Olga Neuwirth

We heard a concert of the music of the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth at Columbia's Miller Theater, as part of their composer portrait series.  Neuwirth is an interesting composer, known for her opera "Lost Highway", based on the David Lynch film, and her recent "American Lulu" in which she re-orchestrated the first two acts Berg's opera for jazz ensemble, and wrote a new third act.   Which is to say that she does not lack for audacity.    The concert itself featured two contrasting works.  The first, a sort of piano concerto, was very rhythmic, but with a sonic palette that resembles a beefed up Lachenmann, including an electric piano tuned a quarter tone apart from the regular piano.  In seven relatively short and fast moving movements, it was intriguing.  The second piece was more problematic; an hour long piece for recorded spoken voice (with texts and voice of Paul Auster), live electronics, live ensemble, and several recorded Weill-like vocal  numbers.  The spoken text is not dramatic, and as a result, it it simply existed as another element in the fabric.  Neuwirth warned us that it was not an easy piece to listen to.  It simply drifts from one thing to another, as we shift our listening gears to follow.  There was the requisite intellectual underpinnings to go along with it (required of every European composer), but the end experience was not that interesting.