‘NEW MUSIC, NOW!.’ Akmal Parwez: Chitarang* (2002) ~~ Alison Nowak: Resound* (1986, revised 2002) ~~ Gunther Schuller: Episodes (1964) ~~ Joseph Pehrson: Violahexy^ (2000) ~~ Ron Mazurek: Shadows (2001) ~~ Rolv Yttrehus: Explorations (1985) ~~ Patrick Hardish: Jazz Sonorities* (2002). Various performers. Presented by Composers Concordance. NYU Loewe Theater, NY, NY. May 30th. (* world premiere; ^ US premiere)
The two works with the most conspicuous profiles happened to be those by the two active directors of CC, Joe Pehrson and Pat Hardish. One can tell these two fellows have been working hard at their craft. And not by coincidence, either, Pehrson’s delving headlong into microtonality is beginning to pay off. Violahexy, for viola and electronics, comes off, to quote Jonathan Kramer, as a "surreality check," and perhaps supplies something of the ecstatic feeling of a walk in space (a guess, of course, since we’ve never been out there). It is not an easy work to perform, as Olivia Koppell appeared to have problems with the tuning called for. Pehrson can be devilish in his tuning systems and his demands are merciless. Without question he’s come up with schemes that make the hair stand on end. Here he has retuned his synthesizer with "hexanies," 6-note structures based on just intonation and with notated intervals between quarter-tones built on the ‘cent,’ i.e., 1/100th of a semitone. And he has included a CD with the score so the player can engage in a little ear-training. It’s all very easy to Dr. Pehrson, but we could swear we heard Ms. Koppell murmuring "You rascal, you!" all the way through the piece. Somehow, the essential atmosphere was retained, and that is to the credit of the composer.
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