Masters at Work
Last February, we welcomed Nadia Sirota to Symphony Space in the context of our inaugural Fuse Project. Nadia is, simply put, extraordinary. Not only is she a virtuoso violist, but she is also a leading radio personality whose ‘Meet the Composer’ podcast series on WQXR/Q2 recently won a Peabody Award — broadcasting’s highest honor! Nadia was the perfect person to invite to curate a week-long series as part of Fuse Project. It likewise probably won’t surprise you that WQXR/Q2 was very keen to record her four concerts here at Symphony Space for broadcast.
This week, I’d like to share some of these recordings with you along with some pictures of Nadia’s residency. Nadia’s series opened Monday, February 1, 2016 with a program pairing works by Renaissance masters alongside contemporary pieces.
Here is “In Nomine” for 4 viols by Picforth. Liam Byrne led the ensemble and in turn played an important role for the duration of Nadia’s series. I love the rich and unique sound of a viol ensemble — it sounds like nothing else. In case you were wondering, “Picforth” was a mysterious 16th-century English composer of whom little is actually known. Even his given name remains a mystery. All we know without a shadow of a doubt is that his “In Nomine” is a beautiful piece, don’t you think?
Also included in the program was a world premiere by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang. We commissioned broken for Nadia on viola and Liam on viol. David spoke a little about the work to our audience noting that his methodology was to take the original melody, arpeggiate it, and offset both players’ parts from one another. To me, it sounds like the Renaissance refracted through a contemporary sensibility.
On the following evening, the acclaimed sextet yMusic — of which Nadia is a founding member — played a program of music written specially for them. One of my favorites was Bladed Stance by Brazilian-born composer Marcos Balter. The piece is written for violin, viola, cello, clarinet, flute, trumpet, and electronics. As you can hear below, the result is an ethereal and otherworldly wonder, full of understated wisps of beautiful melody.
Later in the week, Nadia was joined by indie rock composers Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire and Bryce Dessner of the National for an evening of world premieres taken from Parry’s expanding collection of pieces called Music for Heart and Breath. These pieces are based off the body’s natural rhythms and players actually use stethoscopes to listen to their heartbeats! All of the players remarked on always taking their body’s natural rhythms for granted during performances and how unique of an experience it was to use this as a determining factor for tempo — one of the most rudimentary musical foundations.
The grand finale of the week-long series was a concert in the Peter Jay Sharp theatre featuring the world premiere of an epic 40-minute work by Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy, which was preceded by selections from the composers of Iceland’s Bedroom Community record label. This included works by both co-founders, Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurðsson.
I wanted to share with you two recordings from this concert. The first is a piece entitled Skip Town by Nico Muhly, a close friend and frequent collaborator of Nadia’s. Skip Town was written for piano and tape, with the composer himself taking on the piano for this recording.
The second piece was Tessellatum, a 40-minute entry by Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy. This piece is scored for 3 violas and 11 viols (1 viola and 4 viols with a surround sound recording of 2 violas and 7 viols). Donnacha remarked to me that, for him, this piece gradually unfolds in a way that depicts the changing light in the Irish landscape. Below is the complete performance.
While the references to Renaissance string music as well as evocations of the desolate Irish landscape come through the recorded version, what you may not get from it is the sheer and immersive experience of hearing it all in surround-sound glory. Through the Sharp’s unique infrastructure, those string drones created a rich sonic tapestry that packed quite an emotional punch! Tessellatum is a substantial work and truly made for a fitting end to Nadia’s memorable series.
I hope that you enjoy these great clips, and stay tuned for what’s in store for next year’s Fuse Project!
