In the past the festival had been held at the Greenwich House Community School where Mr. Rubenstein teaches. This year the site was moved to the Henry Street Settlement Playhouse of the Abrons Art Center on the Lower East Side. This change of venue, though perhaps precipitated by the very large attendance at previous festivals that challenged the intimate performance space at Greenwich House, was very much "off the beaten path" and so attendance at the two concerts I attended was rather small.
Many of the stellar performers of contemporary piano music participate in this festival and I am sure it is quite tricky to gather together such a group of very busy musicians. On the other hand, this is the type of event that can catch the eye and ear of someone in the audience and lead to further performances. Speaking of the audience, before the first concert I happened to speak to two attendees who were originally from North Carolina. One of them, Daniel Kirk-Foster, studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts with Clifton Matthews and has studied and worked in NYC for quite awhile.
Although the festival focuses on recent trends in music, this year's festival had a retrospective feel to it. The very first piece on the program, Old and Lost Rivers by Tobias Picker, was composed in 1986 and creates a very nostalgic atmosphere. This performance by Joseph Rubenstein brought back memories for me as I had taught this piece to student years ago and, while Mr. Rubenstein's playing was very engaging, I felt that my student's was more poetic. Of course, I am totally unbiased. Inspired by the tributaries and backwaters of the Trinity River, the meandering lines of this work work create a wistful, dreamy atmosphere that evokes a distant time and is a wonderful example of the "new lyricism".
Another standout of the first concert was Vaporize by Joe Dudell. A piano duet performed by Blair McMillen and Stephen Gosling, the great tradition of social music making is very much alive and well in this work. The performers obviously enjoyed its playful interplay of musical lines and the energetic rhythms.
The surprise work of the concert was definitely The Body of Your Dreams by Jacob Ter Veldhuis. A clever "novelty" piano piece for piano and boombox, this work "is based on spoken word samples from an American television commercial about the Ab Tronic Pro: a kind of belt that produces 3000 muscle contractions in just ten minutes." Pitches and rhythms of the piano part are entirely based on the one-liners from the commercial, such as "You can use it while watching television." This very animated work was spectacularly rendered by Marina Lomazov whose tall, willowy profile and dramatic, even choreographic, movements added visual appeal to the work.
At the second concert I was slightly disappointed to note some program changes. Two of the works from the first concert were going to be repeated. While they were wonderful works, I was especially anticipating a work by George Crumb that I was not familiar with. Mr. Rubenstein noted for the audience that one of the performers had been detained in Chicago by a terrible thunder storm, hence no Crumb.
I did get to hear Australian/American pianist Lisa Moore, a "force of nature" pianist who totally reveals the difference between the musician who follows a blueprint precisely and effectively and one who so internalizes the music that it truly seems to come from her. Her fearless, committed performance was captivating. Of the three works she performed Piano Piece no. 4 by Frederic Rzewski was the standout. Both its title and the program notes predicted an abstract work, far from the programmatic and politically charged music for which Rzewski is noted. However, Ms. Moore commented that this powerful work is based on a Chilean folksong that is slowly revealed throughout the work. In my mind, Mr. Rzewski is one of the great geniuses of late 20th-century piano music and no collection of such music could omit his work. I think this might be because, in addition to his phenomenal pianism and blend of improvisation with impeccable craftsmanship, his music is driven by an impulse not just to entertain or move and audience but to change the world. His thinking is big and bold. Ms. Moore's intrepid, dramatic and dynamic playing was a perfect match.
Following Ms. Moore, Marina Lomazov performed what amounted to a small recital of five works. The outstanding piece of her set for me was a set of Preludes by Lera Auerbach. These works, which more or less seamlessly flow together evoke the spirits of Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovitch, Prokofief and Chopin (his "Ocean" Etude) while not sounding like a pastiche. Once again, Ms. Lomazov's incredible stage presence and choregraphic movements always enhanced the music while never upstaging it or contradicting the message.
For some reason, Mr. Rubenstein felt it necessary to have "canned" performances of Chopin played before and after each concert. More ambient music by Satie or Cage might have been more appropriate.
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