Monotonous Forest

From the mouths of babes

Around 9:30 p.m. last night I was at Coney Island, anticipating the sixth of some eight rides on the Cyclone, and found myself sitting just behind a father and his six or seven-year-old daughter who were in the very front car.  As we waited for the ride operator to release the brake and send us up that first sweat-inducing hill, the man turned to ask me how many times I'd ridden tonight.  As I started to reply the little girl blurted out, "The Cyclone is the best roller coaster ever!  I hope they never tear it down.  If they did, I think...I think...I think I would just kill them!"  Her dad touched her arm and smiled, "Now honey, we don't talk like that, do we?"

[Photo: the base of the Cyclone at night c. 2004, by Mike at Satan's Laundromat]

A little mid-week electricity

As if the flood of Verbier concerts weren't enough, here is Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, at the 2007 Proms last Sunday, in their encore: a white-hot performance of the "Mambo" from Bernstein's West Side Story.

Thanks to Marc Geelhoed and Opera Chic for the news, and to GTL Torn T for posting it.

[Photo of Gustavo Dudamel © Christina Körte/DG]

From Verbier

Thanks to a friend in Chicago who alerted me to these archived concerts from this year's UBS Verbier Festival, with notably high production quality, both in audio and video.  (You'll want to use the "full-screen" option.)  So far I've seen Thomas Quasthoff and Hélène Grimaud in a stunning recital of Schumann and Brahms, and the always entertaining Labèque sisters in Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, with Sir Andrew Davis and the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra.  Don't wait: the site says they'll be up only through August 31.

"You can't write the same book twice."

In a summer full of too many farewells, now we say goodbye to Max Roach.  One of the world's most innovative jazz percussionists, Roach sat side by side with a virtual "who's who," and redefined the art of drumming.  WKCR-FM 89.9 (Columbia University) is doing a week-long tribute, and the obituary in The New York Times, by Peter Keepnews, is here.  More from Steve Smith, wordsandmusic, ionarts, and a particularly nice piece from Doug Ramsay.

[Photo by Herman Leonard: Clifford Brown and Max Roach c. 1955, from www.cliffordbrown.net]

More on the subject of less

Some other projects this week have made me arrive a little late to the party celebrating minimalism, taking off in last week's New York Times, then spilling over into Steve Smith’s blog and on Kyle Gann’s (and no doubt elsewhere).  While I agree with some of the comments noting the narrow range of choices, frankly, some of those choices would have been mine as well.  Just this week I lent a copy of Riley’s In C (the sunshine-filled Bang on a Can recording) to some friends, one of whom recalled hearing the composer in it years ago.

But Mary Jane Leach’s comment about Bruckner resonated the most with me.  I have often thought that some listeners who hate the composer might try to recast him as one of minimalism’s forerunners.  (Listen to the repeated horn calls in the Fourth Symphony, or consider the three-note motif that is the tiny building block of the Eighth.)

I would also include someone like Scelsi in these discussions, even if not all of his work really fits, even if he is in general rather uncategorizeable.  But his Quattro pezzi su una nota sola (Four Pieces on a Single Note) would probably qualify. 

My CD list would definitely include another Bang on a Can recording, with Andriessen’s Hout, Hoketus and Workers Union, all of which are not “the most minimal of the minimal,” but employ acute restrictions on timbre or rhythm for their impact.  And my favorite Steve Reich recording includees some of his earliest work: Piano Phase, Clapping Music, It’s Gonna Rain and Come Out.   

[Photo: Untitled (1959) by Agnes Martin, at Dia:Beacon, via ArtCritical.com]

Acoustics wizard

Sorry to have to report another death, but I can't let Russell Johnson, founder of Artec Consultants, go unacknowledged.  Johnson and his designs gave me a completely different perspective on listening to music, causing me to pay keen attention to the importance of venues as a crucial part of the concert experience, and the science and artistry of acoustics.  (Plus, I somewhat guiltily confess that Artec's gorgeous photographs made great avatars and screen savers.)

His project with which I'm most familiar is Philadelphia's Kimmel Center (2001), now home to the city's great orchestra.  Despite the soaring space and structure by architect Rafael Viñoly, Johnson's work didn't receive universal praise, but I hope most listeners would grant that the sound is still light years ahead of the venerable, gorgeous - and dry - Academy of Music. 

Thanks to Timothy Mangan for his tribute.

[Photo: Concert Hall, Concert and Culture Centre, Lucerne, Switzerland.  Courtesy of Kultur und Kongresszentrum, via Artec]

Appealingly skeletal

Last Friday I saw Stanton Wood's reworking of the Dracula story called Nosferatu: The Morning of My Death, with invigoratingly minimal direction by Edward Elefterion, artistic director of Rabbit Hole Ensemble.  The production is about as no-nonsense as it gets: in front of a black curtain, actors in white shirts and pants create not only characters but places, using little more than a couple of hand-held aluminum work lights. 

The hardworking cast is also responsible for many of the sounds: night winds, ocean waves, a bat banging at the window.  When Matt W. Cody appears as the title character, his voice has a slight reverberation; I thought he was wearing a microphone, ever-so-slightly electronically processing his speech.  No, the echo was all being done live, by other cast members.  This kind of back-to-basics creativity is part of the exhilaration of seeing a small company, one happy to experiment with concepts sometimes overlooked with bigger budgets.

The bad news: the show has closed.  The good news: it will be returning, around Halloween.

[Above: Jenna Kalinowski as Mina, with Matt W. Cody as Nosferatu.  Photo by Edward Elefterion.]