gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONESEPTEMBER 2019 VSOUNDS OF AMERICAPHOTOGRAPHY:
RON BLUNT
‘Spark’
BeckerLockdownHalleSphere(’)sHarshTrill
HuiMapofRealityMellitsStringQuartetNo3,
‘Tapas’– FiveReynoldsOpenRWoolfNoLuck,
NoHappinessYarnellMonographs
FrictionQuartet
InnovaFINNOVA024(67’• DDD)Since 1993 the
Common Sense
Composers’
Collective has
created more than 70 new works,
released four albums and produced
five new-music marathons in the San
Francisco Bay Area. The music on its
new CD was developed in collaboration
with the Afiara and Cecilia Quartets,
beforebeingtakenupbytheOakland-based Friction Quartet, and the disc
comes with an essay by Richard Taruskin
spinning fabulous metamusical fantasies.
The opening gentle beauties of Marc
Mellits’s ‘Five’, suggesting Dvo∑ák and
Janá∂ek in a roundabout way, are
followed by Dan Becker’s film noir
Lockdown power grid, then John Halle’s
delirious homage to Thelonious Monk in
which a metric pulse in the background
holds together a swirling series of
polyrhythmic phrases.
Melissa Hui’s Map of Reality is a series
of intriguing snippets and textures
crafted as if they were pieces of visual art.
Notated in prose descriptions ‘somewhat
amplified by rhythmic symbols’, the
results are in part left up to the
performers. The second movement of
five is particularly beguiling with its
mewingascendinganddescendingsighs,while the finale is hauntingly beautiful,
with a variety of bowed and plucked
effects. Belinda Reynolds’s Open is
similarly focused and addictive, though
it stirs itself briefly into action towards
the end.
The contrasts in mood and style
continue with Ed Harsh’s ferocious
Trill, which is ambushed brilliantly by
Bartókian accents at the end. ‘Hiko’,
the first of Carolyn Yarnell’s two
Monographs, is six minutes of perhaps
not-so-random plucks amid uncertain
silences. Her ‘Angel on a Bridge’ is just
plain good-natured, after which Randall
Woolf’s No Luck, No Happiness makes
franken-Baroque noises that will make
listeners understand why Stravinsky
hated Vivaldi and HC Robbins Landon
called for a pox on Manfredini.
LaurenceVittesOurmonthlyguidetoNorthAmericanvenues
The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,
Washington, DC
Year opened 1971
Architect Edward Durrell Stone
Capacity Concert Hall: 2465; Opera House: 2362;
Eisenhower Theater: 1164
Resident Ensembles National Symphony Orchestra, Washington
National OperaThe Kennedy Center officially opened its doors on September 8,
1971, with the premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass. Unlike
New York’s Lincoln Center (opened in 1962), with its separate
constituent buildings designed by various architects, all the venues
of the Kennedy Center are housed under one roof, designed by
the architect Edward Durrell Stone. Cyril M Harris designed the
auditoria and acoustics. The building is imposing: 100 feet high,
630 feet long and 300 feet wide, it occupies a prominent site on
the Potomac River, with commanding views from its upper level
terrace. 3700 tons of Carrara marble, a gift from the government
of Italy, were used in its construction.
Both the location and design of the Kennedy Center have
garnered criticism. It is not readily accessible from any stop of
the DC Metro, and one architectural critic described the structure
as ‘gemütlich Speer’. Certainly the sheer monumentality of the
Kennedy Center can overwhelm the visitor. But no one could
argue that Washington’s performing arts centre failed to fulfil a
longstanding need. Before the Kennedy Center, the US capital
had historically suffered, with a few exceptions, from a dearth of
spaces appropriate for music.
Three large halls occupy the Center’s ground level. The 1164-
seat Eisenhower Theater hosts plays, musicals and contemporary
dance. The Opera House, seating 2362, is the permanent home of
Washington National Opera and the annual Kennedy Centerhonours, as well as the preferred venue for ballet companies and
Broadway musicals. The largest is the Concert Hall, with 2465
seats, the permanent home of the National Symphony Orchestra
and hosting popular music concerts. All share a common lobby,
the Grand Foyer, one of the largest rooms in the world, which
has as its centrepiece the giant portrait bust of President Kennedy
by Robert Berks. At each end of the Grand Foyer are the stages
of Millennium Stage, where free events are offered to the
public daily.
The 324-seat Kennedy Center Family Theater is the site
of productions for young audiences. The recently refurbished
Terrace Theater seats 513 for chamber music, recitals, dance and
theatre. Plays and lectures are presented in the Kennedy Center
Theater Lab, with its semi-circular thrust stage and seating for- The KC Jazz Club is used for performances in a relaxed
cabaret setting.
This September the Center will unveil an expansion on four
acres of the building’s south plaza. Classrooms and rehearsal and
performance spaces will be available, as well as three pavilions,
a reflecting pool, a grove and a sloping lawn for outdoor
performances. Patrick Rucker