eighth blackbird is half full, half empty

EIGHTH BLACKBIRD, St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church, Park City, Thursday.

Following up on its stunning performance with the Utah Symphony Chamber Orchestra Wednesday evening, eighth blackbird returned to St. Mary's Catholic Church on Thursday to perform a program of works written within the past dozen years.

As it had the night before, eighth blackbird showed the sizable audience in the church Thursday evening that it is without question one of the premiere contemporary music ensembles in the world today.

The six members of the group — Michael Maccaferri, clarinet; Molly Alicia Barth, flute; Matthew Albert, violin; Nicholas Photinos, cello; Lisa Kaplan, piano; and Matthew Duvall, percussion — play with a precision that is astonishing, matched only by their incredible virtuosity.

But their playing isn't just all polish and dexterity. They are consummate artists and musical talents of the highest order.

The five works on Thursday's program were well chosen, demonstrating the rich variety of music that is being written today.

The first half of the concert — with works by Chen Yi, George Perle and Steven Mackey — was the most stimulating and innovative.

The two pieces on the second half of the concert — Jennifer Higdon's "Zaka" and David M. Gordon's "Dramamine" — were both written for eighth blackbird. While interesting to listen to, the two works nevertheless come across as contrived, ostentatious pieces. They're cleverly constructed and imaginative, but they are nothing more than clichs and flashy gimmicks. They're effective but there is no real substance to them.

The concert opened with Chen Yi's "Qi" for flute, cello, piano and percussion. This is an intense, unrelenting work that exploits the colors of each instrument separately as well as in ensemble. In "Qi," which is "force" in Chinese, Chen Yi evokes a primeval world, but one that is colored with the exoticism of the East. It's disturbing at times, but undeniably powerful, vivid and utterly fascinating.

Perle's "Critical Moments 2," written for eighth blackbird and premiered by the group in 2002, is a set of nine brief movements that are vignettes, each of which depicts a mood or thought.

The work is vintage Perle in structure, style and expression. The brevity of these movements demands the utmost in concentration on the part of the listener, otherwise the music evaporates before one becomes aware of it.

In "Critical Moments 2," the now 89-year-old composer has created a work that is superbly orchestrated, complex in its conciseness and wonderfully expressive.

Mackey's "Indigenous Instruments" for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, takes the listener to another world. In his mind, Mackey has created an imaginary culture, in which this piece reflects its music.

"Indigenous Instruments" is wildly hilarious, at times jazzy in its syncopations, always tongue-in-cheek and absolutely captivating. The piece shows Mackey as an original thinker who doesn't necessarily take himself too seriously as a composer — he can see humor where others don't.

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E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com