Of New Music and "New" Music

sfSoundGroup @ ODC Dance Commons, San Francisco, CA
Sunday, August 9, 2009

Intuition (2009) by Christopher Jones
Stacey Pelinka: flute
Kjell Nordeson: percussion

Planetary (2009) by Christopher Burns
Kyle Bruckmann: oboe
Matt Ingalls: clarinet
John Ingle: alto saxophone

Schattenblatter (1975) by Klaus Huber
Matt Ingalls: bass clarinet
Monica Scott: cello
Christopher Jones: piano

Improvisation (2009)
sfSoundGroup

Kreuzspeil (1951) by Karlheinz Stockhausen
Kyle Bruckmann: oboe
Matt Ingalls: bass clarinet
Christopher Jones: piano
Shayna Dunkelman, Russell Greenberg, Kjell Nordeson: percussion
John Ingle: percussion

temporary structures (2009) by David Bithell
Kyle Bruckman: oboe
Matt Ingalls: clarinet
John Ingle: alsto saxophone
Alexa Beattie: viola
Monica Scott: cello
Christopher Jones: piano
David Bithell: conductor

Composition no. 75 (1988) by Anthony Braxton
Kyle Bruckmann: oboe
Matt Ingalls: clarinet
John Ingle: alto saxophone

With a mixture of "established" new music pieces performed along side severely recent works, it was the old that sounded most other worldly, and revolutionary. Huber, Stockhausen and Braxton offering up self contained worlds of acoustic matter while the works of Jones, Burns and Bithell displaying an affinity for ideas transitioning into sound.

The highlight of the evening was the fantastic Schattenblatter composed by Klaus Huber. The lightly prepared piano performing along side the bass clarinet and cello creating soft textures with vibrant detail.

Karlheinz Stockhausen's Kreuzspiel offered up a larger ensemble version of austere sonic space as the piano part worked from the extreme registers toward the center where it was met by the oboe and clarinet along a sonic bed of percussion.

Planetary by Christopher Burns and Composition no. 75 by Anthony Braxton each shared the same instrumentation of oboe, clarinet and saxophone applied toward very different ends and aesthetic disposition. Planetary focuses on cycles of different durations moving against one another with surprising (and pleasant) turns toward whimsical gestures. Whereas Composition no. 75 exists well within Braxton's thick, cerebral matter that finds structural integrity through multiple, parallel ideas. The earnest, dynamic performance did justice to both pieces.

Overall, a well performed selection of works that contrasted the new with the recent. The newest of the new music suggesting the ideas that these selected composers will be focused on from the present moving forward while the older "new" music drew a taut line toward the traditions being extended.