The next SFCMF commission I was able to
hear this season was by David Del Tredici. First, he won everyone's hearts in
the pre-concert lecture: charming, self-effacing, very articulate, modest, and funny. He was delightful. He
was looking totally-NYC-high-fashion, dressed in an over-sized red jacket with
sleeves rolled up, and desert boots! Steven Ovitsky introduced him as the Father of
Neo-Romanticism, but what we are really talking about is, OMG, tonal music.
He discussed his musical journey and how he started with the required dissonant phase, along with the 1970s academics who painfully ruled music for
decades. At some point in his work, he said "I can't do this any
more" and started writing...tonal music. This, of course, was scoffed at
by many, since music that one would actually want to listen to was
verboten. He almost apologized for this indiscretion...but not quite. He remarked that it's harder to write tonal music,
than atonal [no kidding, my comment]. He continued that tonal music will
always be will be compared to other tonal composers, and put under a
microscope, while atonal music won't be compared to anything. He added, "AND,
in tonal music it's obvious when a note is missed or wrong." Steven
Ovitsky, who is a musician, joked that missing a note wouldn't be noticed in
dissonant music, and got a chuckle. Del Tredici's piece, String Quartet #2 is
straight forward tonal music. It is not remotely sentimental, nor did I find it particularly romantic, so his other music
must have earned him the "neo" moniker he's received. More importantly, the piece is unabashedly tonal. It was
beautifully played by the Orion String Quartet. Del Tredici can write for
strings, that was clear. The piece was co-commissioned by South Mountain
Concerts and dedicated to the OSQ.
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