Crouch End Festival Chorus/David Temple: Barbican, London
The Crouch End Festival Chorus, directed by David Temple, has established itself as a leading chorus with work that spans classical and popular idioms and a great deal of recording. Recent work includes Noel Gallagher’s new solo album, television and film scores and the concert at the Barbican this evening demonstrates the Chorus’ dedication to new music with works by Glass alongside a new commission by the composer James McCarthy.
Precise rhythmic and dynamic control was evident in the opening song (There are Some Men) in Philip Glass’ ‘Three Songs. The French diction was clear in the second and third songs (Quand Les Hommes Vivront D’amour and Pierre de Soleil) with David Temple shaping a strong sound from the chorus throughout the songs. Basses sang their solo passage with confidence in third song with the chorus displaying good pitch control of the instrumental-like lines.
Crouch End Festival Chorus
On her new album Terrestre, Claire Chase achieves every woodwind player’s fantasy: playing with a perfect response, solid tone, and in total command of her instrument. Her selection of some of the most difficult music composed for flute in the recent past and present demonstrates her technical prowess and determination to present her instrument’s capacity for intensity.
The Premiere Commission 10th Anniversary Concert at Le Poisson Rouge, February 13th, 2012, featured one New York premiere and three world premieres, as well as more established pieces. Unlike 
Music is often colorfully compared to alchemy. Both arts involve the careful meeting of scientific logic and emotive, mystical chaos. The musician takes sounds that can be expressed mathematically, orders them in a way that can be analyzed logically, and produces something that, hopefully, will elicit some kind of emotional, intellectual, or spiritual reaction from the listener. The comparison doesn’t really work…after all, alchemy never made lead into gold, while music has been doing just that since the beginning of humankind. Creating music that is heavily rooted in specific traditions, like bluegrass or klezmer or minimalism, is perhaps like woodworking, or painting in a photorealist style, where the creator must balance personal expression with strict adherence to certain rules. Trying to make new music, music that is different enough for people to hear it as a new genre or style, or something without genre or style, is a different beast altogether, metaphorically akin to bomb-making, or perhaps the brewing of moonshine. An artist combines various elements, refined and distilled into their own voice, and the results may be glorious, chaotic, unexpected, horribly boring, or all of the above.
