Wa Concerts presents Intellect and Excitement: The Music of Charles Wuorinen and Milton Babbitt in Review
Charles Neidich, clarinet/bass clarinet; Ayako Oshima, clarinet; Lucy Fitz Gibbon, soprano; Fred Sherry, cello; Tengku Ahmad Irfan, piano; Ryan McCullough, piano; Katie Hyun, violin; Yezu Elizabeth Woo, violin; En-Chi Cheng, viola
Tenri Cultural Institute, New York, NY
December 7, 2018
Only the superb artistry of Charles Neidich and his team of great collaborators could make an entire evening of Milton Babbitt and Charles Wuorinen as engaging as it was on Friday night, December 7, 2018, at the Tenri Cultural Institute.
At the end of the Second World War, much of Europe lay in ruins, with unspeakable horrors still being brought to light and costly reconstruction needed everywhere. In 1946, as a manifestation of the continuation of art, a contemporary music festival was founded in Darmstadt, Germany, where it continues to this day. It was renowned for its adherence to uncompromising twelve-tone and serial compositional techniques. It was there that Pierre Boulez made his famous statement (paraphrased here) that “any music that is not serial in nature is worthless.” Unfortunately, many great composers who still believed in arching, yearning lines were either ridiculed, minimized, or completely ignored (until about 35 years ago). Many of the serial composers, comfortably ensconced in academia, consciously turned their backs on the listening public and composed for each other, so to speak. One might argue that the old-fashioned sense of beauty was seen as irrelevant after an age that saw nuclear destruction and the Holocaust.
Milton Babbitt, who lectured at Darmstadt, was one of those intellectually rigorous composers. The disjunct lines, organization of the pitches that are used in any given work, conscious manipulation of rhythms and dynamics according to a plan, lack of any identifiable tonal center, are all hallmarks of the style. For this reviewer, settings of poetry in this idiom are not conducive to text comprehension, but watch out New York, there’s a “new Lucy” in town. Lucy Fitz Gibbon was the excellent soprano on this occasion, beginning with Babbitt’s Quatrains (1993, words by John Hollander). She handled the challenging writing with ease. It is best to listen to the whole combination of sonority to get the emotional expression, rather than any specific text painting. The husband/wife team of clarinetists Charles Neidich and Ayako Oshima blended so well that at time it was difficult to distinguish whether a clarinet was playing or the singer was singing.
Then followed Charles Wuorinen’s Cello Variations II (1975) for solo cello, with veteran Fred Sherry doing the honors brilliantly, from memory. Mr. Wuorinen was in attendance, and he could only have been happy with all the presentations this evening, honoring his eightieth birthday year. Every bit as intellectual as Babbitt, I do notice a slightly warmer tone to much of his music, and a strong sense of pulse that guides the listener through.
Babbitt’s Quintet for clarinet and string quartet (1996) closed the first half with Mr. Neidich at the helm and the fine string quartet players: Katie Hyun and Yezu Elizabeth Woo on violin, En-Chi Cheng on viola, and Fred Sherry again on cello. I’ve always thought this a worthy companion piece to the ubiquitous Brahms quintet; one could program it first, so no one would leave, then play the Brahms as a sort of “consoling” voice, if the Babbitt was perceived as too rigorous.
After intermission, and the customary fine food and beverages that are served, Babbitt returned with My Ends Are My Beginnings (1978), a pun on the medieval motet by Guillaume de Machaut Mon fin est mon commencement, which is a rigorous crab canon. In that age, composers reveled in filling their scores with all manner of learned devices that would only be appreciable to those in the know (sound familiar?). Mr. Neidich played both clarinet and bass clarinet, and was genially unflappable despite a reed mishap early on.
ThenMs. Fitz Gibbon returned with her regular recital partner Ryan McCullough for Wuorinen’s A Song to the Lute in Musicke (1970, text attributed to pre-Elizabethan poet Richard Edwards). The duo is splendidly matched, and Mr. McCullough’s piano handling of the disparate lines is extremely sensitive. They continued with Babbitt’s Du (1951, text by August Stramm, who died at age 41, killed in action in WWI). This is the “oldest” music on the program. Stramm’s terse, darkly expressionist poems were fully inhabited by Ms. Fitz Gibbon, and here the musical language matched the sentiments well.
The concert closed with Wuorinen’s Fortune (1979) for piano trio and clarinet, with Mr. Neidich, Mr. Sherry, Ms. Hyun, and Tengku Ahmad Irfan handling the difficult parts stylishly and with obvious affection. I’m going to assume that the title refers to “chance” or “luck” rather than to wealth; in this case, luck had nothing to do with the performance, which was a display of craft and skill, well-honed. In this music, the pulse was maintained so well that it served as a sort of replacement for traditional tonality, anchoring the listener’s ear through the complex journey. The audience gave everyone a well-deserved standing ovation. Clearly, the thornier aspects of this music do not scare away its adherents, and we learn that intellect can be exciting.
