Apologies up front for the delay in this post.
And now onto the actual reason for my trip.
I met a friend, and we went to hear this concert. I was looking forward to hearing the pianist, who plays beautifully, and I am fairly familiar with the Glass Piano Quintet, which I have heard live a few Times now, as well as on its recorded version with Brooklyn Rider. I was not familiar with the other two works, although I am aware that there is a recent recording of Paul Barnes performing the Victoria Bond work, Illuminations on Byzantine chant. I did not research or listen to the two works I did not know. I kind of like to go in to concerts blind and see how I react to the music. Perhaps not sophisticated, or educated, but this is how it is.
The concert was held at St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and shrine, at the World Trade Center, which I would have assumed was glass, but actually it is marble. As with the music, I didn't read about the church before going either. Perhaps I should have, perhaps not. I am often torn when traveling about the need to do research and learn what I "should" see, hear, think or do, and my own contrarian nature, my determination to be guided loosely, but to see what I see and learn what I learn. I am certain there are gains and losses involved in both approaches. Anyway, below is my photograph of the church as we arrived for the concert. I thought it was an interestingly beautiful structure, both sublime and yet also, in certain lights, or in its absence, quiet and almost strict and subdued. I am sure there is more to think on there.
The space was small, and there were many chairs. This photograph is of the piano, and the interior of the church from my seat on the front row.
As you might surmise, we were very close to the music. This was an excellent position for the two solo piano pieces. Paul Barnes, plays beautifully and is one of my favorite pianists. Watching and listening to him is a feast, both aurally and visually. I swear even his hands, his fingers, express emotion as they play. The experience is mesmerizing and entrancing.
Of the two piano pieces, the work by J.A.C. Redford was the one that moved me the most, filled with a deep emotionality that felt simultaneously both calming and uplifting. This listener felt enveloped in a sense of a deep slowing breath, with momentary bursts of awe.
This is where you are lucky. When I first started writing this post, I wished I could hear it again, wished I could tell you more about the work itself, but it remained elusive. However, during the time this post was delayed due to my post-holiday bout with illness, Paul Barnes released a video of the performance of this work, a performance I can link to here. (below).
I still enjoy listening to this piece. I don't know that I was familiar at all with Redford, except that when I looked him up following the concert I learned that I am in fact familiar with a surprising amount of his music, although not enough. I will need to seek his work out.
Now, because I am being fair, I will also include a link to a video of a portion of the Victoria Bond. This was also a lovely work, and I do recall thinking how well Bond writes for the piano, how much I wanted to play part of the work, to feel the music beneath my fingers, even though I have not played for decades and do not play well. I found the work intellectually interesting, and at times even exciting. For this listener however, the Bond piece satisfied intellectually, but resonated less deeply on an emotional level. Still, it was a satisfying pairing, two pieces of music, both addressing issues of faith, that appealed to very different parts of what it means to be human.
For the Phillip Glass Annunciation Quintet, the string quartet was sandwiched between the piano and the first row of chairs. I was sitting in almost knee to knee in proximity to violinist Pauline Kim and it was a marvelous experience. Being this close to the musicians did not offer the best position for hearing the work itself as a whole, as much of the sound essentially lifted above us, but the structure of the entire piece was present and it gave a detailed experience of one part of the conversation that made up the music. I could read both violinist's music, I could hear both violinists clearly and relate what I saw of their music to their technique and the sound as a part of the whole. It was like being contained in a bubble inside the work itself. The performance was fascinating and engrossing and intimate in a way I hadn't yet experienced in a concert, and quartet music is, by its very nature, intimate. This was very different from my previous experience of the Glass Quintet. I was blown away, fascinated and enchanted by the performance, the playing of the group as a whole yes, but particularly the violinist as I felt encased in a subset of the world being created musically. I've always felt that the best chamber music is always a closely held conversation. This felt much like being caught in the midst of the music itself.
Admittedly it took me a good while just to integrate my experience of the concert with some kind of return to "real life". I was kind of lost in a kind of interspace for the rest of the evening. We attended a lovely dinner with the artists. I'm never the most social with people I have just met, really preferring to listen and I loved listening to everyone around me. But I was also still in my musical cloud as well. Not that I see any loss in that. The entire evening was a fabulous experience.
