernatural experiences, like angels or ghosts. Theists say that, because we believe other experiential claims people make — that they ate spaghetti last night, or they have a pet cat — then we should believe these claims as well. Theists say that, when skeptics insist on different, more stringent standards for assessing the veracity of claims based on religious experiences than they do for claims based on other experiences, they are prejudiced against religious claims. This prevents them from understanding and believing. William James entertained this argument in his Varieties of Religious Experience. He proposed that all normal persons do have religious experience and, since empirical experience is the final arbiter of truth, then God—as one object of religious experiences—must be accepted as factually true. A problem, though, arises in the variety of religious experiences: if there were just one true God, why is there such wide variety in religious experiences? They are mutually inconsistent, so at least some experiences must be false. There are no independent criteria we can use to separate true experiences from false experiences — not only others’, but our own. There are no independent criteria; there can be no independent criteria; all criteria rely upon the validity of some religious system, a Bible or the Koran, or some other sacred text—some of them, or all of them, must be false.
R eligions have approved themselves; they have ministered to sundry vital needs which they found reigning. When they violated other needs too strongly, or when other faiths came which served the same needs better, the first religions were supplanted.” — William James, ‘Varieties of Religious Experience’, 1902.
F or any who are unfamiliar with William James (1842-1910), I should point out that James was not a Christian. He was religious in his own way, but he was hardly a monotheist. William James published his ‘Varieties of Religious Experience’ in 1902 and, subsequently, many theists have taken bits of his writings out of context to support their arguments. But at bottom James was a Rationalist, and he did not believe in a personal God who enters history or personally responds to people’s prayers. Gene Pritsker’s VRE Suite likewise evokes a diverse range of spirituality while broadly extending respect and tolerance to all forms.
A n act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.” — William James, ‘Principles of Psychology’, 1890.
P ritsker offers a unique look at trans-textual relationships between the poetic text and musical text; between the chamber music creative tradition and new ways of crossing boundaries of genres and orchestration; between the Western canon of chamber music thought and non-traditional, jazz-derived ways of intimacy; and between the ideology of chamber for chamber’s sake and the opposite: the ideology of chamber musicians’ active ethical engagement in, and attention to, social issues.
T he total possible consciousness may be split into parts which co-exist but may mutually ignore each other.” — William James, ‘Principles of Psychology’, 1890.
Chamber operas are a good example of new “ideological,” stylistic and technological approaches to composition. They are emblematic of a transition from musical thinking that was orthodox and conservative to more heterodox, multi-layered forms.
T he Hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioning our characters in the wrong way.” — William James, ‘Principles of Psychology’, 1890.
P ritsker uses isorhythmic patterns in the first several tracks, retrogrades in ‘The Less Real of the Two’, and allusions to the rondo form in ‘William James’ Conclusion’.
G enius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.” — William James, ‘Principles of Psychology’, 1890.
T he predominant texture in the VRE Suite is ‘pointillistic’ and tense, but not in the acoustic sense of guitars or pizzicato passages in the cello or double-bass. VRE Suite is organized through a contrapuntal juxtaposition and alternation of single notes, short gestures, and gestural ‘units’ that are based on certain ‘privileged’ pitches and intervals and chosen beat-divisions. Complex linear constructs are mostly melismas—especially exposed in the guitars, but also in the cello part.
T he transition from tenseness, self-responsibility, and worry, to equanimity, receptivity, and peace, is the most wonderful of all those shiftings of inner equilibrium.” — William James, ‘Varieties of Religious Experience’, 1902.
I t is interesting that in the first parts of the Suite the individual notes and gestures are distributed across the whole available range in each instrument, with emphasis given to irregular, “nervous” rotations of leaps and step-wise motion. A kind of self-less, anonymous, transcendent texture emerges as a result. Such an approach has a lot to do with post-serialist compositional methods, even if Pritsker would be happier to disavow this.
I ntegrity—a unified/unifying collective voice that is robust against the ensemble members individuality and rhythmic complexity—is assured by a technique based on manipulations of similar timbral and gestural units (motives, minimalistic ones or otherwise). The groups of repeated units establish a sonic architectural continuum and create a durable terrain governed by intervals and timbres of desire between consenting adults.
R omeo wants Juliet as the filings want the magnet; and if no obstacles intervene he moves towards her by as straight a line as the filings. But Romeo and Juliet, if a wall be built between them, do not remain idiotically pressing their faces against its opposite sides like the magnet and the filings. Romeo soon finds a circuitous way, by scaling the wall or otherwise, of touching Juliet’s lips directly. With the filings the path is fixed; whether it reaches the end depends on accidents. With the lover it is the end which is fixed; the path may be modified indefinitely.” — William James, quoted by Mortimer Adler.
B eyond the ‘Introduction’, VRE Suite becomes more and moredialectical, but in a good way. Gestures of disparate provenance react against each other, animating each other not killing each other off, bringing passages to life (?reincarnating them). The gestures (revealed by guitars, cello, and drums) alternate against a double-bass ostinato. There is much joy and comfort to be had in this...
P ritsker’s use of unusual cello-electric guitar timbres should be considered from a psychological rather than a technological point of view. “Technical” in nature, these timbres intensify the poetic metaphor or enhance the emotional power the music exerts on us, inscribing us, carving us as it goes...
W e are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never-so-little scar.” — William James, ‘Principles of Psychology’, 1890.
I n James’ writing, Pritsker has found a congenial source of conceptual and artistic inspiration. William James himself embodies the contradiction of a spiritual man and rationalist. There is something of the prophet as well as a “martyr” in him, despite his wealth and Harvard credentials and social standing... He was aware of the necessity to combine intellectual effort with social intervention and his own convictions. His writings are humorous, perhaps inadvertently so. His entirely serious meanings are embedded in an “innocent”, “childish, “naïve”, “life-is-short-so-what-the-hell” surface. His psychological writings amount to an exotic kind of poetry influenced by folk literature, supernatural beauty, pain of life, and religion.
T ake the happiest man or woman, the one most envied by the world, and in nine cases out of ten his/her inmost consciousness is one of failure. Either his/her ideals in the line of his/her achievements are pitched far higher than the achievements themselves, or else he/she has secret ideals of which the world knows nothing, and in regard to which he/she inwardly knows himself/herself to be found wanting.” — William James, ‘Varieties of Religious Experience’, 1902.
T he complexity of James’ poetic texture and his multi-spectral style must appeal deeply to Pritsker. It is amazing how masterfully Pritsker explored the opportunities offered by James’ poetic vocabulary.
P ritsker’s compositions (including chamber music, chamber operas, electroacoustic and orchestral works, rock, and hip-hop) have been performed widely (Berlin Philharmonic; Adelaide Symphony; Brooklyn Philharmonic; Athens Camerata; and others). He has also collaborated with Joe Zawinul on film scoring projects.
C reatures extremely low in the intellectual scale may have conception. All that is required is that they should recognize the same experience again. A polyp would be a conceptual thinker if a feeling of ‘Hello! Thing-um-a-bob again!’ ever flitted through its mind.” — William James, ‘Principles of Psychology’, 1890.
I believe that we stand in much the same relation to the whole of the Universe as our canine and feline pets do to the whole of human life. They inhabit our drawing rooms and libraries... They are tangent to curves of history the beginnings and ends and forms of which pass wholly beyond their ken. Just so, we are tangent to the wider life of things.” — William James, ‘Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking’, 1907.
Michael Smetanin’s ‘Obsession’ for tenor saxophone, electric guitar, cello, double bass, piano, and drumkit (1995)
Irinel Anghel’s ‘El Enigmes II’ for electric guitar, cello (with processing), bass guitar, and tape (2001)
James Tenney’s ‘Septet’ for 6 electric guitars and bass guitar (1981)
Salvatore Macchia’s ‘Onde’ for double bass and guitar (2000)
Brian Ferneyhough’s ‘Trittico per G.S.’ for double bass (1989); Seven ‘Tableaux Vivants’ depicting the Angel of History as Melancholia; Stelæ for Failed Time)
I n a theme for [a set of] variations, it is almost only the bass [left-hand piano part] that has any meaning for me. But this is sacred to me: it is the firm foundation on which I then build my [musical] ‘stories’. What I do with a melody is only playing around ... If I vary only the melody, then I cannot easily be more than clever or graceful, or, indeed, [if] full of feeling, deepen a pretty thought. On the given bass, I invent something actually new; I discover new melodies in it--I create.” — Johannes Brahms.
V ictor Goldberg’s performance last night in the [completely filled] Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall was a tour de force.
Scarlatti: Sonata in E Major, K. 380
Chopin: Scherzo in B-flat Minor Op. 31
Shostakovich: Sonata No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 61
Brahms: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, Op. 24
I n particular, the emotional diversity of this program fully lived up to the ambitious ‘Depths of the Creative Spirit’ billing.
T he Brahms variations and fugue are the epitome of developing and reprising an idea, turning it round and round, dwelling on it and expanding it. Unlike Bach’s Goldberg variations or Beethoven’s Diabelli variations that vary the subject with the aim of departing from it, the Brahms reiterates its subject and reiterates it until the ‘patterns’ in the ‘wallpaper’ take on new, ever newer meanings. The nominal ‘structure’ recedes as in some kinds of optical illusions, and the deep/hidden significance is revealed. Pure magic.
I have read about this piece in the illustrious books about Brahms; I have heard Op. 24 performed before. Its surface qualities seem straightforward enough. And its storied place in Brahms’s early career (and in his relationship with Clara Schumann, who premiered Op. 24 in December, 1861) makes it seem like a known quantity.
B ut the meditative, ‘wave-like’, strophic character of Brahms’s 25 variations was prominently featured in Goldberg’s account last night. In fact, this is the first time that I think I understand this piece? Meditating musically is Victor Goldberg’s specialty—meditating not on changing the world or persuading others of his point of view, but meditating toward deeply apprehending the reality that’s already here and allowing us to apprehend it, too.
T here are many forms of meditative practice, but their essence is to see the truth of what ‘is’. Many classical Jewish meditations do this by contemplating a particular object—a phrase, a sense-perception, even an idea—and focusing intensely on it so that all distractions drop away. Similarly, in Buddhist and other traditions, attention is drawn to the barest perceptions of breath or movement—simply to suppress our inner chatter. Saying the rosary may have a similar effect for Roman Catholics. ‘Oneg shabbos’—becoming ever more exquisitely attuned to emotions—takes real effort. Getting ‘neshama yeteira’ (an ‘extra’ soul) or revealing and engaging the ‘hidden’ soul—doesn’t come from magic. It comes from effective, concentrated attention, and this is the gift that Goldberg gives us.
I t was through Pro Musicis and [their] community service concerts that I began to truly understand the power of communication and, therefore, the power of music.” — Peter Oundjian, violinist/conductor, quoted on Pro Musicis website.
G oldberg is a 32 year-old Russian-born Israeli who has performed extensively in Israel, Europe, and the United States. His honors include the 2008 Pro Musicis International Award, the Artist Recognition Award at the International Keyboard Festival in New York and the Vladimir Horowitz International Piano Competition in Kiev, and First Prize at the Arianne Katcz Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. Goldberg is a scholar of the American-Israel Cultural Foundation and holds degrees from Tel Aviv University’s Rubin Academy, Juilliard, the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and the Manhattan School of Music.
