review of AFMM/May 7, 1998

The first night was a real challenge because Sasha Bogdanowitsch's piece
_Atom Turning in the Sun of Eternity_
involved a certain amount of distance between instruments, and his tempi
are specific to his dance movements. As conductor, I used a silent
metronome to give precise indication, trying not to get disoriented by
the peculiarities of the spongy chapel sound. This piece takes the
listener through several deep feelings in basic JI. It worked well, and
Sasha performed with
earnesty, energy, and a myriad of facial archetypes. Andrew Bolotowsky
played the wooden flute beautifully.

Then Virgil Moorefield scared everyone by playing ELECTRIC right up in the
first row. During dress rehearsal, I did feel there was one spot that
might be a bit TOO loud to and mentioned it to
electric guitarist Evans Wohlforth, but the performance itself was
amazingly well balance, and well within normal listening
expectations...though it was
certainly visually intimidating, what with a synthesizer, electric guitar,
baritone saxophone, electric violin and electric cello... It was sharp
post "Glenn Branca rock drummer", post-Princeton, post downtown
sound color, inadvertently about a bug that entered the composer's ear
during his composition time. It's exciting and wild.

Next on the program, the eloquent John Schneider performed a panapoly of
majestic solo guitar works. They were as pearls of sound in the old
chapel of stone.
He seemed to radiate while he played.

The concert was in an hourglass form. The largest pieces were at the
beginning and end of the concert with a mirror inverse emanating from the
center.

After intermission, violist Anastasia Solberg joined Schneider (well,
that's the way he answers the phone...), and cellist Jennifer DeVore in
_Fratres_ by Estonian composer Arvo Part, in a JI arrangement. Powerful,
theatrically, it did distort intonationally, at times, which may have been
amplified by the particular acoustics of the chapel. Definitely a
powerful effect in the hall, with a raging fury erupting in kaleidescopic
sound color. While the cellist droned, JS plucked whispered JI chords
apace.

In a solo viola work --Din Cinpuoi-- by Rumanian composer Violeta Dinescu,
Anastasia Solberg took the listener through different sound landscapes,
making the piece her own, often simulating a bagpipes character, as
suggested by its title. It was
intense, if lengthy for a solo. (Ah, the page turns, and tuning up, the
bane of a microtonal concert.) Really virtuosically natural playing.
During previous performance of the piece in Europe,the microtonal
considerations were ignored by the player.

The 18 players certainly had fun in my phantasmagorical venture Adam and
Eve, Everyone I've heard from in the audience had a different main
comment to make. The ratio of loud to soft was huge, more than I
intentioned, but perhaps, even more effective for its psychological
affect. Ron Kozak took a ballsy solo as the forbidden fruit on English
horn, behind cellist David "the tree" Eggar. The dancing all seemed to
work, but discussions on symolisms continue. I used the storyline to
jumpstart improvisations that have a logical path to follow, with lots of
variety and unexpected surprises. Got that. And it was fun.


Johnny Reinhard
Director
American Festival of Microtonal Music
318 East 70th Street, Suite 5FW
New York, New York 10021 USA
(212)517-3550/fax (212) 517-5495
reinhard@idt.net
http://www.echonyc.com/~jhhl/AFMM

On Fri, 22 May 1998, Aline Surman wrote:

> Just curious...usually, some of the East Coast guys post reviews of
> gigs in their area. I didn't see a review of the AFMM May concerts (other
> than the Times review)...how come? I'd like to see some
> comments...Hstick
>