'MY TWENTIETH CENTURY.' Michael Gordon: ACDC ^(1997) ~~ Iannis Xenakis: Akea (1986) ~~ Martin Bresnick: My Twentieth Century *(2002) ~~ Nicholas Maw: Flute Quartet (1981) ~~ Judith Weir: I Broke Off a Golden Branch ^(1991). Da Capo Chamber Players. Miller Theatre. March 4th. (*world premiere; ^New York premiere)
My Twentieth Century! It's a phrase that catches one's attention and a perfectly apt title for this Da Capo program, we think. Whoever made that choice obviously saw a connection between the diversity of styles and the mixed sentiments expressed in the Tom Andrews poem used by Mr. Bresnick. Taking at random lines 6-9 of this 29-line litany of thoughts on life and death, we see it as a good sample of that text, its matter-of-fact tone reflecting the variety of experiences we have all endured:
I wore ridiculous clothes in the twentieth centuryI danced like a sumac tree in the twentieth centuryAs the central piece on the program, it was preceded and followed by compositions of four other noted and powerfully individualistic composers, all living but one. But it was interesting to us that two 20th century composers not on the program have a clearer relation to Bresnick's 14-minute work. Composed for Pierrot ensemble, we think immediately of Schoenberg and his once notorious Pierrot Lunaire, and of Stravinsky, whose piano pieces we were immediately reminded of in the declamatory chords chosen over Schoenbergian dodecaphony.
I went to a sensitivity workshop and had my umbrella stolen in the twentieth century
My brother died in the twentieth century
[Subscribe to NMC and read the rest of this review]