Common Ground

by Peter Burwasser

The program of 20th-century music played by this joint venture of Network for New Music and the American String Quartet was so diverse that one strained for a common element, beyond the biographical side note that all of the composers share a strong Philadelphia connection. If nothing else, nearly all of the music engaged the seemingly open-minded audience with consistently entertaining and engrossing material.

The centerpiece was the 1972 "Photographia" of the late Joseph Castaldo, for baritone, piano and percussion. He might have called this powerful work a dream of a photograph of a funeral; Castaldo's creation works more on the level of a theater piece than as music. But in this sense, Castaldo transcends mere style. If the tremendous, pained howls, accompanied by the singer himself flailing at a suspended cymbal, brought to mind the horrible death throes of King Lear, or the exquisite anguish of the blinded Oedipus, then it is useful to recall how much music a great actor such as Olivier found in Shakespeare. Baritone Randall Scarlata drew out music from non-notated phonetics as well as pitched material, and along with his excellent instrumentalist colleagues, shaped musical sounds into dramatic gestures, just as they refocused drama into musical expression.

Stefan Wolpe's quartet for piano, trumpet, percussion and saxophone bristles with just the sort of jazzy insouciance that such a combination of instruments suggests. There is nothing at all improvisatory about the music, however. As with Stravinsky's use of jazz elements, Wolpe has fashioned a tautly constructed work, fun and quirky, surely, but also emotionally aloof in a way that is an antithesis of real jazz. The result is music that is, oddly, both inviting and distant at once.

Samuel Barber's 1931 "Dover Beach," a setting of the evocative poem by Matthew Arnold for baritone and string quartet, is also somewhat cool, but also smartly emotive, a sort of esthetic declaration by the 21-year-old composer. The instrumental music features a distinct voice in full bloom, presaging famous works to come. Scarlata delivered the words with a strength and dignity that honored the composer's own celebrated performance.

Music from another Curtis alum, Ned Rorem, closed the program, with the 1991 String Quartet No. 3. But here the steady vision of Barber was missing, replaced with a mélange of language that might be mistaken for curiosity, but instead sounds like indecision. It was hard to shake off the suffocating languor of the opening chaconne, but some of the fast music threw off sparks of interest. In all, though, this was a leaden ending to an otherwise gleefully captivating evening of music.

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