There hasn’t been enough buzz about the International Marimba Festival now taking place. I chanced upon it through the SPCO’s contemporary music series, Engine 408, a beautiful, affordable series of concerts in the Hamm Building in downtown Saint Paul. The program I saw will be repeated Saturday, May 1st. Go hear something from this festival. You will be glad you did. I’m planning to see everything I can fit into my schedule.
Teruyuki Noda’s Mattinata for Marimba for marimba, three flutes and double bass with William Moersch soloing, was revelatory. Beautiful use of each instrument in its place, and grand expansion. I started to ask myself about sustained notes on the marimba, and how rolls correlate to strums on plectrum instruments. David Kechley’s Iberia answered my questions. The composition was well thought-out, and in particular the adagio was lovely and emotional. The marimba part was a good correlate for guitar, while doing harmonic action a guitar would be incapable of. The sax quartet was beautifully prepared, Gordon Stout played artistically and humbly, and the piece came off perfectly.
The other outstanding moment on the program was Alejandro Viñao’s Tumblers for Marimba, Violin and Computer. After computer glitches which caused the piece to be moved to the end of the evening, marimbist Ji Hye Jung and violinist Nicholas DiEugenio appeared on stage and confessed that they would be performing “like real musicians” without a click track in their ears. They did. It was a heartfelt, funky performance which really opened my ears. From here on, I hope Ms. Ji will abandon the click track altogether.
I dig how we are venturing into the 21st century with this instrument. Tonalities, timbres, voice combinations, rhythmic and melodic set-ups, expectations, relationship to audience, emotional caliber, virtuosity…none could have happened any time but now. The language of our times, on an instrument that was a novelty half a century ago.
Go hear for yourself.
