Schick on the Sticks
The Monday Evening Concerts can get pretty wild with amazing sounds and experimental structures. After attending the first one of the year last December, I hope to return again April 14. Above is a video from that December 3rd concert with music by Xenakis, Stravinsky, and Radulescu. I hope you’ll agree that this is not esoteric but has a very catchy beat and concept.
Steven Schick is one of the most important modern day percussionists in the field. He leads the group down at UC San Diego and performs and records often. In fact, he recently did a complete recording of Xenakis’ percussion music, which includes the piece he performed above Rebonds.
And he’s playing in a week at the LA Phil’s Green Umbrella night with the UCSD group red fish, blue fish.
The April 14th concert is going to be another thing entirely. It’s dedicated to a composer, Helmut Lachenmann, who is preoccupied with creating alternative noises with traditional instruments. These pieces can be hit or miss, either being too repetitive and unstructured or having the just right amount of imagination to suspend disbelief and enter a new world. We’ll see.
