An alternately grave and theatrical performance of Lejaren Hiller's String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter-Tones) was the high point of last night's probing S.E.M. Ensemble concert at the Paula Cooper Gallery. From 1962, the serial piece is structured as a set of variations, with movements of enormous contrast: slow, languid microtonal pools rub shoulders with violent, scratchy explosions. The result seems to anticipate works by some of today's spectral composers, as well as the quartets of Helmut Lachenmann. The musicians were Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim (violins), Max Mandel (viola) and Gregory Hesselink (cello), all superb, and if there were any justice they would rush this into the recording studio. (On CD, there appears to be just a single version available, by the late great Concord String Quartet.)
A small ensemble had great fun with Christian Wolff's Flutist (and) Percussionists (2003) and For John/Material (2007), and TimeTable Percussion was mesmerizing in Petr Kotik's In Four Parts: 3, 6 & 11 (for John Cage) from 2009. In between, Mr. Kotik and Bradley Brookshire offered a dryly refreshing take on Bach's Sonata in B-Minor for flute and harpsichord (c. 1720), an unusual oasis in the evening.
[Photo: John Cage (left) and Lejaren Hiller in the 1950s, from the University of Illinois. Further thanks to Analog Arts Ensemble]
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