When last seen wilting in Ottawa (along with the tulips, looking dead two
weeks before they are to bloom), I was searching for the *future* in the
Strings of the Future Festival.
Apparently, the festival's devilishly clever artistic advisor, Jean-Jacques
Van Vlasselaer, had the same in mind: after the first two days of
Haydn-Beethoven- early Webern and Schoenberg, Wednesday came on heavy with
mid- and late-20th century repertory, cross-progammed with Vlasselaerian
invention.
For example, in just one day, he scheduled the stately St. Petersburg
Quartet in the sad and searching one-movement No. 13, Op. 138, from 1970;
the gentle and entertaining 1940 Piano Quintet (played fabulously by the
Alcan Quartet and pianist Andre Laplante); and another dynamite Canadian
quartet, the Molinari, with the relatively early, spectactular Quartet No.
4, Op. 83.
Wonderful as all that was, the problem is that -- flash! -- Shostakovich
is dead, and so are the other "recent" composers featured today, including
that unique and great Russian, Schnittke (whose Quartet No. 3 was
performed beautifully by the Molinari), Korngold, etc. You cannot go into
the future with composers who are no longer with us.
And yes, the festival -- and we, the audience of the future -- found a
candidate, a representative for the next century, but we need to dispense
with another living author presented today.
Perhaps alone among those really interested in contemporary music, I have
steadfastly refused the acclaimed charms of Thomas Ades, even when he was
23 (five long years ago) and obviously a phenomenon. It was that year,
1994, when he wrote his first quartet, called "Arcadia," which was offered
by England's Arditti Quartet today. To me, it simply proves that even a
non-minimalist composer staying clear of mechanical ostinato can be
repetitious and boring, but -- again -- you won't hear that about Ades
elsewhere.
I cannot resist quoting Vlasselaer about "Arcadiana." My favorite
programming genius is a kind of mad poet, so multi-multi-lingual that his
program notes represent an Esperanto of his own (just don't try to find
a pedestrian verb less artistic writers can't do without):
"Like a mirage, the bells of Papageno who accompanies the Queen of
the Night, Schubert and his Auf den Wasser zu singen, seventeen bars
devotissimo in hommage to Elgar, a tango mortale inspired by Et in
Arcadia ego by the painter Poussin... everything is suggestion and
innuendo."
Truly, finding that one sentence made the trip to Ottawa worthwhile.
And so is being at the world premiere of Kelly-Marie Murphy's String
Quartet No. 4, "Another Little Piece of My Heart." In that direction
lies the future.
Even before you hear the music, you've got to like the young woman who
calmly explains that she has written only two quartets, and the reason for
this being No. 4 is that she started with No. 3. And the title? It's
not about the Joplin song, she says, but prompted by her puzzlement that
a simple muscle is taken as the seat of emotions, something that can be
broken or left in San Francisco. So she wrote two outer movements about
heart-the-mystery, and two movements in-between dealing with the physics
of the heart, such as beating fast when the adrenalin is flowing or "when
you have to speak about your composition in public."
And then the Alcan Quartet starts playing Murphy's music and it's an
instant love affair with the audience even though there is nothing cheap
or condescending in its accessibility.
At 35, the Virginia resident is rock solid in her technique, she writes
music that's `old-fashioned" tonal and yet completely of our time. Those
"emotional" outer movements are simple, unpretentious, speaking directly
to feelings (the first movement ends with sadness, but the final movement
presents hope), but what makes Murphy the great promise for the future are
the two fast inner movements.
The scherzo- and presto-like movements (Murphy does not mark them in the
program) are fluent and tide-like -- developed, not repeated. The second
movement just a bit "Bartokian" (what good modern string quartet isn't?),
but my favorite, the third movement is "choice Murphy, all hers, strong,
confident, attractive music, taking the listener on a wave.
The commissioning Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will soon broadcast
this world premiere performance, so there will be a larger audience for it.
I am hoping to hear it again, and Murphy's other works as well. Who knows
-- she could take a hint from the "StarTrek" marketing phenomenon, and
produce those two missing quartets as prequels.
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in Ottawa to 5/8
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