Arts & Life - Classical Music:
Post-Classical Ensemble Performing some Very Good Works
by Stephen Brookes
Thursday, March 16, page C04
Classical music may be dying a slow death, but not if Joseph Horowitz has anything to say about it. Author of the essential "Classical Music in America," executive director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic and founder (with Angel Gil-Ordonez) of the Post Classical Ensemble, Horowitz has been dragging classical music out of its High Culture sickbed and giving it a series of healthy kicks.
And on Tuesday night the Ensemble did just that, in a bold concert at the Virginia Theological Seminary titled "Manuel de Falla and the Music of Faith."
The concert focused on a single movement of a single piece -- the 1926 Concerto for Keyboard -- which many Falla lovers tend to view with distrust or outright hate.
And it was brilliant. The program explored the deep Spanish roots of this remarkable work, which resonates with everything from Renaissance polyphony to 18th-century keyboard works to the toe-curling, 16th-century erotic-mystical poetry of John of the Cross -- all in a thoroughly modernist style.
Gil-Ordonez opened with three early choral works -- Thomas Aquinas's "Pange Lingua Gloriosi" and two sublime works by the 16th-century Tomas Luis de Victoria -- before pianist Pedro Carbone and the five members of the ensemble unleashed the Falla concerto. The piece is instantly compelling; it opens and closes with two colorful, biting and Stravinsky-flavored movements, each providing delight for the ear and sustenance for the brain.
But it was the slow and thoroughly magnificent middle movement that was the epicenter of the evening.
Radiant and austere, exalting and almost hymnlike, it shimmers with light, with vastness. As it unfolds, you think: This is what God listens to on a Sunday afternoon.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
ALLARTS REVIEW4U
by Bob Anthony
Thursday, March 15
The Post-Classical Ensemble continues to present exciting evenings of lectures and related music. Last night's program, at the Virginia Theological Seminary, highlighted the music of faith preceded by a talk by Peter Casarella of Catholic University addressing music in God's order of creation. Following some religious Latin music by DC's Saint Paul's Boy and Girl Choristers and Men's Schola, the rest of the musical program highlighted the work of Spanish Manuel De Falla. This composer is more reknown for his "Three Cornered Hat" and zarzuelas but his chamber music was presented by a fine sextet fronted by Pedro Carbone on piano who blazed his way through De Falla's 1926 "Concerto". Other Spanish compositions followed highlighted by a wonderful romantic vocal by well-known local, Rosa Lamoreaux. There was a second playing of "Concerto" which was discribed by Ravel as the finest chamber music ever. On second playing the piece sounded less discordant and the panel discussion that ended the evening talked about perceptions and interpretations of the piece. This critic feels that anytime a piece it discordant, it means conflict and that this composer, although a devote Catholic, was somehow showing mixed emotions regarding his religiosity. Angel Gil-Ondonez did perfect musical direction during the whole musical performance. This Post-Classical Ensemble is both inspirational and most informative and they certainly fulfill their mandate. Do catch them in future performances.
Return to top.
Click here for the concert program (pdf).
Review One: Post-Classical Ensemble
Review Two: Allarts Review4U
