I felt obliged to attend tonight's Alarm Will Sound concert at Stanford given it was close to home, featured favorites like Ligeti and Aphex Twin, had a premiere of a John Adams piece that was a sequel to his Chamber Concerto that I saw in the North American premiere in 1992, was a follow-up to last year's lively AWS concert at UC Berkeley, and had two instances of my current interest in Nancarrow player piano transciptions. So I did.
And in a nice gesture, the University illuminated Hoover Tower in crimson red in honor of their guest and Harvard graduate John Adams. Ok, maybe that wasn't their intent, given tomorrow is the Big Game versus Cal. (As football rivalries go, not that exciting. It's like watching Goldman Sachs take on Morgan Stanley, except less physical and more wacky).
Wacky versus substantive was the overall theme for the night. Alarm Will Sound, noted for their unconventional and hip performances, got things off to a rollicking start with the transcription of Nancarrow's Study No. 2a, a simple blues riff transformed into rhythmic complexity. AWS pushed this even further by walking around the stage while they played, kneeling, lying prone etc. It was entertaining and the music was presented in an accessible way. But is it really legitimate and worthy? I need to think about this...
I saw one of their warm-up shows for this event in Blacksburg a month ago (the program was the same except they played Yo Shakespeare in place of the Adams piece). I think the way they presented the music made it a lot more interesting than the usual chamber music presentation. The Shaggs song was silly if technically impressive, but the rest of the program was very well chosen, I thought.
Posted by: daveadams | December 01, 2007 at 01:27 PM
Honestly, after the first "moving around" piece I closed my eyes any time they started to move around again. The playing was so good, so tight that I found the visuals distracting.
On the other hand, new music needs all the gimmicks it can get.
Posted by: David Ocker | December 01, 2007 at 08:29 PM