SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE
November 8, 2002

BluePrint of the City
By Thomas Goss

Nicole Paiement is accomplishing something remarkable on the fringes of the music scene here in the big bad city. Little noted by the print media, her ongoing music festival featuring the San Francisco Conservatory New Music Ensemble, Parallèle Ensemble, and other fine musicians under her direction presents a scope of intriguing works from Messiaen, Berio, and Bolcom to Chou Wenchung and Chinary Ung. Along the way, the big names are intelligently referenced as those who carry on their tradition in contemporary music. Thus, in the often chaotic and obscure landscape of new music, Paiement's programming reveals a sense of vision and foresight.

Monday night's installment, "City Composers", kept to that vision. The handful of honored contributors were largely recognizable as instructors with the San Francisco Conservatory - David Conte, Alden Jenks, David Garner, and Dan Becker, with Conrad Susa thrown in for good measure. Still, it is a testament to the future of good taste how decidedly un-scholastic most of this music was, and how nicely it held and satisfied both interest and emotion.

Any of the works would be standouts in a typical chamber concert program. The leading light was Garner's Seven Nocturnes, for a full and richly utilized chamber ensemble supporting Maria Baffus in a setting of texts by Greek poet Odysseus Elytis. Bafus sang with poise and grace, her joy and excitement embracing ensemble and audience alike. Her voice is everything a mezzo's should be: warm and clear in the center, directed and unambiguous on the lower note, bright and spacious at the top of the staff. The music glittered and fluttered around the poetic texts, bringing to life with craft and honesty the accounting of dreams, emotional memory, and the unbearable beauty of nature.

A shift of style

Dan Becker's music is most notable for its relentless drive, fascination for pattern and logic, and command of form. With his meditation for string quartet, Vanishing Point, all expectations were rebuffed in this introspection of personal and social tragedy. The composer became "guilty" of something simply beautiful as well as deeply moving. The little blips and scraps of minimalist ostinato were slowly minimized by the sweetly potent elegiacs. As the motion and mood deepened, riffs dripped off of the melodic harmony until the cumulative frenzy jived in spite of itself. But the music reordered itself into searching, unsttled dolor, beautiful in its un-selfconsciousness.

David Conte's Songs of Consolation resonate with this mood, setting of reverent texts performed with devotion and skill by soprano Heather Clemens and organist Rodney Gehrke. But all was not solace and poetry. There was a healthy dose of fun and games, in both Conrad Susa's organ extravaganza Fantasy Tango and in Alden Jenks' Sour Music. Throughout, Paiement directed with great skill and energy, allowing the sly jokes to surface along with the tide of musical ecstasy. At the very least, it was a great way for grown men and women to misbehave on a Monday night.

(Thomas Goss is resident composer for Moving Arts Dance Collective, is a member of New Release Alliance Composers Consortium, and sits on the steering committee of the Bay Area Chapter of the American Composers Forum).

©2002 Thomass Goss, all rights reserved.