Boston ConNECtion Concert Review
The Boston Modern Orchestra Project at the New England Conservatory
Jan 19, 2009
Despite the 17 degree New England weather, the 11th Annual Boston ConNECtion concert managed to draw a fairly sizable crowd on Saturday night. Conducted by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project's Gil Rose, the concert took place in the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall and premiered several works by NEC faculty and a selection from the BMOP/NEC composition contest.
A common theme running through many of the pieces on the program was that of giving voice to the disenfranchised. Either the subject matter was about displaced peoples, as in Matti Kovler's "A Jew Among the Indians (Cokboy)" and Kati Agócs' "By the Streams of Babylon." Or else the work turned the spotlight on an unusual instrument, such as Peter Maxwell Davies "Strathclyde Concerto No 7, for Double Bass and Orchestra" and Michael Gandolfi's "From the Institutes of Groove," a piece for bass trombone.
In short, the concert delivered unusual experiences not likely to be found in just any performance hall.
Though a complete listing of the evening's performance can be found on the BMOP website (see Sources below), a few pieces deserve special mention and elaboration here:
Matti Kovler's "A Jew Among the Indians (Cokboy)"
Selected from the BMOP/NEC composition competition, "A Jew Among the Indians (Cokboy)" was a setting of Jerome Rothenberg's poem and movingly captured the anxiety and placelessness of the immigrant transported to a new world and finding himself among other disenfranchised peoples. The orchestra provides a wandering backdrop to the poem's narration, performed Saturday night by the piece's composer Matti Kovler.
Tonal displacement predominates through much of the work, interrupted only by a G major chord corresponding to a vision of the sunrise and again when the music fades into a Hassidic delivery of Psalm 139 ("Where can I go from your Spirit?"). Overall, an intensely moving piece about immigrant experiences in America.
Kati Agócs' "By the Streams of Babylon"
Kati Agócs also draws from the Psalms for her work "By the Streams of Babylon." A song about the Jewish captivity in Babylon, the text speaks of the impossibility of adapting to a foreign culture and looks backward towards a distant, past home. Set in Latin for its liturgical significance (rather than in the original Hebrew of the psalm), the work requires two sopranos to sing in straight tone, also evoking the history of medieval liturgy. The sopranos, Lisa Bielawa and the composer herself, captured this mysterious historicity with their gorgeously clear voices.
Bass Trombonist Angel Subero in Michael Gandolfi's "From the Institutes of Groove"
Another notable moment was the performance of Angel Subero on the bass trombone in Gandolfi's "From the Institutes of Groove." Divided into two movements, the piece explores two differing avenues of groove. The first movement, "Too Jazz for Rock," borrows from salsa and big band. The second movement, "Rising on the Wing (Perpetuum Mobile)," takes a more minimalist approach, repeating a theme modulating endlessly through the harmonic cycle until the composer brings us safely back to earth again. Full of fun and life, this second movement propelled the audience along almost cinematically, punctuated by Subero's sassy calls on his muted trombone.
For a 2008-09 listing of upcoming BMOP performances, please visit their website.
Sources
Boston Modern Orchestra Project website.
Concert Notes. January 17, 2009.
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