STOLTZMAN/GOODE/STOLTZMAN TRIO
at the Rhona Hoffman Gallery
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The only other piece on the program that was actually written for the trio’s instrumentation was Bartok’s Contrasts for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano. The work has an unusual history in that it was commissioned by Hungarian violinist Joseph Szigeti and big-band clarinetist Benny Goodman. Szigeti, a longtime friend of Bartok’s who moved to this country in 1926, thought the work would give his friend greater popularity here (Bartok was still in Hungary because his mother was ill). Goodman had requested that the work fit on two sides of a 78 record, but since the last movement made it too long for that, Bartok extended the work even further by adding a slow middle movement. When Bartok finally made his way to America in 1940, recording the work with Goodman and Szigeti was one of his first projects. Their collaboration is one of the most memorable ever committed to record–not only because of its obvious historical importance, but also because the three capture perfectly the unique flavor and modality of the piece. It was said that Bartok wrote this work with the unique sounds of his colleagues’ playing in mind, and while it is not always–or even usually–true that composers are the best interpreters of their own works, no one could play Bartok’s piano writing the way Bartok did.
I have heard several live performances of the work over the years, but none has captured that original essence as well as Stoltzman/Goode/Stoltzman. The piece calls for a unique combination of Hungarian devilishness and jazzlike playfulness that completely eludes most classically trained performers. This trio obviously did their homework. Stoltzman’s playing may not have had the lyricism of Goodman’s (whose does?), but he more than compensated by offering a wider palette of dynamics. His wife’s violin playing was not as hard edged as Szigeti’s, but her eloquent phrasing and expressiveness–to say nothing of varieties of timbres–were quite effective. Goode’s playing was also very solid and formed the appropriate backdrop to showcase his colleagues. The trio’s ensembling and balancing as well as the way they concentrated and carefully listened to one another was extraordinary. Theirs was a performance to be long remembered.
It has certainly been the case historically that women composers have seldom garnered the respect men have. That situation is clearly changing–as New Music Chicago executive director Sidney Friedman pointed out in introducing a concert of all women composers last weekend, for the first time in history, women are now recognized among the major composers of every genre–jazz, pop, even “serious” music.
Likewise, Ruth Lomon’s Furies featured Patricia Morehead alternating oboe, oboe d’amore, and English horn live over a “Music Minus One” tape. There was the obvious problem of brightness and timbre balances, though it might have worked given the proper sound system. But why perform this piece in this manner? Furies is a study in rhythmic outbursts and register extremes whose effects would have been far more interesting if all of the voices had been performed live. Apparently the decision was purely economic, because the instruments on the tape had not been transformed whatsoever. Presenting these “instruments” on tape made the whole performance rather cold.
Janice Misurell Mitchell’s Transfusions is a full-blooded salute to brassy bebop, scored for alto and tenor sax, trumpet, and trombone. It’s a fun work, although the use of a conductor (Mitchell Arnold) seemed pretty pointless given that he evoked little in the way of dynamic contrast and that his balancing was such that the trombone could barely be heard in the overall texture.
