#steven mackey

Carnegie Hall Live · San Francisco Symphony Plays Viennese & American Classics · via wqxr.org

San Francisco Symphony Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director and Conductor  Jeremy Denk, Piano

Anna Clyne "TENDER HOOKS: TENDER HOOKS"

The harmony is most striking in the cacophonous sections where she maintains clarity of lines through her orchestration and pitch choice. When the piece becomes more meditative, Clyne exhibits her harmonic gift with taste, not afraid of positioning herself in traditional tonalities. It's a brilliantly orchestrated work: a melody is passed back and forth by the clarinet and oboe, with bowed crotales chiming in at the seams.

Alex Mincek "Color, Form, and Line"

Good text setting here. It made me think harder about how an instrumental ensemble supports and diffuses the importance of a sung line. I'll need to listen again to get more thoughts.

Kaija Saariaho "6 Japanese Gardens"

Another background listen that warrants a second (and closer!) examination before I can offer more thoughts. I mention it to record for myself that I've heard it and liked it, my primary reason for this post and others like it.

Steven Mackey "Lonely Motel: Music from Slide"

I regret skipping the original staging of this work in Chicago. I'm entranced by his percussion selections: flexatone (bowed sometimes? not sure), large jug (pitched and blown across, a la Crumb), full set. He extracts a great soloist sound from the piano and cello. The monologue on Depending is biting and hilarious; the music approaches it perfectly. His transitions are inorganic but smooth and logical nonetheless. I'm not sure how much of the original work is present here but I'm enjoying it as a song cycle, his long-form as a collection of short-forms.