It's no secret that New York is a magnet for creative types. They influence, challenge and encourage each other. Dozens of performance spaces sprinkled throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn and, to a lesser extent, the other boroughs of NYC provide venues for such creativity. Discovering such places and attending performances has definitely been one of the highlights of my time in NYC. I enjoyed my first time at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn and was therefore immediately attracted to a concert there on December 19. Composer Lisa Bielawa would be presenting several of her works as part of a CD release celebration. Bielawa, whose name was not known to me, has already made a strong impression on the music world. In addition to her work as a composer, as a singer she has appeared with the Philip Glass ensemble. She has also served as a strong advocate for contemporary musical life in the city. Although she has a strong musical background, her principal studies at Yale were in literature. A thread that seems to appear quite often in her work is incorporating the transient speech (meaning commonplace conversations and comments overheard in public places) and placing them within the context of a musical work. She expanded this concept with her project Chance Encounter, where her music is performed in public spaces not associated with music in particular. These everyday spots become, as it were, impromptu concert halls.
The program began with three solo works. The first, Synopsis #11: It Takes One to Know One is for percussionist performing on a typical drum set. During the course of the performance the drummer recites different comments as he plays. What was most interesting to me was the way the music moved from a very formal, military style (imagine a dress parade) to an evocation of a 1950s "beat" drummer (with the snare played with the hands like a bongo) and then to a jazz drummer (with a high degree of technical display).
The next work, Synopsis #15: Two Days After You Left I ....is for harp. For me, the concert harp has always strongly suggested elegance, style and grace. While this work certainly contained many of the graceful, flowing passages associated with harp music, there was also often a bite and a certain stridency that helped take the harp out of its musical box. The work has a definite pianistic quality which, to me, would translate pretty well in the form of a piano solo.
Another work, Synopsis #1: It's Over (But It Was Fun), for piano solo was hampered by a less-than-ideal piano. On a better instrument, I think that the colors and the changes in character of this quirky piece would be more effective.
The bulk of the program was given over to presenting aspects of Bielawa's most recent project, Chance Encounter. The premise behind this work was to place the music in unusual contexts of performance to see what they effect would be. Although there was to have first been a short film of the premiere of the work in Seward Park in NYC (September, 2007), technical difficulties resulted in a live performance of a portion of the work featuring soprano Susan Narucki and members of The Knights (a chamber orchestra from Boston) and guest performers Lisa Bielawa (piano) and Carla Kihlstedt, violin. The performers entered the stage one by one, almost as if they were just wandering in and picking up on the musical "vibe" created by the other performers (a chance encounter of musicians). The soprano sang texts derived from transient public speech, in this case all dealing with the topic of "nostalgia." For example: "I used to live on this street. We used to have a house there, but my father lost his job. I never go there now." Quotes from Gramophone magazine and the New York Times succinctly sum up my impressions of this work (in much more elegant prose than I can muster): "impeccably groomed works that at once evoke the layered precision of Vermeer and the conscious recklessness of Jackson Pollock" and "ruminative, pointillistic and harmonically slightly tart."
The video technical problems solved, the short NYC premiere clip was shown. One thing that immediately jumped out at me as that, in editing the work, the vocal part was put more in the foreground. The main point, however, was to show the reactions of everyday people who totally did not expect to hear music, especially art music of this kind, in this spot. A second short film, Chance Encounter on the Tiber, Rome (May, 2010) took the idea one step further. The location of the performance was a sandy stretch along the Tiber River used mainly for strolling. Portable chairs were set out just to see if people would use them and, sure enough, people began to sit down, have conversations (which were being taped for future use) and generally stop their activity for awhile. Then, the musicians gradually began to arrive and perform, turning the place into an informal concert venue. People moved the chairs to create more of a performance venue and the place really did transform itself into a beautiful spot for music.
The final piece on the program was a movement from the composer's Double Violin Concerto. This movement "Song" provided a beautiful and lyrical close to a wonderful program. An unusual aspect to the work is the fact that one of the violinists sings as well as plays. I suppose a separate singer could have been used but I think the composer had the idea of the very interesting combination of a performer using her neck and body to support her instrument while still singing.
One of the interesting aspects of performances such as this is the way the performers support the efforts of composers and colleagues. They are often composers themselves and are usually involved in many aspects of the music world, not just performance. In this way they actively experience the imaginations of their colleagues in many diverse settings.
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