Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music presents an opening night orchestra concert, Haunted Topography, with Marin Alsop leading the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, and featured soloist Colin Currie
2015-08-07
Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
307 Church St, Santa Cruz, CA
8:00 PM, Friday, August 7, 2015

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• David T. Little: Haunted Topography
• James MacMillan: Percussion Concerto №2 (U.S. Premiere, Cabrillo Festival Co-Commission), featuring Colin Currie
• Mason Bates: Anthology of Fantastic Zoology (West Coast Premiere)

[8:05 PM lights down, 8:07 PM Introductory comments from Marin Alsop and David T. Little]

1. [8:10 PM] David T. Little: Haunted Topography (2011/2013)
   [work ends 8:19 PM; pause for a few minutes]

[8:21 PM Marin talks a bit about the MacMillan piece]

1. [8:27 PM] James MacMillan: Percussion Concerto №2 (U.S. Premiere, Cabrillo Festival Co-Commission), featuring Colin Currie
   [work ends 8:57 PM; setbreak]

[9:22 PM lights down; tuning, then comments from Mason Bates about his work]

Mason Bates: Anthology of Fantastic Zoology (West Coast Premiere)

1. [9:26 PM] Forest: Twilight »
2. [9:30 PM] Sprite »
3. [9:34 PM] Dusk »
4. [9:37 PM] The A Bao A Qu » (note: start and end of this section demarked by gong)
5. [9:m PM] Nymphs »
6. [9:m PM] Night »
7. [9:m PM] The Gryphon »
8. [9:m PM] Midnight »
9. [9:m PM] Sirens »
10. [9:m PM] The Zaratan »
11. [9:m PM] Madrugada
    [show ends 10:01 PM]

Cabrillo Festival Orchestra

• Steve Ahearn: clarinet;
• Matt Albert: principal violin II;
• Louise Alexander: violin II;
• Marin Alsop: conductor, music director.
• Eleanor Angel: viola;
• Kathleen Balfe: cello;
• Sam Bergman: principal viola;
• Elise Blake: violin I;
• Edward Botsford: principal contrabass;
• Justin Bruns: concertmaster, violin I;
• Rachel Bundy: violin II;
• Forrest Byram: principal tuba;
• Anne Chandra: assistant principal violin II;
• Bharat Chandra: principal clarinet;
• Scott Christian: acting principal timpani;
• Thomas Derthick: contrabass;
• Lauren Eberhart: trumpet;
• Paula Engerer: oboe;
• Rainer Eudeikis: principal cello;
• Fritz Foss: horn;
• David Gerstein: cello;
• Andrew Gignac: trumpet;
• Maximillian Haft: violin I;
• Lucas Hopkins: saxophone;
• Betsy Hudson Traba: flute;
• Jennifer Humphreys: assistant principal cello;
• Thomas Hundemer: horn;
• Rebecca Jackson: violin I;
• Mary Jane Miller: viola;
• Robyn Julyan: violin I;
• Kristin Jurkscheit: principal horn;
• Robert K. Ward: trombone;
• Chad Kaltinger: viola;
• Jim Kassis: percussion;
• Jooyeon Kong: assistant concertmaster, violin I;
• Virginia Kron: cello;
• Evan Kuhlmann: principal bassoon;
• Rita Lee: violin I;
• Galen Lemmon: principal percussion;
• Todd Lockwood: contrabass;
• Michael Maccaferri: clarinet;
• Andrew McCann: violin I;
• Joseph McFadden: contrabass;
• Ellen McSweeney: violin II;
• Matthew Means: violin I;
• Gregory Messa: percussion;
• Alexander Miller: oboe;
• Craig Morris: principal trumpet;
• Tim Munro: principal flute;
• David Murray: trombone;
• Ava Ordman: principal trombone;
• Jessica Oudin: assistant principal viola;
• Gavin Reed: assistant principal horn;
• Virginia Respess: violin II;
• Brad Ritchie: cello;
• Nicky Roosevelt: horn;
• Carrie Schafer: trumpet;
• Madeline Sharp: viola;
• Sarah Shellman: violin I;
• Michael Sheppard: acting principal keyboard;
• Lauren Sileo: flute;
• Rob Simonds: violin II;
• Thomas Snydacker: saxophone;
• Ward Spangler: percussion;
• Charmian Stewart: violin II;
• Svet Stoyanov: percussion;
• Carol Swift: violin I;
• Benjamin Tomkins: violin I;
• Adam Trussell: bassoon;
• Steve Vacchi: bassoon;
• Nuiko Wadden: principal harp;
• Karen Wagner: principal oboe;
• Emily Wong: principal keyboard;

* Colin Currie: drums, percussion;

Although it was the slightest work on tonight's program as far as duration goes, David T Little's Haunted Topography made an outside impression on me. It veritably lived up to it's description as a during and profound meditation on loss and grief. You can hear an alternate version of Haunted Topography at SoundCloud of your like to decide for yourself whether that summary is accurate. And being professionally recorded, you'll get the benefit of hearing the work performed without the distracting cacophony of coughing and throat-clearing that marred tonight's effort. I can't day whether or not it disturbed the orchestra but I found the noise to be quite maddening.

Boosey & Hawkes published an interview by David Allenby with James MacMillan regarding his Percussion Concerto №2. I found this work to be less rewarding than the first. Although it was fun to watch Currie scurrying fourth and back between the stations set up for his solo part (marimba, vibraphone, aluphone, cow bells, drums, crotales, maybe more that I don't recall), the concerto as a piece registered with me as one of those “first one thing, then another, then another, and so on till we're done” efforts. If there was any stronger organizational theme or structure to the work, I failed to distinguish it. Maybe I was too distracted with Colin's performance athletics to give proper attention to the listener's role? Hard to say, but I suppose I'll go hear the piece again if I get the chance.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra posted an interview by Doyle Ambrust with Mason Bates regarding his Anthology of Fantastic Zoology as part of their program notes for the world premiere of this piece, earlier this summer. And comparing that with his spoken introduction suggested to me that he'd radically reworked the piece in the interim. It would be very cool to compare the two performances, but as of this point, it's not clear that either one is publically available. Given that KUSP typically broadcasts the Cabrillo Festival, I'm certain that a well-motivated reader could track down a recording of tonight's show, but whether the CSO could be turned up, ahhh, there's the rub!

In any case, I enjoyed hearing it, and look forward to hearing it again soon – hopefully SFS or BSO will program it in a coming season.

If I had a better memory, I'd make comments of comparison with Carla Kihlstedt's summer 2011 production of Necessary Monsters at YBCA. Unfortunately, all I can recall about that earlier work right now is that it was much more theatrical, being conceived as a multimedia spectacle rather than a symphonic exercise! And of course, that both works were generated by the respective composers' reactions to the amazing writings of Jorge Luis Borges' Manual de zoología fantástica. It appears to me that Bates used Borges as a sort of springboard for creating his own piece, borrowing only a few specific elements, namely, A Bao a Qu, Sirens, and the Zarutan, and then stitching them together via a personal mythology of sorts. Nothing wrong with that, but ultimately less exciting than Kihlstedt's attempt to conjure various monsters into existence via music, puppetry and other elements of theatre. Happily, video segments of that work are posted on Vimeo and Youtube for the interested reader to discover.

Jeff Dunn posted a thorough review of the first weekend's shows for SFCV.

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!