California
EAR Unit Ends Concert Series With Rhythmic Power
By JOANNE SHELBY HOOVER
FOR THE JOURNAL
The
Santa Fe series 20th Century Unlimited, ended its fifth season Saturday
with a foot-tapping, freewheeling evening in the St. Francis Auditorium.
Dissonances bouded off the adobe walls and the audience still loved
this program of which the oldest work dated from 1997.
The concert
offered a classic demonstration of the primal power of rhythm. that
power has been understood by musicians from rock to jazz to Stravinsky,
Bartok and beyond.
The concert
was also a tribute to the near-manic intensity of the EAR Unit. A motley
crew of brilliant individualists whose briar patch is cutting edge contemporary,
they have been Ensemble-in-residence at the Los Angeles County Museum
of Art since 1987.
The California
EAR Unit consists of Marty Walker on clarinet, Dorothy Stone on flute,
Vicki Ray on piano, Amy Knoles on percussion, Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick
on cello and Robin Lorentz on violin.
If the dazzling
upward spiral of this evening is typical, they thrive on the near impossible.
The greater
the demands of the music, the more fiercely concentrated their playing
became.
It was not
a matter of outward display. No emotional flinging about, they just
moved deeper into their art with laster-like concentration...
..."Go"
by the Arkansas-born James Sellars was written...for the ensemble. A
densely textured, nonstop, ten-minute vertigo trip...
"Sp!t",
a crackling, witty piece written last year by Oregon-born Nicholas Frances
Chase, cleverly added a turntable with colors from sensuous to raspy
to the ensemble.
The subtle
and lyrical "Cendres" of 1998 by Kaija Saariaho of Finland
inserted an interlude of mystery into the evening.
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