Volume 23 Issue 3 - November 2017

DANIEL FOLEY
Max Christie
to the challenge. “If something is difficult, I work hard to get inside the
piece. I’m not so good at faking it.” Asked what he meant by “faking,”
he explained. “Faking is doing things not being asked for, and most
players do it. Sometimes it’s a necessary evil or skill to be able to
come up with something. I once played a piece with a passage that
was so hard that by the concert I realized I was never going to play it
exactly right. So I composed something myself that took on the character
of what was written. Not that what was written was impossible
or wrong. What matters is that the character of what you’re playing
reflects what the composer was after. A few years ago NMC played a
concert of music by Jörg Widmann, an excellent clarinetist, composer
and conductor. He realized how difficult a certain section was that had
a large number of notes per second. During rehearsal, he admitted
it – there was a recognition from this great musician that [while] we
were mimicking an effect he had written out in great detail .... in fact
he was just asking for an effect that was similar to what was written.
That’s a good composer – when they recognize that what they’ve
written is beyond the possible. It stretches you towards the impossible
and makes you creative enough to solve some of the issues. That kind
of faking is totally legitimate.”
Currently, Christie is only performing contemporary music with
New Music Concerts, an ensemble that over the years has given him
many opportunities to work with some of the great composers of our
era. I asked him what experiences have stood out, and even though
there have been so many, he immediately mentioned Elliott Carter.
He had performed Carter’s solo clarinet work, GRA, and due to this
experience, he had the opportunity to record it for the Naxos label.
“Carter signed my copy of the piece and thanked me for the performance.
Being able to record it was me putting a stamp on a particular
piece – here’s one of the standards of how the piece can go. I hope it
has had some influence, because it’s a great piece.” He also mentioned
working with Pierre Boulez, commenting on how clean and crisp he
was as a conductor, as well as with Michel Gonneville. “Being part of
NMC has meant working regularly with Bob Aitken. He has tremendous
knowledge and experience and his patience with me is all part of
what makes NMC great.”
The “Concertos” concert includes a performance by Eve Egoyan
of Path of Uneven Stones by Linda C. Smith. Egoyan has had a
busy summer schedule and has just returned from a European solo
recital tour. A recent residency in Quebec City gave her the opportunity
to be involved in the creation of an intuitive interface for
the piano that “explores the frontiers between notes played, those
heard and those transformed until they meet the imaginary.” Elliott
Carter’s 2011 String Trio is also part of the program, along with
Ryan Scott performing the Canadian premiere of Robin de Raaff’s
Percussion Concerto.
World premieres by:
Anna Höstman with Phoebe Tsang, Scott Wilson with
Beyond his
Alexandra
role as an
Oliver,
outstanding
James Rolfe
percussionist,
with Steven Heighton
Scott is also the
artistic director of Continuum Contemporary Music, which will be
launching its Plus new works season by Ann with Southam “Urgent and Voices” film by Michael on December Mitchell 8 and
9. This event is Continuum’s contribution to the commemoration of
Canada 150, and they are doing so with a series of compositions by
Anna Höstman, James Rolfe, Ann Southam and Scott Wilson that
combine stories, reflections and dreams using song, spoken word and
multimedia. They are also weaving in the honouring of Glenn Gould’s
85th birthday. While film is shown of Gould performing music from
Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Steinway’s latest player piano
innovation called the Spirio will interpret Gould’s finger depressions
and releases to recreate a live rendition of the original performance.
Additional Highlights
Esprit Orchestra’s November 19 concert offers an opportunity to hear
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by French composer Marc-André
Dalbavie, with a performance by Véronique Mathieu. Mathieu is another
performer who has made the performance of contemporary music a
priority, particularly music by Canadian and American composers. The
program also features works by Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason, as
well as by Canadians Douglas Schmidt and Ana Sokolović.
The Thin Edge New Music Collective presents “Sensing” with three
shows at the Canadian Music Centre on November 11, featuring music
by composers Höstman, Scime and Morton Feldman. Arraymusic
has two events coming up – the first on November 22 is a celebration
of the music of Wilhelm Killmayer, an underappreciated German
composer whose surreal music is ardently supported by Array’s
artistic director Martin Arnold. Then on December 2, American Sarah
Hennies will perform her piece Gather & Release for vibraphone,
sine waves, field recordings and bilateral stimulation. Her music is an
immersive psycho-acoustic experience often realized by an endurance-based
performance practice.
And finally, as we prepare to enter that ambiguous state of “holiday
time,” Soundstreams presents a more edgy twist to the usual stream
of music one hears. Their Electric Messiah returns for the third year
December 4 to 6, with a special performance on November 24 by their
resident artist, sci-fi turntablist SlowPitchSound. This will be part
of a behind-the-scenes look by SlowPitchSound and other Messiah
performers at what goes into the making of this fast-growing holiday
favourite.
Wendalyn Bartley is a Toronto-based composer and electro-vocal
sound artist. sounddreaming@gmail.com.
December 8 & 9, 2017, 8pm
Aki Studio, Daniels Spectrum
585 Dundas Street East
$35/25/15
World premieres by Anna Höstman with Phoebe Tsang,
Scott Wilson with Alexandra Oliver, James Rolfe
with Steven Heighton
Plus works by Ann Southam and film by Michael Mitchell
continuummusic.org
416.924.4945
thewholenote.com November 2017 | 23