Ringtones never sounded so sweet

Chicago Sun-Times
By Marta Tonegutti
Published October 4, 2006
original link

Classical Review

Ladies and gentlemen, fire up your cell phones. With that command, a sense of energy and enthusiasm permeated Dominican University’s Lund Auditorium for the Chicago Sinfonietta’s opening concert Sunday of its 20th anniversary season.

The occasion was the much-anticipated world premiere of American composer David N. Baker’s Concertino for Cell Phones and Orchestra, commissioned by the Sinfonietta’s founder and music director Paul Freeman (the program was repeated Monday at Symphony Center).

The orchestra is known for its high performance standards, innovative programming, championing of young performers and strong orchestra-audience communication. Those qualities were in full display Sunday, with Freeman humorously coaching members of the audience to “turn their cell phones on” for the Concertino.

A music professor at Indiana University and an acclaimed jazz and classical composer, Baker chose an interactive format for his concertino. Listeners were prompted to activate their cell phones’ ringtones via signal lights directed alternatively at the main floor and balcony areas. The ensuing flurry of sounds and noises was strictly regulated, however, both in placement and duration, with results not far from the sudden dissonant outbursts of ambient and street music in Ives’ and Mahler’s scores. The added element of participatory spontaneity served as tribute to the great American experimentalist John Cage.

The use of pre-selected ringtones generated by a synthesizer at center stage, echoed by two cell-phone performers in the orchestra, seemed especially convincing. The eerie amplified sounds took on a structural function, framing musical sections and voicing the themes, which often consisted of embellished and distorted quotations from Mozart, Dvorak and others.

The use of quotation as a music-building principle is certainly not new and did not necessarily strengthen Baker’s concept for his Concertino, although it succeeded in situating the work within a recognized 20th century tradition. His full use of brass and percussions and almost continuous fortissimo sound led to the work’s pyrotechnic conclusion.

The program opened with the orchestral suite “Redes” by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, which originally accompanied the 1930s documentary by American photographer Paul Strand on the life of Mexican fishermen. Revueltas’ music, little performed here, is powerfully original and combines folkloric material with brassy, bandlike sonorities and driving rhythms to great effect.

Two highly virtuosic pieces featuring two talented young soloists followed. Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto in A Major was performed by Russian pianist Alexander Kobrin, who appeared in a recital at Ravinia last February. The winner of the 2005 International Van Cliburn Competition, Kobrin conquered the demanding piano part with a welcome economy of means, restraining himself from bravura displays and remaining focused throughout.

With his dynamics cued mostly to the middle range, Kobrin shunned the pianissimos that contribute to the dreamy quality of the opening arpeggios and other slow passages, as he tamed some of the frequent fortissimo, marchlike sections. His impressive technical command and lucid interpretation rested on tonal weight, fluid passagework and good sound balance, gaining in evenness what it perhaps lost in Romantic urge. Freeman’s orchestra stood on firm ground, and the poignant dialogues between the piano and various solo instruments in the allegro moderato section were all beautifully resolved.

American violinist Melissa White, winner of the 2001 Junior Division Sphynx Award, presented a nuanced yet forceful reading of Bruch’s rousing First Violin Concerto in G Minor. She combined brilliant technique, assured intonation and compelling, well-rounded sound, and brought the audience to its feet for a well-deserved standing ovation.