comments on AFMM Finale

Just wanted to add my 0.02 Semitone to the reviews
of the AFMM Finale. The performances I enjoyed most
were all in the first half of the concert.

[Howard Rovics, TD 197.3]
> Greg Evans (perhaps the finest French horn player that I've
> ever heard) was right there with the incomparable Anastasia
> Solberg on viola.

[David Beardsley, TD 198.
> The combined tone colors of Anastasia Solberg's viola and
> Greg Evans French Horn filled Columbia University's St. Paul's
> Chapel with Anton Rovner's quarter tone Appel a deux.

I too was very impressed with Greg's playing. He coaxes
microtonal pitches out of his horn with an apparent ease that
is astonishing. Anastasia's superb viola playing blended
beautifully with it in the chapel's resonant space.

[Beardsley]
> The next set was performed by the virtuoso AFMM quartet of
> Andrew Bolotowsky, flute, Michiyo Suzuki, clarinet, Anastasia
> Solberg, viola and AFMM director Johnny Reinhard, bassoon.
> Four works, spanning almost a thousand years and showing
> extreme tuning techniques. From the anonymous Pythagorean
> Hymnus und Organum (1000) and Coimbra Manuscript (1500)
> to the more recent Free Music, V.2 (Percy Granger, 1939)
> and the more extreme 31tet of Ivan Wyschnegradsky's Etude
> Ultracromatique (1959) - this was an amazingly twisted
> programing decision. Also very good programing decision!

[Rovics]
> I'm reminded of the Columbia Group for New Music days when
> Wuorinen and Sollberger would include an adaptation of Medieval
> music on each program for the purpose of reminding us that
> alternative approaches to rhythm, interval and formal
> organization have always existed.

I agree that the audacity of coupling these four so
chronologically-separated works into one set was brilliantly
carried out. I was especially impressed by the two older pieces,
particularly the Coimbra, with its very obviously microtonal
melodic line.

[Beardsley]
> An early Harry Partch piece, Potion Scene (1931)
> was expertly performed by soprano Meredith Borden and violist
> Solberg. An amazing performance, there was no doubt that this
> was Partch!

This was perhaps the most emotionally affecting performance
I've yet seen at any AFMM concert.

The only criticism I have is that Meredith's vocals had too
much of the 'operatic' baggage (mainly vibrato and not-clear-enough
enunciation of the actual words) that comes from her training,
and which Partch abhorred.

But despite that, her and Anastasia's pitches were 'right on
the money', and it was an outstanding and very dramatic performance.
Anastasia sounded like Partch himself playing the adapted viola
on his _Li-Po_ recordings.

Again, in spite of the not-entirely-Partchian vocal style, this
was the highlight of the concert for me. Meredith's performance
had all the drama that an eloquent 'straight reading' of
Shakespeare would have had, but with the addition of a perfectly
harmonized viola accompaniment.

It's a mystery to me why Partch abandoned this piece after
writing it, as I think it was *very* effective in this rendition.

This year's AFMM made it clear that there are at least *two* great
Partch vocalists in New York: Meredith Borden and Johnny Reinhard.

(see my review of Johnny's Microthon! performance of _Barstow_)
http://www.virtulink.com/immp/jux/AFMM10.htm

Joseph L. Monzo monz@juno.com
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
|"...I had broken thru the lattice barrier..."|
| - Erv Wilson |
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