About last month... Ojai in Berkeley

Let me ask you a question: do you do something you know you shouldn't and feel bad about doing it? And does doing that thing make you feel stupid? Or self-conscious? Then you unexpectedly see someone you admire, or who you know is not a loser, doing the very same thing and suddenly, while it doesn't make it okay, you know you're not the only idiot loser in the world?

I felt that way as I was walking up to Hertz Hall on the Berkeley campus for my second day of the Ojai North festival and saw Mark Morris outside of the building, ridiculously dressed in shorts, sandals, and dark grey socks, sitting there outside of the stage door on the edge of a planter smoking a cigarette. I had just bought my first pack after not having a single cigarette in five months and was about halfway through it, feeling a wave of self-loathing with each flick of my Bic. And there sat a genius, a man whose life should be so full and rewarding and interesting that it would be an absurd thought to think that such a person would even consider to do something as ridiculous as smoke cigarettes. It's a habit for losers. And Presidents. And yet there he was, puffing away in his anti-fashion that only geniuses can get away with wearing in public without fear or concern of derision.

Two nights before I had been there to see his troupe perform a powerful, mesmerizing Rite of Spring, accompanied by an explosive musical interpretation by the Bad Plus. Had Morris' group not led off the program with an amazing display of precision which included using the dancer's feet hitting the floor as percussion instruments accompanying the superb American String Quartet in a beautiful performance of Mosaic and United, the jazz trio would have stolen the show courtesy of David King's drumming, Reid Anderson's masterclass exhibition of what can be done with the bass, and Ethan Iverson's otherworldly piano skills. But Morris' troupe beat out a rhythm on the floor to Henry Cowell's string quartets of the same names, twitched their limbs like butterflies bursting from a chrysalis, and made me seriously regret missing some of their local performances during the past couple of years. Elements of the production reminded me of last year's Einstein on the Beach. 

Two nights later Sheila met me for the closing programs, which could have been subtitled More American Mavericks. Organist Colin Fowler came out shoeless and performed on the organ by Ives, Cowell, Vincent Perischetti and William Bolcom. The Ives piece, "Variations on America," written in 1892, was a revelation- the psychedelica of Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" pales in comparison to this intriguing and alluring blast of sound. Perischetti's "Sonatine" (1940), played with only the feet upon the pedals, struck me as more of a gimmick than anything else by the time it was over, but it was interesting to watch and realize how much sound can be made on an organ without using keys or knobs and whatever they have. Bolcom's "La Cathedralw engloutie (Rock of Ages)" from 1979 was like a 50's low-budget sci-fi flick scored by Ligeti- in other words, it was pretty great. If nothing else, Henry Cowell's "Hymn and Fuguing Tune No 14" (1962) exposed Deep Purple's Jon Lord as having very few original ideas, since Cowell seems to have encapsulated every great Purple keyboard riff in his own seemingly tossed-off tune long a few years before the band's formation, and the same thing can be said for Goblin, the Italian group on the soundtrack of who knows how many of Dario Argento's giallo horror flicks. In the second half Fowler put on some shoes and was joined by the red fish blue fish percussion ensemble for an interesting version of Lou Harrison's Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra which started off great and then lapsed into merely interesting mode before wrapping it up with a Poppa-Ooo-Mow-Mow bang. It sounded like an entirely different piece than the one performed by the San Francisco Symphony last year. I liked the SFS version quite a bit more.

Speaking of the SFS, as we re-entered the hall for the final show of the festival, I noticed MTT enter the house through the stage door (quite nicely dressed, mind you). The show began with Cowell's "Heroic Dance For Martha Graham" performed by the Mark Morris Dance Group Music Ensemble, which is quite a mouthful, and it was okay. Frankly, I barely remembered it after what followed, which was the jaw-droppingly freakadelic orgasamajam of Cowell's Atlantis (1931), performed by the MMDGME with soprano Yulia Van Doren, mezzo Jamie Van Eyck, and barefoot bass-baritone Douglas Williams. I'm not even sure how to really describe what initially seemed to be a bizarre display of grunts, growls, gasps and ecstatic sighs performed by each singer into microphones morphed into one of the most delightful and alive musical performances I've witnessed in quite some time, but that pretty much sums it up. That each singer performed their part with enthusiastic abandon (though Van Eyck seemed a bit hesitant at first) only made it that much more delicious. If you ever get the opportunity to attend a live performance of this, do not miss it. Unfortunately I can't find a full-length recording of it to share with you, but perhaps that's for the good because it really is one of those things one must experience live.

The second half, featuring the music of Lou Harrison, couldn't top the first, though it wasn't for lack of trying as red fish blue fish performed "Fugue for Percussion"(1942) and then Fowler returned with some shoes on and joined the Gamelan Sari Raras for "Concerto for Piano and Javanese Gamelan." Harrison's score for the latter work calls for a non-standard tuning for the piano to sound more in tune with the gamelans, but I found it distracting and eventually displeasing- I have no idea if that's due to the timbre of the piece or perhaps the piano tuning didn't quite hit the right spot, but with the second of three movements consisting mostly of the mistuned piano, it was like listening to something which just sounded wrong. However, it blended well with the gamelans in the first and (especially in the) third movements. Still, while the variously sized gamelans produced an interesting array of sound textures, what I really wanted by that point was something that could top Atlantis, and this wasn't it.

This was the third season of Ojai North! presented by Cal Performances and the Ojai Music Festival, and I'm already looking forward to next year's model which will be planned by my pal Jeremy Denk.

About last weekend...

Anastazia Louise

Last weekend actually began on Thursday night and pretty much ran all the way through Sunday evening. I don't recall ever cramming so much into so little time. Besides the Mavericks concerts on Thursday and Sunday, Jeremy Denk and I had cocktails on Friday night. Denk is a charming and funny guy, full of anecdotes, gossip, and questions. More I'll save for another time, but it was serious fun chatting with him. After taking my leave of him at Jardiniere I met up with Isabella and headed over to Herbst to attend the Cypress String Quartet's Call and Response program, which featured the world premiere of Phillipe Hersant's String Quartet No. 3, a piece I'm sure is going to be featured on many future programs. Cypress also performed a Haydn Quartet and Beethoven's Op.127, but Hersant's work was the highlight of the concert.

The next morning I met up with Chip Grant (founder of Urban Opera) and Barnaby Palmer over breakfast to discuss the upcoming SF Lyric Opera production of David Lang's "the little match girl passion" and from there I went with them to observe a rehearsal. The production has a palindrome structure, which the audience will be able to follow by listening to the different voices and noticing the lighting by Matthew Antaky, who recently did exceptional work on Ensemble Parallele's The Great Gatsby. I also had a chance to meet the very intriguing Anastazia Louise of Bad Unkl Sista and watch as she rehearsed her Butoh-style performance with the singers present for the first time. She said she's been absorbed in little but this project lately and it showed. She's an intense performer and I think this is going to be a moving performance. All four singers are excellent- I've heard Eugene Brancoveanu numerous times and every time I do I wonder how much longer Bay Area audiences will get to see him in small, intimate productions like these before he completely succumbs to the temptation of the larger houses for which he seems destined. Ann Moss is an exceptional soprano, and Celeste Winant, a chorale member of Philharmonia Baroque as well as Volti, also possesses a gorgeous voice. But I was particularly curious about Eric Maggay Tuan, who seems to be capable of singing almost anything. There are only three performances at the ODC theater in the Mission this weekend, and though the scale is small (the four singers double on instruments and it will run less than an hour) the return of San Francisco Lyric Opera is a major event on the local arts scene.

Later in the afternoon I attended the American Orchestra Forum at Davies, where a group of panelists including composers John Adams and Mason Bates and San Francisco Symphony's General Director Brent Assink helmed a three-hour chat on creativity in the arts, focusing on classical music, current culture, and especially, delivering content to audiences online. I didn't plan on staying for the whole thing, but it was so interesting that I did just that. They'll have another one on May 13th featuring Alan Gilbert discussing audiences (which should be highly interesting in light of the recent I Phone incident), while the NY Phil is in town for the American Orchestras series. The event is free.

Afterward I went over to the Paramount in Oakland to hear Chrissette Michelle's SFJazz gig, a show that was so poorly mixed I left my seat in the seventh row to go sit in the very back near the sound board, which only helped a little. I left after an hour, dismayed about so many things I don't even want to write about it. Making my way home through the throngs of amateurs celebrating St. Patrick's Day, I was immensely pleased not to be in a bar on this night, or even worse, to be one of those idiots actually lined up outside of a bar waiting to get in- in San Francisco (where there is a bar on practically every corner).

Sunday afternoon was the last concert of the American Mavericks Festival, which ended at 4:20, leaving me just enough time to make it a few blocks down the street to hear "A Celebration of Bay Area Music"- a concert organized by clarinetist Brenden Guy featuring musicians mostly from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (as well as Sarah Cahill, Miles Graber and Barnaby Palmer) performing a diverse program. Cahill performed John Adams' China Gates, a work dedicated to her and she brought along the original score. Also on the program were two delightful works by composer David Conte, including a highly engaging sextet. Although everyone onstage possessed a high level of talent, the show was stolen by the extraordinary violin playing of Kevin Rogers, whose solo in Ernest Bloch's Nigun- No. 2 (from the Baal Shem Suite) was stunning.

You don't really want to know what I did after that, do you? I didn't think so.

American Mavericks IV: Sundays with Cowell, Partch, Riley, Subotnick, Reich, Monk, Foss, Del Tredici

Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble with members of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) perform the world premiere of the SFS commission "Realm Variations" by Meredith Monk at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco on Sunday, March 18, 2012. Photo by Kristen Loken 

Along with the three concerts featuring the full orchestra, San Francisco Symphony's American Mavericks festival featured two programs of chamber music on consecutive Sundays. The first had a fair amount of empty seats, but a very appreciative audience to hear a real grab-bag of 20th Century American music. It began with Jeremy Denk performing five solo pieces by Henry Cowell. These pieces suited Denk's talent and temperament almost perfectly- the usual physical expressiveness of his playing found a perfect foil in Cowell's demanding score, and he rose to the challenges of each, making them look easier to play than they had any right to- or to put it another way, he looked like he was enjoying the himself. Each piece had its own merits and challenges, but the one with the most impact was the gorgeous Exultation, with the aptly titled The Banshee leaving an almost equally strong impression.

Another five pieces by Harry Partch followed, performed by PARTCH on instruments created by the composer to accommodate compositions written for special tunings and a forty-three note scale featured in the works. The instruments are stunningly unique and beautiful, and the members of the ensemble obviously were masters of them. The PARTCH folks were performers as much as musicians, lending the selections a theatrical flair that was initially amusing, especially in San Francisco, which played well to the home crowd, as did Barstow, but the set stretched on a bit and became repetitive.

Terry Riley's G Song for String Quartet received a lush treatment from the Symphony musicians performing it, but its roots as a chaconne made it feel rather ordinary and out of place in context, and in a hall as large as Davies.

The final work of the first concert was Morton Subotnick's Jacob's Room: Monodrama, featuring a chamber orchestra and the composer's wife, singer Joan La Barbara, on vocals. Originally envisioned as a larger work on an operatic scale, the current version features La Barbara and musicians performing a piece not easily described- a Holocaust-themed work incorporating elements of Virginia Woolf's novel. Haunting, especially int he cadenzas where La Barbara let loose with an emotional vulnerability in her voice which was equally thrilling and disturbing. It felt a little long, with the limitation of having only one voice, even with one as chameleon-like as La Barbara's, eventually making itself felt. Still, it's power was undeniable and proved to be a potent ending to the afternoon.

From left to right San Francisco Symphony percussionists Tom Hemphill, James Lee Wyatt III, David Herbert, Jack Van Geem and Raymond Froehlich perform Steve Reich's Music for Pieces of Wood during the American Mavericks Festival, March 18, 2012 at Davies Symphony Hall. Photo by Kristen Loken.

A week later the house appeared full and people were eagerly seeking tickets out front. The concert began with Jack Van Geem, Raymond Froelich, David Herbert, Tom Hemphill, and James Lee Wyatt III performing Steve Reich's Music for Pieces of Wood, the pieces of wood being distinctly tuned claves. Not only was this piece a musical and rhythmic delight, it was amazing to watch the five percussionists perform it.  Requiring a level of physical and mental concentration that looked exhausting to execute, it was exhilarating to watch and hear as each musician entered one by one to create staggeringly complex patterns that shift in meter 58 times during the three separate sections. I loved every moment.

The audience seemed primed to hear the world premiere of Meredith Monk's Realm Variations, including the woman seated next to me who had flown up for the afternoon just to hear it. No one was disappointed. Monk's piece has a unique power and a palatable sensuality coursing through it. Featuring six singers and seven musicians, it was written for the Symphony's Catherine Payne, whose solo piccolo opened the work and continued to have a strong presence within it for the remainder. Monk at 70 years old still possesses an amazing voice, making herself clearly heard among the other talented singers assembled for the work. Sid Chen's bass was a standout among the excellent ensemble. On every level, Realm Variations felt like a complete triumph and the one piece commissioned for the festival that really felt substantial.

Pianist Jeremy Denk and members of the San Francisco Symphony perfrom Lukas Foss' "Echoi" during the American Mavericks Festival at Davies Symphony Hall on March 18, 2012.
Photo by Kristen Loken 

After these two splendid performances the afternoon was beginning to feel like it may prove to be the sleeper success of the entire festival, but the momentum didn't hold for the second half. Lukas Foss' Echoi, performed by Denk on piano, Carey Bell on clarinet, Peter Wyrick on cello, and Jack Van Geem manhandling an array of percussion including the lid of a trash can, had moments of interest during its four sections, but in the end proved too dense and hard to follow on a cold listening (I couldn't locate a version to hear beforehand). The four musicians worked hard to make it seem like something more than the sum of its odd parts, but they lost me early on and by the time Van Geem beat the strings of Denk's piano and hit the lid of the trash can in the Echoi IV I was ready to move on.

Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Kiera Duffy, soprano, and members of the San Francisco Symphony in David Del Tredici's "Syzygy
Photo by Kristen Loken 

Doing so took awhile, as it took some time to set the stage for David Del Tredici's Syzygy, which made for a long and dreary ending to the afternoon. Even the splendid vocal talents of soprano Kiera Duffy couldn't salvage it as she alternately yelped, barked and sang two poems by James Joyce, used here as the work's text, while MTT led a small ensemble that never quite made it to anywhere musically interesting.

American Mavericks II: Bring the Noise- Cage, Foss, Cowell, Ruggles

The somewhat subdued response in the house last Thursday night for the opening night concert of the San Francisco Symphony's American Mavericks festival gave way on Saturday night to a rambunctiousness onstage that made itself felt in the audience.

John Cage's Song Books performed by Joan La Barbara, Meredith Monk, Jessye Norman, Michael Tilson Thomas and members of the San Francisco Symphony during the American Mavericks Festival at Davies Symphony Hall. Photo credit: Kristen Loken  

How could it have been otherwise, with the Symphony starting the night off with a delightful staging of John Cage's bizarre performance piece Song Books? Cage's piece contains 90 different "songs," each a solo in "one of four categories: 1) song [an actual one or something approximating what we know as one]; 2) song using electronics; 3) theater; 4) theater using electronics." The categories alone are hint enough that what's about to be performed was going to be unusual and it certainly was. The SFS brought some serious vocal talent to make it work: Meredith Monk, Joan La Barbara, and Jessye Norman. Also appearing in the piece was Michael Tilson Thomas and assorted members of the orchestra. What did they all do? Well, Norman used an antique typewriter to compose a note in French. Monk sang a quote by Thoreau as if it were a taunt and waddled around the stage like a duck. La Barbara did a take on her own "Circular Song." Cellist Amos Yang and Principal Bassoon Stephen Paulson played cards. MTT played with string and then noisily chopped up some cucumbers, threw them into a blender, turned it on and drank the results. Someone barfed- repeatedly and a pianist took a nap at the keys. There were 80 other things going on, but I can't tell you what all of them were, as most of it was unfurling simultaneously across the stage and it was almost too much to take in. There was "real" music and "singing" as well, some of it quite striking coming from all three guests and the assorted players, but in the end it hardly felt like that was the point and yet it was the entire point- what exactly does constitute a song? Song Cycles, at least as performed here, is one of those things you either go along with and love, or could just as easily hate. The audience seemed split into thirds- the lovers, the haters, and the baffled. I loved it.

After the intermission came three works which sounded almost traditional compared to the first half. Lukas Foss' Phorion was played in its non-aleatoric version, which I have to admit was a bit disappointing since the Festival is about breaking boundaries- why not go with the version which is more challenging? Thomas gave us the reason- when the piece was premiered in its aleatoric version by Bernstein in 1967, the ten minute work required ten hours of practice. Fair enough. A composed version of sampling using the prelude of Bach's Partita in E, Phorion (the word is Greek for "stolen goods") is an inventive novelty with enough charm and wit to seem more substantial than it is- but that's really the key to sampling- start with something good and use it well, and most folks will find it entertaining.

Speaking of entertaining, pianist Jeremy Denk was the soloist for Henry Cowell's Piano Concerto. Requiring a level of almost absurd dexterity to perform, including playing two octaves with a forearm and hitting tone clusters with a fist, once the novelty of how it's played wears off, the result is a pretty substantial piece of music that doesn't come across as a gimmick, but rather three movements of inventive, attractive melodies and rhythms, though I could swear I heard the "Mexican Hat Dance" music somewhere in the third movement. Denk handled the piece with aplomb, coming out in Johnny Cash black and performing with a James Cagney-like swagger.

Carl Ruggles' Sun-Treader has two things going for it- an absolutely fantastic opening and an equally wonderful finish, and it may be the loudest thing you've ever hear performed by an orchestra. However, in between those massive wall-of sound bookends, the piece lost me as it meandered over assorted sunspots, but man, that black-hole of a finish was some incredible noise.

American Mavericks: Copland, Harrison, Ives- and meeting Jeremy Denk

Charles Ives

Though the audience felt a bit subdued at the opening concert for the San Francisco Symphony's American Mavericks festival, there was nothing of the sort coming from the stage. Surprisingly, Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas began the performance without any introductory comments- he seemed content to let the music do the talking on this night and indeed it did. Leading off with Copland's Orchestral Variations, MTT and the orchestra showcased the more unfamiliar side of the composer- dark, brooding and aggressive music that sounds like the blueprint for film noir soundtracks with no sign to be found this is the same guy who wrote Rodeo or Appalachian Spring. The orchestra's brawny approach matched it perfectly.

Lou Harrison's Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra followed, featuring soloist Paul Jacobs and seven percussionists. Beginning with an Allegro section reminiscent of a drumline, the work proceeds through a variety of different musical terrains - an Adante follows for just the organist and then a dream-like Largo lulls the listener to a quieter place -indeed, it put the guy next to me to sleep. He awoke with a snort when the Canons and Choruses section began, which was a gorgeous, deliberate meditation full of hypnotic counterpoints. The final Allegro section veers into something that sounds almost delightfully like surf music, and Jacobs and the percussionists tore through it with a Ventures-like glee. At the end, MTT held the score aloft and kissed it.

During the intermission I took the opportunity to introduce myself to Jeremy Denk, who was seated next to cellist Steven Isserlis during the performance. Denk is performing in three of the scheduled Mavericks concerts and Isserlis is in town to perform Schumann's Cello Concerto with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. I was hanging fire at the rail of the rear boxes as Denk came in from the lobby, giving me the chance to buttonhole him in person. He proved to be kind and gracious, though for a moment he seemed apprehensive, as if he wondered exactly what I might be up to once it all clicked into place. The popular, well-regarded pianist and I have a bit of a thorny history, but I'll cheerfully admit to admiring the man's abilities with a keyboard whether it be attached to a piano or a computer. His recent recording of Ives is marvelous and if you haven't already read it, check out his brilliant piece in the Feb. 6 issue of the New Yorker on the trials of recording the album's Concord Sonata.

An orchestrated version of the same made up the second half of the concert. The piece was obsessed over for years not only by its composer, but also by Henry Brant, who worked on re-orchestrating it for more than forty years. Between the two of them, I doubt there's a single work in the entire musical canon that has had so much time has been spent on its creation and revision. It proved to be an enormous, frequently thrilling beast, with the orchestra's string section sounding (and I know I've said this before, but it keeps happening) better than ever. The four sections eschew sonata form and instead evoke the spirit of four mid-nineteenth century literary personages of Concord, Mass- Emerson, Hawthorne, the Alcotts and Thoreau. Emerson is the thorniest, Hawthorne the most interesting and diverse. The Alcotts mirror their history of transcendentalism and Thoreau is, well, Thoreau. The gorgeous hymnal section of the Hawthorne section proved to be the highlight for me before it (d)evolves into a cacophonous mash-up of who knows how many borrowed tunes- a feature of each of the work's movements, but done with special flair here. The time Brant expended on Ives' work proved to be well-spent- in his hands the Concord is an orchestral piece with a gravitas wholly different than its inspiration.

There's still time to buy a $100 pass for all remaining festival performances. Call 415 864 6000, or go the Davies box office. Also, Eva Soltes' great documentary on Lou Harrison continues at the Roxie this weekend and is well worth seeing.

Denk you. Denk you very much.

This photo of Jeremy Denk "performing" Beethoven's 2nd Piano Concerto was taken by Hiroyuki Ito and appeared in the NY Times today. I've been asked by more than one person what I find so objectionable about Denk's performances. Consider this photo a visual aid. To top it off, from the reviewer's account it appears he's making a a habit out of saying he'll perform one thing only to show up unprepared and ends up playing something else. Fie!