Merce Cunningham Lives!

We saw the company CNDC from Angers, France.   It is directed by Robert Swinston, who for a long time worked with Merce Cunningham.   He was hired a few years ago (after the Cunningham company dissolved) in France, and has been busy teaching Cunningham technique to his small company.   What we saw was an "Event", a stitching together of a number of excerpts from Cunningham pieces dating from before 1990 into a continuous whole.  This is very similar to what was done in the final performances of the Cunningham company. (I recommend the DVD of those performances very highly).   It was accompanied by new music performed by Gelsey Bell and John King.   To see this piece was to marvel at the genius of Cunningham's choreography; consistently inventive, formally complex, always involving.  And it is, I think, still very modern; it doesn't tell stories; it's all about the movement.   And the movement doesn't proceed or transform in conventional ways; things are often disjunct.  And because it is independent of the music, the choreography's own rhythms predominate, much to their advantage.
The music as performed was effective; though, I would guess, much more avant-garde than the audience might normally like.   The dancers, I have to say, were good, but not really up to the standards of the Cunningham company of the past.   But that didn't really hinder my enjoyment of the choreography.   What did annoy me, though, was the decor.   It was a series of Matisse-like fabric hangings by Matisse's granddaughter.   That was OK, but someone had the idea of having them be in motion all the time by using high powered fans to make them flutter in the breeze;  not only was the movement distracting, but the loud noise of the fans was extremely annoying.  

Totentanz

We heard an amazing concert at the New York Philharmonic with composer Thomas Adès  conducting the US premiere of his cantata "Totentanz".   The concert began with a wonderfully idiosyncratic performance of Beethoven's First Symphony.   Adès, who conducted it from memory, conducted it as if it was he who had written it.   You could see and hear his evident pleasure in bringing out details that he loved; and we certainly heard the incredibly inventive ideas of Beethoven.   The second piece, an early Berlioz overture for a large orchestra, "Overture to Les Francs-juges", was a totally wild and crazy piece that could only have come from planet Berlioz.   Again Adès brought out the expressiveness and the wildness of the music, and retrospectively, set up the stage for his work to follow.   It was nice to see such inspired conducting and programming from what could have been just routine concert filler for a composer conducting gig.
The main event, though, was "Totentanz".   The piece is a 40 minute work for baritone, mezzo, and a huge orchestra.    I counted eight percussionists.   It is based of a frieze in Lübeck that was destroyed in WW2 by allied bombing.  It depicts members of society in descending order of socio-political status, each encountering Death.  Guess who wins.

Here it is (click to enlarge):

The sung text apparently accompanied the original frieze; it depicts a series of dialogues between Death and each of his victims.
The piece was an overwhelming experience; as intense in expression as could be.   Adès layers very complex dance rhythms, orchestral dissonances, and extreme fortissimos in a huge whirlwind of sound.  Watching him conduct was revealing; he moved actively to convey the bodily aspects of his rhythms.  The piece has a very large dramatic curve, so by the end, when we get a very Mahlerian sound when he depicts the dance of Death with a baby, we feel like we have been on a journey.  
When I first heard the music of Adès many years ago, I thought, this is the last 20th century composer.  By that I meant that he takes all the expressive tropes of the 20th century and uses them in such a brilliant and extreme way that no one could ever seem to go further.  I still think that.   Adès, however, has become very cool to some 21st century types.  There was a long article in the NY Times about how much some contemporary composers admire his work (even those who write pop song based "contemporary" music). And Bjork was apparently in the audience opening night.   20th century music lives....