I caught an interesting slew of avant shows in the second half of February; here’s the rundown.
My ears rang—enjoyably so—at the Seattle Improvised Music Festival (Feb 16). The two group improvs failed to jell; everyone seemed stuck in the same tempo, reluctant to erupt, protrude, and push ahead. Yet the solo set by percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani made the night. Grappling his cymbals and drums, Nakatani whipped up tiny pings and glittering metallic tones into a thrilling, cleansing, torrential wave of sound.
Pianist Cristina Valdés (Feb 17) delivered a stunning solo concert stocked with difficult piano music (Messiaen, Murail, and a very good piece by the UW’s Joël-François Durand). The Seattle Chamber Players (Feb 23) captured the closely held tones and icy silence of little-known Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa perfectly. I groaned, however, at the boring percussion part in Drawing; bass drum rolls and scraping a gong with the tip of a stick seem dowdy for a piece composed in 2004. Affinity’s concert (Feb 24) had more misses than hits; half the pieces suffered from indifferent scoring and stilted rhythms. Shulamit Ran’s vertiginous Mirage came off well, and I was startled by the whispering flute and sped-up vibraphone motor that concluded Sarah Bassingthwaighte’s Eleven Portraits Suite.
I searched in vain for adventurous orchestral music. The Seattle Creative Orchestra is in deep hibernation, so I made do with the Seattle Symphony’s latest disc, Echoes: Classic Works Transformed (Hear Music/Starbucks). Culled from the Symphony’s 2006 Made in America Festival, this disc affirms Schwarz’s taste for well-crafted yet meek, midtempo music. Despite two winning pieces, Aaron Jay Kernis’s Musica Celestis and Schwarz’s deft orchestration of a Handel Concerto Grosso, nothing on Echoes challenges what an orchestra can do or might be in the 21st century. Seattle needs an orchestra devoted to adventurous music.
THURSDAY MARCH 8
DAS VIBENBASS
I like this sax- and vibes-fronted quartet’s penchant for short, funky motifs, accelerating tempos, and unexpected detours. Industrial Revelation, a hard bop-inspired quartet featuring trumpeter Ahamefule Oluo, opens. The Triple Door, 216 Union St, 838-4333, 7:30 pm, $15/$18.
PHILL NIBLOCK
The extraordinary sound artist, filmmaker, and Experimental Intermedia honcho Phill Niblock teams up with Dutch experimental saxophonist Thomas Ankersmit. I hear Niblock’s work as an inverted aural image of Morton Feldman; rather than allow quiet sounds to ripple and shimmer along a hushed surface, Niblock erects loud walls of sound to expose the inner life of supposedly static or slowly moving tones. St. Andrew’s-Wesley Church, 1022 Nelson Ave, Vancouver, BC, 604-633-0861, 8 pm, $15/$20.
FRIDAY MARCH 9
GIULIO CESARE IN EGITTO
Ewa Podles sounds superb in Seattle Opera’s production of Handel’s opera Julius Caesar. Much of the “gold” cast, particularly Kristine Jepson and the burly voiced Arthur Woodley, does too. Yet I was dismayed to hear conductor Gary Thor Wedow occasionally push his singers around with fast tempos. Conductors sometimes forget that voices—unlike most other instruments—cannot be sped up by simple repetitive motion. Oh, and the sets, colored in Miami Vice—era pastels, are captivating. Also Sat Mar 10 with the “silver” cast; see www.seattleopera.org for details. Sung in Italian. McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St, 389-7676, 7:30 pm, $45—$127.
SEATTLE PRO MUSICA
Karen Thomas conducts the SPM in Leonard Bernstein’s sacred yet sassy Chichester Psalms and other works. Also Sat Mar 10 at 8 pm. St. James Cathedral, 804 Ninth Ave, 781-2766, 8:15 pm, $15—$23.
SUNDAY MARCH 11
MEDIEVAL WOMEN’S CHOIR
Early “Early Music” by Adam de la Halle, Jehan de Lescurel, and a song cycle by the mid-13th-century poet, Martin Codax. Second concert at 7:30 pm. Temple Beth Am, 2632 NE 80th St, 264-4822, 3 pm, $10—$19.
MONDAY MARCH 12
SILK ROAD PROJECT
I savored Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project when it trundled into town several years ago; excellent musicians from countries along the Silk Road trading route performed traditional music alongside compositions scored for an array of exotic instruments. This time, Ma has corralled pieces by Osvaldo Golijov (From Air to Air) and Kayhan Kalhor (Gallop of 1,000 Horses and The Silent City) alongside traditional music from Romania, Azerbaijan, and points East. Also Tues Mar 13. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St, 215-4747, 7:30 pm, $36—$120.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 14
LADIES MUSICAL CLUB
Sopranos Elizabeth Eklund and Karen Prince sing duets by Delibes, Lee Hoiby, and Ned Rorem. Pianist Delores Borgir essays Chopin’s Preludes, op. 28. Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave, 622-6882, 12:10 pm, free.
COMPOSER SPOTLIGHT
Stravinsky once decreed, “Composition is frozen improvisation.” Makers of free improvised music are composers too; they just compose on a moment’s notice. Here, alto sax firebrand Wally Shoup discusses the intersection of composition and improvisation. He performs with Gust Burns (piano) and Bob Rees (percussion). Jack Straw Productions, 4261 Roosevelt Way NE, 634-0919, 7:30 pm, free.
