BSO principal flute Elizabeth Rowe, retiring at the end of the Tanglewood summer, performs Allison Loggins-Hull’s “Homeland” in Ozawa Hall, July 24. Hilary Scott photograph
Focused last week on the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood, which I was happy to review once again. Please read the review here, at Classical Voice North America.
FCM also coincided with the annual meeting of the music critics association, and with the BSO’s own celebration of the Serge Koussevitzky anniversary. The annual meeting moves around the country each summer, and I’m always glad to have it come to TW. These are colleagues: late-career journalists, or early- and mid-career journalists, most of them looking for bylines. The journalism business has gotten cruel, but these are writers dedicated to music and performance, and I’m delighted to be among their number.
The BSO Koussevitzky programs were moving. Principal bassist Ed Barker announced his retirement this weekend (after 50 years; he joined the orchestra in the ’70s on the strength of one audition for Seiji Ozawa). Barker performed Koussevitzky’s own double bass concerto after his announcement. In addition, principal flute Elizabeth Rowe is also leaving the orchestra. She performed Allison Loggins-Hull’s “Homeland” for solo flute on a chamber players program Thursday evening, warmly received. Several of my colleagues from MCANA were covering the BSO events, and you can read about that in detail on CVNA as well.
I’ll excerpt my own FCM review below. Its co-curators, Steve Mackey and Tania León, made a striking impression. There’s always an expanse of new music to take in, and that’s the fun of FCM; but Mackey and León also included a work of their own on each program (six concerts). Its silly to make judgments from a half-dozen works, with prolific composers; still, its fun to make dime-store psychological conclusions. Or just fun to listen to; it was.
TMC fellow Zhaoyuan Qin performs Leila Adu-Gilmore’s “United Underdog” (note the forearm chords) July 25 in Ozawa Hall as part of the Festival of Contemporary Music. Hilary Scott photograph
Excerpted from CVNA:
. . .Mackey’s Afterlife, for mezzo and percussion quartet, and Leon’s Indigena, a chamber concerto for jazz trumpet, amplified the multiplicity of ideas.
Different composers, different approaches. “The voices of our time,” León said onstage, “and everyone has a different accent.”
León and Mackey also have their own accents, and in addition to a work on each program, they each had a piece on the BSO’s regular Shed schedule (León’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Stride, Mackey’s concert opener Urban Ocean).
Mackey made choices that were personal, mimicking his own compositional style. A rock guitarist, with extensive compositional training and influences, and decades of notable collaborations, Mackey writes intricate music, but in conversational style. He even included a children’s piece, improvised while balancing his infant son on the piano bench. He’s prolific: more than a dozen concertos, including Stumble to Grace, his piano concerto performed here sensationally by Orli Shaham (also inspired by kids).
Mackey’s string quartet One Red Rose, coupled engagingly with León’s Cuarteto No. 2 in one program, epitomized their styles in a small ways. One Red Rose occupies all four instruments almost continuously; often, ostinatos in a single instrument support the non-stop dialogue. León’s quartet shows the same insistent complexity, but with interruptions from dance sections that created a liberating casualness.
Composer Steve Mackey, one of the co-curators for this summer’s Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood. Kah Poon photograph
Mackey’s elegiac Afterlife (2021), for vocalist and percussion quartet, challenged. Miked mezzo Carmen Edano recited five poems over a jangle of percussion. The moving lyrics were presented in lugubrious sprechstimme, undermining their rumination on time and death. Too much intensity in the lyrics, too little listening space to absorb it. That said, a scat-like outro, out of character with the work, revealed Edano’s impressive instrument, and the quartet grooved inventively. Physical Property, for string quartet and electric guitar, showed that playing with sonic restraint can blend those disparate instruments—given the right composition.
Tania León’s expansive career was given a loving glimpse during the festival. Her music swings and dances in turns, boils over in virtuosity at times, articulating her polyglot and uncategorizable experiences. Cuban-born, solfège trained, immersed in multiple styles and never afraid to make music dance, León shifts easily through styles.
Indigenia stood out. Trumpeter Michail Thompson soloed in a kind-of concerto for small ensemble—winds, horns, and percussion, with single strings on a part. The combination swung—conductor Samy Rachid, BSO assistant, made it happen. It sounded like carnival had passed through the hall, a slightly out-of-control processional. Her Atwood Songs, five characterful poems from the well-known Canadian author, were perfectly suited to soprano Temple Hammen’s instrument.
León’s Esencia (a string quartet; only one movement performed) comes stoutly phrased, with a measured, static texture, strongly gestural and rhythmic. In the Field enigmatically sets five poems from Carlos Pintado in a musical walking tour of Philadelphia.
Composer Tania León, in the ‘70s, with Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood. Boston Symphony Orchestra courtesy photograph
Stride, León’s Pulitzer Prize–winning orchestral work, actively seeks out its rhythms. It begins by purposefully obscuring them, with asynchronous strings and out-of-phase horns. As it coalesces rhythmically, it also dances. Rhythm doesn’t dominate or underpin the music, it participates.
On the closing orchestral program, Ser and Pasajes, both one-movement works, furthered the notion of León’s restless style. Pasajes, which began with a gorgeous meditation evoking the minimalist intensity of Arvo Pärt, moved all-too-easily from mood to mood—unfortunately not repeating any.
Many evocative works presented here deserve further attention. . .
UPCOMING
Last weekend of the summer at Tanglewood coming up for me. Bookended by appearances from Gustavo Dudamel (with the National Children’s Symphony of Venezuela, Thursday evening in the Shed) and Jeremy Denk (a program anchored by Ives’s “Concord Sonata,” Sunday evening in Ozawa), I’m counting this weekend as the official end of my recuperation. Apart from two multi-concert assignments, most of my writing this summer has been casual and superficial, with intent. The mix of music, some writing, mostly listening and/or staring into space—it might not be for everyone, but it’s been therapeutic for me.
Jeremy Denk performs at Ozawa Hall in July, 2018. Hilary Scott photograph
I’ve managed to miss the Newburyport Chamber Music festival, and I’ll only make it to one Manchester Summer Chamber Music program, but I’m pleased to see those two festivals thriving. Had meant to get to Portland, ME, for Melissa Reardon’s festival this month, but it’s not possible. The fall season is closer than I’d like.