September - 21st Century Music

Concert Reviews
Russia Goes American
IRINA IVANOVA
Musical News from a Neighboring Continent. March 9, Dom
Center, Moscow, Russia.
The Musical News from a Neighboring Continent concert,
which took place on March 9 at the Dom Center in Moscow,
featured works by composers whose destinies were in
different ways connected with America. The music included
new works, as well as those rarely or never before heard in
Russia, by such composers as Arthur Lourie, Elliott Carter,
Leo Ornstein, Michael Matthews, Anton Rovner, Joseph
Schillinger, and Wayne Barker.
This concert was part of an ongoing series devoted to
presenting musical compositions by contemporary composers
from various countries. The idea of presenting these concerts
belongs to composer Anton Rovner, who first organized the
New York Bridge series.
America in the 20th century became a point of intersection for
the most diverse musical trends and styles. Special points of
connection have always existed between America and Russia,
which is manifested by the destinies of many artists. This
particular was not merely an attempt to show new details of a
wide and diverse musical scene of American music, but also
presented a quest for cultural connections and international
contacts. In a special way the lives of three composers were
connected to both American and Russian cultures -- namely
Arthur Lourie, Joseph Schillinger and Leo Ornstein.
A very unusual destiny was that of composer Arthur Lourie
(1892-1966), born in Russia, who unexpectedly in the 1920's
emigrated to the West, where he lived for a certain time in
Paris and from where in 1941 he was forced to emigrate to the
United States. His musical legacy pertains to a great degree to
Russian musical culture of the beginning of the century as part
of the futuristic trends of Nicolai Roslavetz, Nicolai Obouhov,
and Ivan Wyschnegradsky. The piece performed by Anna
Smirnova was Sunrise for solo flute, dating from Lourie's
Parisian period and demonstrating strong lyrical qualities.
Nevertheless, while observing the lives of many great artists,
he himself maintained a uniquely independent spirit. His
multi-movement Poems of 1917, performed by pianist and
composer Sergei Golubkov, is a musical depiction of the
impressions of the year that the United States entered World
War I. The composition combines in an exquisite manner
episodes of languorous lyricism with harsh, menacing,
dramatic episodes, and ends with depictions of a landscape
after a battle and the final dance of slain soldiers.
Another Russian countryman, Joseph Schillinger (1895-1943),
was an extremely multi-faceted person, who wrote an
immensely large book on the theory of composition, and who
was also fascinated by various new musical instruments, most
notably with the famous theremin. Melody and Moment
electrique et pathetique, performed by thereminist Lydia
Kavina and pianist Alexander Reichelson, bore the nostalgic
imprint of the long gone era of the 1930's.
A very moving and moderately sentimental work was Wayne
Barker's A Kiss Without Touching, for theremin, piano, and
toy piano, which was performed by the aforementioned and
Sergei Golubkov. Listeners also had a chance to become
acquainted with one of the latest compositions of Elliott Carter
(b.1908). In performance by flutist Anna Smirnova of Scrivo
in Vento, moods of contemplation and meditation were
juxtaposed with moments of frivolity.
Another composition for piano, performed by Sergei
Golubkov, was Postlude by Michael Matthews, whose music
in recent times is becoming better known in many countries.
Among the compositions for piano, Anton Rovner's Episodes
was performed by the author. This work combined in an
organic way moments of repetitive technique with a semiimprovisatory
developmental form.
Leo Ornstein (b.1892), whose destiny was, unlike Arthur
Lourie, connected to a greater degree with the United States,
was born in Russia, but emigrated with his family at the age of
15. He subsequently devoted all of his time to composition,
eventually turning to a solitary, secluded existence. His long
life span allowed him to become a witness of many historical
and musical events of the 20th century.
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