Mmm…So Good!

They’ve done it again: The Contemporary Music Workshop, an ensemble based out of the University of Minnesota, presented a concert the likes of which I doubt I’ll see again soon. The program, you ask?

• György Kurtág, Signs, Games, and Messages. The master of aphorism earns his keep. CMW violist Benjamin Davis gave a large rendition of these very small pieces, but somehow it worked; Davis filled the performance space with nothing.
• Arnold Schoenberg, Die eiserne Brigade. This bizarre piano quintet from 1916 is like a mélange of Verklärte Nacht, Lachenmann’s temA, and Copland’s “I Bought Me a Cat.” Apparently he wrote it for an army social during the Great War, somehow. Is it contemporary music? Not really. But they played it like it was, and that counts for a lot.
• Vinko Globokar, ?Corporel. I’ve written about Scotty Horey’s very committed performance of this piece before; I don’t have much else to say except that I still think all the things I thought back then, except more so.
• Volker Heyn, SMPH. Can somebody better acquainted with Heyn’s work theorize this joint for me? I know I’ve heard some of Heyn’s music in the past, but I can’t remember when or which pieces; I associate him with Hans-Joachim Hespos and maybe the more sedate Nicolaus A. Huber, but that says little about what’s going on in the absurd wonderland of SMPH. The percussionist has to roll around in an oil drum. There’s a contrabass clarinet. Help me out here.

Four striking pieces, four superb performances. And they’ve got another show on April 30: This time it’ll be five pieces by my colleagues and me. You might hear better pieces elsewhere, but you won’t hear better playing.