Dr. Colin Eatock, composer
  • Home
  • About Colin Eatock
  • Composing
  • Catalogue of works
  • Writing about music
  • Eatock Daily (blog)
  • New and upcoming
  • Contact me

Illusions at 21C

5/30/2015

0 Comments

 
PictureComposer Gabriel Dharmoo.
This review was originally written for the website Wolfgang’s Tonic (here).

Multimedia concerts are a growing trend in the classical music world. Often, such performances make use of projected visual images, giving the audience something to look at while the music is played.

Sometimes the marriage of music and visuals results in a merely pleasant entertainment. Ideally, multimedia generates something greater than the sum of its parts – something that makes the audience see, hear, and understand things in a profoundly different way than it would if it experienced each element separately.


That is what Illusions, a co-creation of Toronto’s Gryphon Trio and Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, does.

This is an astonishing piece – or, more precisely, an astonishing collection of pieces, as it combines Charles Ives’ Piano Trio of 1911 with three new works by Quebec composers Simon Martin, Gabriel Dharmoo and Nicole Lizée. The show received its Toronto premiere on Friday (May 22), within the Royal Conservatory of Music’s 21C contemporary music festival.

The performers of Illusions were the Gryphons, the 13-piece Ensemble contemporain de Montréal (led by Véronique Lacroix), and also baritone Vincent Ranallo. Behind them on the stage of Koerner Hall was an impressively large projection screen, hung for the projected images of filmmakers Kara Blake and Corinne Merrell.

Imaginatively, the new compositions were interleaved with the three movements of the Ives Trio, creating a dialogue between the New England maverick and the young Quebeckers. In the Ives movements, the Gyrphon Trio breathed energy and even elegance into what can be very “notey” music.

As Illusions progressed, the visual aspect of the show gradually emerged. At first, the audience was treated to cryptically static images of the moon, light-bulbs, and other circular objects.

The first newly written piece, Martin’s Musique d’art pour orchestre de chambre II, was also cryptically static. It consisted almost entirely of dense chords, played in long, slow crescendos and diminuendos, like an orchestration of an electroacoustic composition. It was a well-crafted piece: skilfully controlled by Lacroix and Ensemble contemporain de Montréal. As it gradually became more eventful, it also became more interesting.

Dharmoo’s Wanmansho was, I believe, the most successful of the new compositions. The title is a play on the phrase “one man show,” and the piece almost defies description: try to imagine Dr. Who performing Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire in Esperanto with a kabuki ensemble. Dressed in a goofy red jacket, Ranallo leapt on stage, singing (also grunting and squeaking) in an unintelligible language, his vaudevillian antics bringing the piece to life. And there was also plenty of grunting and squeaking from Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, as they played their way through Dharmoo’s colourful, percussive, wacky score.

Meanwhile, on the big screen, the visual images gradually acquired a clear theme: scenes of old-fashioned carousels and other circus rides. The projections were well suited to Lizée’s carnivalesque Wunderkammer, played by ECM+ and the Gryphon Trio together.

Lizée has brought a varied harmonic vocabulary to Wunderkammer, transforming her small orchestra into a bright, gaudy calliope. The piece could be broadly described as minimalist, for its steady textures and motoric repetition. Unfortunately, like some other minimalist works, its impact is hobbled by longueurs. As the minutes passed, I came to feel “trapped” by the music – as though I were on carnival ride that was fun for a while, until I just wanted to get off.

Illusions is a high-art experience, rich in content, meticulously constructed, and sophisticated in its multi-faceted unfolding. Refreshingly, the solemn angst that dominates much contemporary music is largely absent. Rather, Illusions is joyful and almost sentimental at times, invoking a nostalgia for carefree pleasures.

In the spirit of Ives, there are some unanswered questions swirling around Illusions. How did the Gryphon Trio and ECM+ come to collaborate on this project? Whose idea was it to intersperse movements of Ives’ Piano Trio with newly created works? How were Martin, Dharmoo, and Lizée selected as composers? Who thought of using these particular visual images?

Surely, such an idiosyncratic work of art as Illusions must have a good back-story. But the slender program notes provided only the most basic information: the artistic directors for the project are Roman Borys (cellist of the Gryphon Trio) and Lacroix. Little else that explained the genesis of the piece was forthcoming.

Two other composers were also on the program, in the first half of the concert. It’s hard to say why, as Illusions is clearly a substantial, stand-alone work. Composer-clarinettist Don Bryon’s Basquiat, Shanty and Russian March, which he played with the Gryphons, were charming pieces. Composer-guitarist Michael Occhipinti joined the band for his Street Scene at the Centre of the Multiverse. The jazzy piece draws on his Italian roots, with recorded voices of Sicilian street-vendors hawking their goods woven into the music. However, Street Scene ran out of ideas well before it came to an end.

© Colin Eatock 2015
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Eatock Daily

    I'm a composer based in Toronto – and this is my classical music blog, Eatock Daily.

    When I first started blogging, Eatock Daily was a place to re-post the articles I wrote for Toronto’s Globe and Mail and National Post newspapers, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star and other publications.

    But now I have stepped back from professional music journalism, and I'm spending more time composing.

    These days, my blog posts are infrequent, and are mostly concerned with my own music. However, I do still occasionally post comments on musical topics, including works I've discovered, enjoyed, and wish to share with others.


    – CE

    Archives

    March 2022
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    June 2020
    September 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

    Index

    Click here for an alphabetical list of blog entries.

    RSS Feed

    Follow colineatock on Twitter
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.