June 10, 2014

Vox Hebraica in Times Square

         Recently, I revisited Times Square and was surprised for some reason. . . it was the same as I left it. What we all experience there in one walk through and every walk through does not change an inkling, not one iota: bright lights decorating billboards along any inch of street side that often promote the latest musical, huge videos promoting the latest fad with beautiful, young people sporting their goods, tons of pedestrians with faces upward, stopping many times right in the middle of the flow of people to gawk at all of this or to stand mesmerized, fast food eateries and bars to satisfy that urge for comfort food, theaters with musicals that boast some of the most interesting artists in the city, who seem to do everything from dance, sing, play numerous instruments and compose, restaurant row which has its reputation of ethnic variety with a slower pace and a little more quiet, iconic stores selling products in a huge way like Hershey’s and M&M, which has bins upon bins of different colored M&Ms and a section where you can even print your own logo on them. Each and every walk through, this is Times Square.
         While realizing this, I walked my familiar path, but to a new place, The Actor’s Temple, which offered something different for the area, a concert of Jewish Classical music. Hosted by Marina Kifferstein, who curated the series and plays in the duo Rhythm Method, this concert was the last of the series, which was a really neat find in such a hyped-up area. It’s not too often that you find a concert series dedicated to preserving a particular heritage, and to hear it performed where an audience considers it their home, not without the shuffling sandals of elders, seemed quaint. In the case of this last performance, I think the program reflects the diversity of Jewish statements in Classical music.
         The program included music by John Zorn, Noam Faingold, and Gyorgy Ligeti. I’m familiar with John Zorn, I’ve heard his mosaics of rapidly changing genres in Naked City and his warmer, often jazzy, Masada project. For Ligeti, I’ve played his Six Bagatelles for woodwind quintet, which is incredibly fun and easily my favorite in the woodwind quintet repertoire. Written in the 1950s, originally for piano, it is a collection of short pieces with listenable melodies that are rhythmically spirited. The tunes are as catchy to listen to as they are tricky to play. With no knowledge of his String Quartet No. 1: Metamorphoses Nocturnes, I could only wonder if its statement was similar to that of Six Bagatelles- fun.
         I got my answer with the opening melody. The piece begins with a beautiful yet haunting violin melody, which fits well a piece named after night transformations. The 12 movements are played continuously, but they fly by! Ligeti seemed to group the movements together in such a way that they would start simply and build to become quite dense with all performers bowing heavily, only to suddenly withdraw to a single sustained tone, and then continue in much the same way throughout the piece. For all its intensity, the piece was really listenable even with atonal melodies and odd meters and/or syncopations. Frankly, it had a rock ‘n’ roll quality due to its call and answer moments, infectious vitality and harsher sounds. After quickly realizing in the beginning this piece was nothing like Six Bagatelles, I was surprised to hear the quartet's 8th movement, Subito Prestissimo, was strikingly similar to the 4th movement of Six Bagatelles, Presto Ruvido. The closing section, after hearing the frenzied section preceding it, was particularly beautiful: poignant with that haunting violin melody and an exhausted, somber cello line. Ending with a return to the beginning, to finally and reluctantly relent.
         Although changing quite a bit across the 12 movements, I think the general statement of the piece was intensity followed by our inevitable yield to it. Intensity was something this young quartet was not short on. Marina Kifferstein, Lavinia Pavlish, Meaghan Burke and Anne Lanzilotti, all gave incredible energy to this performance. Not only their execution, but their actual physical intensity heightened the emotional impact of the piece. I was impressed with their stamina and appreciated that they lightened when the music did as well, maybe even sneaking a smile to one another. Great to see people doing what they love!

-Sally