Readers may recall that last week’s annual Old First Concerts (O1C) performance by jazz pianist Mike Greensill and a bevy of his friends felt like he was nearing the end of the road. That said, this week’s performance, entitled Look to This Day, left me wondering if the road even existed any more. The program was organized by Kevin Lee Sun, who played piano for all four of the works on the program.
Daniel De Togni playing shakuhachi with Kevin Lee accompanying him on piano
Two of those were solo compositions by Hyo-shin Na, entitled “Rain Study” and “Autumn Study.” (Those with O1C “history” will probably know that Na is as familiar to attendees as Greensill is.) Sadly, both of her works left me with the impression that there was little to the music other than “noodling.” (Ironically, I came away from an Old First Concerts recital exactly the same way almost exactly a year ago.)
Na’s pieces were framed on either side by West Coast premiere performances of compositions by Daniel De Togni. The first of these, Death Poems, was a cycle composed for shakuhachi and piano with the composer playing the shakuhachi part. This is an instrument which is particularly demanding when it comes to breath control, and the composer complemented the pianist with an engaging unfolding of microtones.
Less satisfying was the concluding selection, Songs of Becoming, a cycle sung by soprano Wallis Lucas. Sadly, her diction was, to say the least, uneven; and I was disappointed to see that even the O1C Web page ignored providing a copy of the text. The best I could come up with was the program note on that page, which concluded by summarizing the six songs in the cycle as an exploration of “themes of personal growth, dreaming, homelessness, depression, and the preciousness of each day.” As far as my own listening was concerned, that exploration did not take me very far!
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