Prism Percussion Duo Goes Trio

Last night the Prism Percussion duo of Divesh Karamchandani and Elizabeth Hall returned to the McRoskey Mattress Company, where they had made their debut. This was their third appearance, following up on their pre-pandemic recital in November of 2019. The title of the new program was 2+1, which turned out to embody both “local” and “global” semantics.

 Prism percussionists Divesh Karamchandani and Elizabeth Hall on either side of composers Nicholas Pavkovic and Mika Nakamura (photograph by Lynn Wilcox)

The latter involved trio performances included in the program along with their duet work. Percussionist Mika Nakamura joined them for two selections; and, for the final composition on the program, they were joined by the composer of the work, keyboardist Nicholas Pavkovic. The “local semantics” involved the title of the program itself, which was also the title of the first work on the program. Ivan Trevino scored “2+1” for one large marimba with two players facing each other from either side. Like all of the other selections on the program, this was a highly physical undertaking, demanding the sort of precision that one associates with a highly skilled pas de deux performance.

“2+1” was followed by the only other duo composition on the program. “For two” was composed by Hiroto Kobayashi for the UTARI Duo of sisters Haruka Fujii and Rika Fujii. Once again, the title has is own coy semantics, since the composition itself is in two movements. The instrument was the same marimba, but this time it was a side-by-side performance.

Nakamura then joined the Prism duo for two highly contrasting compositions. The first of these was “To give you form and breath,” composed by Inti Figgis-Vizueta in 2019. This was scored for a “mobile percussion trio” performing with two pieces of wood, three flower pots, two pieces of “non-resonating metal,” two pieces of “resonating metal,” and three glass bottles. This was very much an “action” composition in which the trio worked with a steady rhythm to coordinate the distinctive sounds of the different objects.

This was followed by Juri Seo’s “Shui,” scored for crotales performed by all three of the players. Each performer also had a bowl of water, which served to modulate the pitch of the sustained sonority of a crotal after it had been struck. This was music for the eyes, as well as the ears, since one could follow how sonorities would change as a crotal was immersed in the water bowl.

The program concluded with Pavkovic’s “Transit.” This involved an electric keyboard with controls that evoked a variety of different sonorities, serving up a broader palette than the listener had encountered with the marimba work. This was a three-movement composition with impressive scoring that definitely required more than one listening encounter. I was particularly struck by how Pavkovic could control the sound of his instrument to match and supplement the less diverse marimba sonorities. Nevertheless, even with a strategically chosen seat from which I could see the keyboard score, I came away feeling that I had only begun to develop a sense of how this music progressed. Hopefully, I shall be able to follow up with further encounters with this music.