Once again, Chamber Project St. Louis delivered unique creative expression and performance in unusual settings. This one was called Weave. It was part of the On Tap Series which means the venue is a downtown brew pub, Schlafly Tap Room. Which means you can drink craft beer during the performance!
The resulting tapestry included a vibraphone, Marimba, cymbal, looped (recorded) parts, trumpet, dancer, and spoken word, in addition to the Chamber Project’s backbone of clarinet, violin, cello, and flute (no viola this time). Compositions spanned 1924-2009, featured composers Brett Abigana, Ingolf Dahl, Steve Reich, Jacques Ibert. I had only heard of one of these composers prior to this performance.
As much as I love traditional chamber music, these performances offer a different kind of excitement. At least for me, and probably most aficionados of “classical” music, these ladies and their musical compatriots seem to open up the entire process. Of course, it’s not the raucousness of a rock concert, but it isn’t the staid, hushed atmosphere of traditional classical either. They’ve definitely taken the stuffiness out. Snob appeal ain’t present. The patrons who go because they’ve always gone (believe me, I am guilty of this), who go more for the visibility at intermission than the music, they don’t seem to be present. Nor are you bombarded yet again by the same big local and regional corporate names. The members of Chamber Project do it all, too. They take the tickets, handle the money, plead for the funding. True entrepreneurial talent, which is, if you read one of my recent posts here, essential in today’s world.
The Abigana Little Match Girl “wove” a dancer, a vibraphone, spoken word, and a flute. The percussionist managed to hit his cymbal with his elbow, something else I had never witnessed. From my vantage point, the dancer was clearly the solo part. I am no judge of dance, but she captivated me. The Dahl Concerto a Tre was probably the most traditional of the four pieces, cello, violin, and clarinet. The playful vignettes, soulful at times but never seeming to get too serious, reminded me of Richard Strauss’ tone poem Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. Even though the underlying subject matter may be serious, the music isn’t, or at least not for long.
The Reich piece, as Reich is want to do, really got my blood flowing. It’s hard to sit still. And the great thing about these performances, is you don’t have to. For one thing, you’re not crammed in between eight others and their heavy winter coats, purses, etc. You can weave, bob, tap, and even get up and go to the back of the room and elaborate. The marimba live is played over a looped marimba in a technique called “phasing.” It was, in three words, too much fun. Mesmerizing too. If you weren’t in an altered state from a few brewskis, or glasses of wine, the music would surely put you in one.
Ibert’s Le Jardinier De Samos, featured everyone but the dancer. Although it came off to me as a bit of a hodgepodge – the phrase “managed chaos” came to mind – the duet between the violin and the cello in the third movement was exquisite. Even so, I admire the group for selecting such pieces. If I heard it again, I might think otherwise.
Who knows – maybe I’m the one that’s had his head in the sand about performances like this. Maybe they’ve been going on for decades and I’ve been one of those patrons stuck in my music-listening ruts for too long. But I think there’s something really special going on here. My horizons are expanded with each of their performances.
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