Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

I love a prepared piano. So does German artist Volker Bertelmann who goes by the stage name Hauschka. The instrument has been the cornerstone of his musical output over the last several years. It’s not a new sound, of course, the term being coined by John Cage in the mid-20th Century to describe the various objects and techniques used to physically alter the sounding of strings in a standard piano. And while there were certainly precedents to these techniques long before Cage came on the scene, the tinkling, plunking, shattered resonance of the prepared piano has continued to resonate in a post-WWII mentality over the last half-century. The sound is still associated with Cage and a musical avant-garde. But composers have found ways to incorporate the instrumentation into a variety of music decidedly closer to the familiar or mainstream world of both concert and popular music. I first got hooked on the sound through Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa: music that is indelibly linked in my head with the upside down exploding piano in Rebecca Horn’s Concert for Anarchy (1990) the sculpture in the collection of London’s Tate Modern.

But Hauschka takes all of this post-war angst of decades ago and re-integrates it into something associated more closely with contemporary popular music genres. His piano tinkles and rumbles along melodic and rhythmic lines that would be familiar to any listener of contemporary art rock. The instrumental songs slide along with a beauty that make them highly listenable and fairly addictive. In spring of 2011, Hauschka got a chance to collaborate with another musical figure known for her virtuosity, violinist Hilary Hahn. The pair, who have just seen the fruits of their work, Silfra, released on Deutsche Grammophon, intuitively seem like perfect collaborators. Hahn is known on concert stages throughout the world and not only has been a force in commissioning new music but has a public wit and intellect that sets her apart from others in her field. She’s the kind of solo performer whose self-expression rides more on music than a funny haircut and unusual concert attire. (And you know who you are.)

Hahn and Hauschka created a recording based largely on improvisation and spontaneous musical interaction during their studio time in Iceland. (The recording is named after an area in Iceland where tectonic plates nearly meet by a lake.) Long-time Björk producer, Valgeir Sigurosson, helped shape these collaborations into something unusual, but not unrelated to contemporary pop music. (See the example "Bounce Bounce" below if you can sit through the annoying commercial attached to the front of it.) And in the last few weeks the two musicians have brought the improvisational interaction to live audiences, which happened for the first time in the U.S. at the El Rey theater in Los Angeles on Monday night. The pair, by their own admission, had only played live together on a very few prior outings in Europe and would move on to Seattle and Japan before returning to the East Coast later this summer. And while things could feel a bit unrehearsed in the stage banter department, the musical collaboration flowed easily. The songs were based on elements contained on Silfra, but were still improvised and didn’t follow any rigid pre-planned format. Although each player had a brief solo number, the show was entirely based on their work together.


It was beautiful music, but clearly was an experience that pushed on some of the contemporary social traditions around musical performance. The show took place in a standing room hall more often used for rock concerts. Chairs had been set up for the general admission audiences that was far from capacity in the room. By necessity for balance, both Hahn and Hauschka were amplified. The crowd clearly enjoyed the performance, but many were uncertain of what to expect. At one point an enthusiastic fan took advantage during piano preparation time to directly issue a request to Hahn to break into Bach or Paginini. She politely refused indicating this is not what this show was about. Her rebuke was met with applause, but clearly there were others in the audience drawn to the performance on her reputation that may have gone away disappointed in not getting what they were expecting. Which was a shame, considering the strength of the collaboration.

Instead these two musicians offered unexpected music created from their own mutual exploration. It may not have been revolutionary or changing the direction of art music as we know it but it was sincere and as fiercely independent as anything you could wish for. You can listen to Silfra now, but even better, keep your ears open if you’re lucky enough to have them come your way.

Labels: Hilary Hahn, LA Music Reviews

If you were looking for the future of classical music on Tuesday, you might well have found it at the Walt Disney Concert Hall where violinist Hilary Hahn and pianist Valentina Lisitsa gave a recital. Hahn is a fascinating musician of some noticeable contrasts. She and Lisitsa arrived in voluminous strapless ball gowns, which seemed incongruous to Hahn’s relaxed and unassuming manner while announcing all the evening's selections from the stage. And despite the casual tone, Hahn and Lisitsa played with consummate professionalism and virtuosity in a program that featured unfamiliar music from living composers. A program that might seem like a non-starter elsewhere, was apparently nirvana for Hahn’s fans as the hall was packed for a Tuesday night with a younger skewing crowd. There was an immediacy to the show and a real sense of shared exploration that was exciting to listen to.

Hahn and Lisitsa have just recorded a remarkable collection of Ives’ sonatas for violin and piano, but the duo was looking forward Tuesday to the next project. Under the moniker “In 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores,” the new project consists of 27 brief works Hahn has invited a wide variety of living composers to create for her. On top of that, the 27th encore in the series will be determined through a competition open to anyone interested in entering. Hahn notes she’d recognized a lack of new encore pieces being created by contemporary composers, so she set out to talk a number of those she most admired into writing works that she will be performing in various combinations on tour over the next two seasons. Thirteen of these encores made up the bulk of Tuesday's show and were grouped together in several different clusters. It’s an amazing array of music, and as Hahn pointed out, part of the fun comes from the juxtaposition, which she changes up from performance to performance. Some of the pieces like Jennifer Higdon’s Echo Dash, Paul Moravec’s Blue Fiddle and Avner Dorman’s Memory Games played upon the kind of quicksilver virtuosity one might typically expect from a flashy encore piece. Yet others were more self contained world’s of their own including Max Richter’s lovely and melancholy Mercy or Christos Hatzis’ drunken brawl of a wake up call Coming To. Perhaps the best two of these miniatures were Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Whispering paired with Soren Nils Eichberg’s Levitation. Both works shared an unexpected expansiveness creating an almost orchestral feel among the two players who would alternately work together or at cross-purposes. Some of the music was clearly hot off the press including an impressive dialog for the two instruments from Nico Muhly called Two Voices. Hahn and Lisitsa will continue to play these encores all around the world before recording them.

So when a sampling of supposed desserts becomes the main course, where else can you go? Hahn offered up a couple of anchor pieces to offset the contemporary works. One was Beethoven’s Sonata No. 2 in A Major for Violin and Piano, but perhaps more endearing was Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor. Hahn’s Bach tends toward the brisk and has a straightforward, no-nonsense approach that is both exciting to watch and a pleasure to hear. And for an encore, there was Ives. It was fitting that this American original, who sounds as dangerously modern as any of the living composers offered that evening should end the evening. Hahn seems a kindred spirit intent on moving music forward and taking her own approach to performance with little compromise. Hopefully the Ives performance inspired many in the audience to get her new recording.

Labels: Hilary Hahn, LA Philharmonic 11/12