SOLI
New postcards from settled territory
October 12, 2012The SOLI Chamber Ensemble opened its new season Oct. 9 in Ruth Taylor Recital Hall by unveiling newly commissioned works by three American composers, all of whom were present for the birth, along with one slightly older work by a Colómbian.
All the pieces were well-made, well-groomed, well-behaved, well-spoken. All exemplified, through somewhat varied means and predilections, a prevailing contemporary style that has become well-established -- a hybrid of Modern, Romantic and folk or pop sensibilities, in a harmonic language that is neither too alien nor too familiar. The force of necessity or conviction about important matters? Not so much.
All four of the pieces were scored for SOLI’s core ensemble of violin (Ertan Torgul), clarinet (Stephanie Key), cello (David Mollenauer) and piano (Carolyn True). The performances were polished and expertly assembled.
Of the new works, Elliott Miles McKinley’s “Three Portraits” had the strongest profile and evinced the greatest comfort in navigating the strait between anchored and free tonality. The first movement, “July Watercolor,” carried the listener along nicely on a brisk stroll. In “August Watercolor,” the composer folded some jazzy and bluesy material into his modernist mix. The finale, “September Watercolor,” alternated between near-stasis -- the slow movement of sustained chords on clarinet, violin and cello over rumbling figures low on the piano -- and spritely running. Mr. McKinley teaches at Indiana University East in Richmond.
Erich Stem’s three-movement “Moving On” had some lovely moments, especially in the opening Prelude, which included a reflective, questioning piano solo with modern jazz echoes and a more angular, fractured melody played by the cello and then taken up by the violin. In the middle movement, “Liberation,” playful episodes intrude on stretches of slowly moving octaves. The final Dance is cheerful, with some spiky rhythms. Mr. Stem teaches at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany.
Boston-based Peter Farmer’s first musical love was jazz. His “RagOut” for Four, as the title suggests, draws on assorted American folk idioms, though each of the two movements is so unified thematically and harmonically -- a stretched-tonal Modernism -- that the sources are not obvious.
Colómbian composer Diego Vega’s Divertimento, dating from 2008, relies heavily on Afro-Caribbean and Latin American rhythms, and its third movement, Lullaby, exudes nostalgia for old songs. Most interesting musically is the second movement, Toccata, with its fragmented melodic material, its assorted influences (even some minimalist bits) and its abrupt conclusion, an ascending figure that seems cut off in mid-thought.
All four works on this program seemed like pleasant postcards from settled territory. That isn’t necessarily bad -- and the music certainly wasn’t bad. There is a legitimate place for art that ornaments our lives. But there is a more important place for art that changes us, art that pricks, disturbs, teases, upends, astonishes, disputes, questions. Sometimes we need a kick in the ass.
Mike Greenberg
