Howard Who?

Concrete Frequency is no doubt a fresh and invigorating series in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s history. Even more than the Minimalist Jukebox series, this one has really brought together a much more disparate palette of works surrounding the idea of the city. We had representatives from hip hop, graffiti, rock, jazz, film, funk, and on Thursday, electronica.

The orchestral programs have been admirable for the way they’ve incorporated traditional composers into the theme, but at times the connection feels somewhat thin. One of the best connections was with the Charles Ives piece Central Park in the Dark, a story-like depiction of a calm dark night where drunken revelers, ragtime, and a marching band interrupt. On the other hand, Pierre Boulez and Morton Feldman both compose beautiful works, but they seemed more textural, soundscape adventures than actual statements about cities. You could forgive them of course since Robertson argues the pieces were constructed with “cities” in mind and also the LA Phil happens to be very good at performing them.

The program with the Feldman piece was really in a way about how European composers have dealt with African-American influences. Some like Zimmerman directly quote the slave song “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” (trumpet solo by Alison Balsom pictured above) or like Ives quote “Hello, My Baby.” Others like Berio only barely touch on it with jazz trumpet performance technique abstracted and controlled. It was fitting then that conductor David Robertson ended the night with an encore (unusual for any LA Phil concert) of a jazz standard, ‘Round Midnight.

The program with Boulez was rather explosive. Boulez’s work was called “explosante-fixe” which kind of means “fixed exploding.” The flute-centric work also samples sounds of the flute keys being tapped and weird near-silent flute harmonics amplified. The work itself was dense, austere, impenetrable, except for the few times the “theme” or “originale” reared its head, an Eb idea inspired by the death of Stravinsky. Reading Mark Swed’s positive review, I agree that there is something outdated about this work.

The second half of the concert was Gordon/Morrison’s World Premiere piece “Dystopia.” Michael Gordon does the music and Bill Morrison does the film. Apparently they made a splash with “Decasia” at the Minimalist Jukebox two years ago. This time, Morrison’s film deals with Los Angeles with a special focus on an abandoned tram that used to take people up to Bunker Hill and framed by images of a processing plant that seems to dispose of bits of lumber. Gordon’s music was loud and rocking, also explosive, but minimalist and nearly maddening. He was also a co-founder of Bang on a Can so it’s not too surprising I suppose. But it was the polar opposite of Boulez.

The problems inherent in putting on a festival of this sort is readily apparent. You want to include everyone and yet please or at most gently challenge your subscription base. And in a real way, it has done that. Robertson’s achievement is broadening what he does (namely conducting orchestral works) within the larger strata of culture, which must include pop culture. But by wanting both, are we diluting the potency of each? Furthermore, are they just presented as existing on different planes or can we all treat them as coming from the same artistic “shelf” so to speak? Programming Boulez and Gordon together throw each into a startling relief, which would have remained hidden in a Boulez-only program. Yet it might also be true that we delve deeper with a dedicated concert. The Songs of the City worked well because we saw the vast range of one kind of musical tradition, the singer/songwriter, and yet none of those individual artists really got to say anything truly potent because their set was limited to 2 songs. But perhaps this was more useful for a subscription base that was more familiar with Van Dyke Parks than any of the other “name” people.

I don’t know these answers, but I enjoyed thinking about the possibilities. I’m sure Cornelius and Plaid on Thursday will offer more answers…and questions. Tonight is Messiaen’s Des Canyons Aux Etoiles…see you there.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 10:33 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, Classical Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.