Search - Lou Harrison, William Kraft, Los Angeles Percussion Ensemble :: Lou Harrison: Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra; Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra

Pacific rim master ,finally! we hear him.

Rachel Abbinanti (tusai1@aol.com) | Chicago | 06/05/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Lou Harrison's music is very American,meaning first neglected most of his life as Cowell,as Cage,as Partch, as Feldman,as Nancarrow, then raised to the sky, as if we have known him/them all along. We haven't ! and it's great to finally see his music now not only recorded but performed. Perhaps the current buzz of world music and the globalization of culture has helped grease Harrison's relative popularity. His music first and foremost holds fascination for its integral use of percussion and the accessibility factor. And here the "Concerto for Organ" utilizes a great pallette of percussion instruments,some Korean. Harrison's imagination leans toward Asian music,he traveled there for a way of reliquishing and coming to terms with the tyranny of Europe.Boulez,serialization,12-Tone was all bad stuff for Americana.But what I find perplexing is for all the non-European departures in gesture only, the organ here merely replaces the 19th Century orchestra. An organ in-an-of-itself always sounds cathedral-like and has nothing to do with the gestures of the East. There is a way around this, and Harrison seems to think about this. His use of middle register clusters helps transform the organ away from this historical stereotype creating evocative,two-three simple tones repeated moments,indeed beautiful. But Harrison's primary sonoric constitution remains within the European sphere. The organ bass pedals as well make-up the lower strings of the antiquated orchestra throughout this work,adding counterpoint very traditionally. The percussion for the most part are forced into collective statements suppressing each unique's sound. When everyone plays the same rhythms, (as in the first movement here) we only hear large impenetrable punctuations,not each instruments evocativeness.Another problem is always structure. Harry Partch as well solved the timbral problem for Americana, but left form, the unfolding of his sounds untouched from its European tyranny. Harrison as well utilizes here in the "Organ Concerto" very traditional formal schemes and gestures,"Andante". As if he is forcing these equisite,evocative percussion moments into shoes one size too small."