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Keeping
the "modern" in modern music
Sunday, April 22, 2005
By Paul M. Somers
... guests: Linda Sweetman-Waters (piano), Rae Gabrielle de la Crétaz (soprano).
It was only a bit over a month later that PV fans reunited in the Ridgewood Unitarian Society for a concert which in large part memorialized local composer Richard Lane (1933-2004) who had passed away last fall. He had been commissioned to compose a work for the PV, but they had not seen it, or even known that it existed yet, when he died. The completed work was found among his papers, so it received its premiere.
His Trio in two movements - one senses that a third was intended - exemplifies his esthetic. The first movement, though it moves right along, is gracious, even gentle, a description which those who had been close to Mr. Lane told me fit him. And even more revealing of the composer's essential striving for beauty is the slow second movement. Long lines intertwine touchingly without becoming saccharine. It was this movement which made a musical epitaph, a benediction and valediction in one. Other works of his were performed. Soprano Rae Gabrielle de la Crétaz, not originally announced as a soloist, sang Lullaby, a shapely *vocalise which was quite *chromatic. The performance was well-calculated yet sounded as free as if improvised.
The elegiac mood was continued as Margaret Swinchoski played the Adagio from Lane's Flute Concerto (2003). At the conclusion she motioned to pianist Ron Levy, then to the large photograph of Richard Lane which sat on an easel to audience right during the whole concert.
What had been lacking in the Lane memorial was any sense of the wit for which he was famous. Finally Mr. Levy and Linda Sweetman-Waters sat down at their respective pianos and produced "Carolina" Variations - the tune in question being Carolina Moon (words and music by Benny Davis and Joe Burke), as in "Carolina moon keep shinin'," etc. With its opening quote of (what else?) Claire d'lune the piece became an invitation to find just about every other known moon or Carolina reference lane could slip in (I could swear I heard a touch of "Song to the Moon" from Dvorák's Rusalka, and everyone heard Carolina in the Mornin'). Along with all those clever quotes, it was also an active and clever set of variations.
Both Ms. Swinchoski and Ms. Sweetman-Waters mentioned to the audience that they were wearing the same dresses that each wore for the premieres of their respective concerti composed for them by Lane.
I did not know Mr. Lane, but his music and the love with which his friends played it opened a door to his spirit for this stranger.
The spirit of new music was enhanced by Matthew Baier's arrangement of his Syzygy for the PV. It is, strictly speaking, a *twelve-tone work, but Baier finds a different palette within that discipline. This sounds more like Hindemith than anything from the *Second Viennese School. The secret is that the elements with which the composer grapples are recognizable to the ear, not just the eye. When he becomes fugal, the music can be followed in that way. It was this work which, a few issues ago, I mentioned had been the one to which the inexperienced music appreciation student was immediately drawn. So was I.
The set of Three Nocturnes included elements of interest for each. Elgar's Chanson de nuit for clarinet (originally violin) and piano was gorgeously phrased by both Donald Mochrynski and Levy. It turns out this the composer felt it was the most beautiful of his works.
Chopin's C-sharp minor Nocturne, op. 27, no. 1 is, of course, one of his most exotic works. The ambivalence between minor and major and the odd harmonies within the equally odd scales make this an otherworldly nightscape. Levy mentioned to the audience that there is a *quote from Liszt's E-flat Piano Concerto within the music.
The most unusual work of the evening was Maria Grenfell's On a moonlit night a recluse plays his pale white ch'in. This latter is a Tasmanian aboriginal flute. Ms. Grenfell is a New Zealand native. Thought the work is written for the basic PV configuration using alto flute, Levy opened the piece by playing the rain stick. The low sonorities of the wind parts imparted an expressive earthy quality to the nocturnal picture. But it was the high piano chords which painted most effectively the nighttime picture of stars in a high sky and of sparks rising from a small fire.
The theme of "A Starry Night" was bookended by "Mercury" and "Jupiter" from Holst's The Planets. Had these been real arrangements in which the flute and clarinet covered the parts of other prominent instruments, perhaps hinting at those "foreign" colorations, then they might have been more spectacular. As it was, Swinchoski and Mochrynski played the flute and clarinet orchestral parts while Levy played everything else. While it turned out to be a showpiece for the pianist, it was not all that satisfying as an arrangement.