Day of Berio

Last weekend in NY was packed with opportunities to hear new music: Crumb at the Miller, Corigliano in Brooklyn, and the NY Phil's Day of Berio.

I chose to attend the 4 hour marathon concert of complete Sequenzas on Saturday afternoon at the Rose Theater. The Phil presented an entire day of Berio's music, beginning with the screening of a documentary on the composer followed by a panel discussion with experts including his last wife. The Sequenzas matinee was then followed by the orchestra's performance of Sinfonia in the evening.

Theoretically it sounded like a fantastic idea: an all-day symposium encompassing the composer's greatest chamber and orchestral works. However, I was immediately suspicious of the Phil's motives. The day seemed like a way to appease critics that accuse the orchestra of being stodgy in their lack of new music presentations without having much affect on regular season performances. To be fair, the orchestra's tribute will continue with performances of his Folk Songs (featuring Dawn Upshaw as on the Golijov Ayre CD) and Renderings later this season. The afternoon concert seemed quite well-attended.

I'm not sure how many die-hard Berio fans made it to the Rose by 11 am for the documentary, but I was not among them. By the more reasonable hour of 2 pm, attendance for the Sequenzas concert was surprisingly ample. The 14 pieces were grouped into "mini-concerts" of 4 or 5 works between intermissions. The highlights for me were the performances of bassoonist Martin Kuuskmann, pianist Amy Briggs Dissanayake and trombonist Shacar Israel's over-the-top theatrical rendition of the trombone Sequenza that went above and beyond the composer's instructions. I also thought Stanley Drucker had a beautiful sound until my resident clarinet expert filled me in on his divergences from the score.

It was an exciting event and fantastic opportunity to hear Berio's solo contributitions to the repertoire of each instrument in one sitting. However, I realized about 2 hours in that it's possible to have too much of a good thing and OD on Berio. I may have stepped out to spend a few minutes browsing in Montmartre and J.Crew downstairs, or I may not have. I'll never tell.