cubeensemble.com Blog

I’ve been delayed in posting this week by various Holiday activities.
But there’s been a lot happening, so I’ll try to keep it brief.

Sunday 12/13 CSO/AIC Salon Series -

Sunday in Fullerton Hall at the Art Institute the CSO presented the initial
chamber music concert of the season. I began with a slide show
and very informative short talk by James Cuno about the works of Degas depicting the Paris Opera Ballet. Did you know young, poor prospective dancers auditioned for the ballet in hopes of being discovered and finding “sugar daddies” from Paris’s elite gentlemen?

Going under the name of the Atlantic Piano Trio, Nathan Cole, Brandt Taylor and John Novacek, violin, cello and piano respectively, performed trios by Beethoven, Schoenfield and Dvorak. Being biased towards new music, I was delighted to hear the Schoenfield “Cafe Music” sandwiched between two solid piano trios. More about sandwiches* later.

(BTW, on Friday afternoon I got a phone message from James himself wishing me holiday greetings and reminding me to keep supporting the AIC.
He must’ve been very busy that day

Sunday 12/13 Un-Silent Night in Chicago -

Later Sunday evening I participated in a what got’s to be called a “happening”
by 21th century standards. Phil Kline composed a piece to be played on
multiple boomboxes during the Christmas season called “Unsilent Night”.
So at the invitation of dal niente pianist Mabel Kwan, I joined the throng of
20 to 30 others who strolled down North Michigan Ave to the Bean and
finally the Daley Center Christmas tree. The atmospheric music, slightly
different on each boombox, included chimes, chant, bells and general
“space music”. It was fun and the weather was fine. Watch out for it next year.

Sunday 12/13 ICE turns Bach -

Even later Sunday night ICE guitarist Daniel Lippel played three Bach
transcriptions for guitar. They were beautifully rendered with the most
delicate touch on the stings. Claire Chase, playing with Daniel in the
Flute Sonata in E Major was “*sandwiched” between Partita in B Minor
and Lute Suite #3 in A Minor. The folks at St Paul’s Chapel in Lincoln
Park hosted a great reception after the concert

Tuesday 12/15 Third Coast at The Chopin Theater -

Third Coast Percussion’s concert at the Chopin began with the recent
version of Arvo Pärt’s “Fratres” for percussion ensemble. To those familiar
with the Fratres series for various combos, his latest one (2006) hasn’t
been performed in Chicago until now. Marimbas, vibes, glockenspiel,
bass drum, auto spring and woodblock were all in-sync to refrain
the familiar Fratres themes. (It inspired me to find and play my CD with
the other Fratres versions: NAXOS 8.553750)

Two other marimba/vibe pieces by Alejandro Viñao and Fredrik Andersson
completed the 1st half. They both complemented the Pärt by being
somewhat moody and mysterious.

The second half was all Matt Barnson. 3rd Coast commissioned a
percussion quartet from him in 2008. In four movements it covered a
range of musical moods from quiet to bombastic. In the last movement,
I was especially impressed by David Skidmore’s playing of the
brake drum. You don’t get to hear much prominent brake drum at regular
new music concerts

There was an added element at this concert too. 3rd Coast arranged
with the Chopin’s lighting director, Lee Keenan, to do lighting effects
for the show. The concert was held on the set of Chopin’s current
production “All the Fame of Lofty Deeds”. Lights came up and went down
in sync with the pieces being played. Although some of the peripheral
lighting was superfluous to my attentions to the players, it was
very effective in determining when these pieces (unknown to me)
ended.

Friday 12/18 Chicago Ensemble at the PianoForte Salon Series -

Friday at lunchtime I usually walk up to hear piano recitals at the
Sherwood School. This week there was a piano quartet, the Chicago
Ensemble. The program was to include Mozart’s Quartet #1 in
G Major and a new work by Jan Swafford. But the 45min time limit
didn’t allow both. So Gerald Rizzer, Artistic Director, decided to
substitute Mozart’s scherzo movement with the Swafford. He called
it a Swafford *sandwich. It worked for me.

PianoForte is in need of funding to support The Salon Series at
Sherwood for the 2nd half of the season. Pass the hat…

Friday 12/18 Fused Muse at Epiphany Church -

Out in the West Loop at Ashland & Adams is the Romanesque
church of the Epiphany. It was the venue for a new ensemble
for new music, dance and visuals called “Fused Muse”.
It’s inspired by cellist Sophie Webber and including pianist Phyllis
Chen, composer/pianist Zvonimir Nagy, dancer Ben Delony,
artist Haley Nagy and lighting designer Baltazaar Pena-Rios.

The program started with Sophie playing a solo of Benjamin
Britten’s Suite for Cello #1 (1964) accompanied by Ben doing
interpretive dancing. I haven’t heard such recent Britten, so
it was new music for me, and brilliantly performed by both.

The second piece, composed by Zvonimir Nagy, with projections
of art by his wife Haley missed the mark for me. I’ve seen
many more multi-media presentations in the past seasons
that have the same problem. The projections just don’t jive
with the music.

The 2nd half, after wine and munchies, was going to be interesting.
Phyllis Chen, of Toy Piano fame, played the Shostakovich Sonata
for Piano and Cello in D Minor with Sophie. Phyllis put her all
into it and Sophie played from memory. I love the Shostakovich
chamber works, and was in the zone

The last “Pärt” of this concert was by Arvo himself. It was
“Spiegel im Spiegel” (Mirrors within Mirrors) for piano and cello.
“Mirrors” was the theme of the evening’s concert, and this was
a fitting finale. Except the excellent urban traffic visuals projected
on the scrim were interrupted by a computer glitch 3/4s from the
end. (Oh well, even Macs aren’t perfect.)

I’m inclined to say the lighting designer should be designated
the “darking” designer, because so much of the performance
was in the dark and there should’ve been at least cameo lights
for performers taking their bows.

Sorry it wasn’t so short. But as Joe E Brown once said: Nobody’s Perfect.
–
Bruce Oltman