Issue #73

Last Update May 20, 2013

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Arts New York Composers Circle at St. Marks by David Katz April 15, 2013   The New York Composers Circle held its third concert of the season at the Church of St. Marks In the Bowery. The concert theme, “Mostly Winds”, highlighted the ability of this organization to program in a variety of modes, following its two previous concerts, “Mostly Piano” and “Mostly Strings”.

The New York Composers Circle is a unique organization, even for the richly endowed metropolitan arts scene. It is an aggregation of composers devoted to the creation of modern concert music, mostly classical in form, with forays into jazz, afro-cuban and electronic music. The annual series of four concerts provides a showcase for their mostly small-form efforts: art songs, duets, trios, quartets and, occasionally, quintets. This small-form bias is mostly driven by economics – paying musicians for even a baroque-sized orchestra is beyond the scope of current finances, although the composers themselves have produced larger works.

All music is a series of dialogues: between composer and performers; among the performers themselves; and between the composer, performers and audience. In the first piece, a song cycle called “Wenn Dich dein Schatten Verlaesst”, by Nina Siniakova, the main dialogue is between the singer (Christine Ascher, mezzo) and the oboe (Keve Wilson). Voice and oboe play off each other, sometimes even alternating notes as the melody progresses. Ms. Ascher does well in this piece, which is vocally demanding in both range and dynamics. Ms. Wilson is a superb oboeist, and is able to produce the effects, such as double noting, required by the composer.

In Cesar Vuksic's “Variations for Clarinet and Piano” the alternations between clarinet and piano are more disjunct, with the piano stating the them, followed by a clarinet solo variation. Again, the playing of multiple simultaneous notes by the clarinet adds to the technical difficulty. Joseph Rutkowski handled the clarinet part ably, while Cesar Vuksic, well known as a superb pianist, interpreted his own piece, highlighting both the freedom and structure of the variations.

The first half of the program ended with Gayther Myers' “Chaconne for Four Winds” (Mary Barto, flute, Keve Wilson, oboe, Allen Bluestine, Clarinet and Richard Vrotney, bassoon). Each voice was allowed to shine, producing the variety of timbres for which wind ensembles are noted. The writing is dense but melodic.

Hubert Howe's “Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano” (Sara Aritake, clarinet, Andrew Brokowski, cello, and Aiko Imaizumi, piano, Alex Yu, conductor) opened the second half. The three movements are made up of a connected series of passages, each of which leads to the next, but has references back to the previous passage. Each instrument has the chance to be the primary instrument at one time, and the supporting instrument at others. Often a series of long tones brings out the sonority of the primary instrument.

Martin Halpern's “Trio for Flute, Clarinet and Cello” (Mary Barto, Flute, Allen Blustein, clarinet and Andrew Borkowski, cello) is a busy, jagged work in two movements (Prelude and Scherzo, and Chaconne), with clarinet and flute often ganging up on the cello.

John Eaton, well known composer and Composers Circle Honorary Member, provided the final piece of the evening, “Emerging Convergence” (Raymond Kelly, soprano saxophone, Ana Garcia, Alto Saxophone, Wonki Lee, tenor saxophone, and Danielle McBryan, baritone saxophone), a witty and technically difficult piece that arose out of the composer's frustrations with our do-nothing Congress. The first movement has each instrument going its own way, while the succeeding three movements work toward a resolution. The shifting dialogue among the instruments points to a convergence and harmony absent at the beginning. Saxophone quartets are not common in formal music; there should be more.

All the composers hold themselves successfully to a high standard, and the performers match that standard. The next New York Composers Circle Concert will be June 8, 2013, at Symphony Space's Thalia.

New York Composers Circle www.nycomposerscircle.org