REVIEW: Tanglewood, "Festival of Contemporary Music"

Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood, Lenox, MA

www.bso.org/tanglewood

July 25-29, 2024

by Michael J. Moran

Co-curators Tania Leon and Steven Mackey focused their selection of music for Tanglewood’s 60th annual Festival of Contemporary Music on the theme of “personal and public storytelling” by “the astonishing variety of musical voices active in the U.S.,” including their own. Three of the six FCM programs, performed mostly by Tanglewood Music Center fellows, illustrated their success in achieving this goal.

Zhaoyuan Qin

Thursday’s opening concert presented music for mixed ensembles by seven composers, starting with Leila Adu-Gilmore’s astonishing “United Underdog,” a loose variation for solo piano on “America the Beautiful,” performed with staggering virtuosity by Zhaoyuan Qin. Leon’s Cuban-inflected “Indigena” (“Indigenous”) featured sensational solos by trumpeter Michail Thompson. Trevor Weston’s ethereal “A.N.S. (A New Sound)” was sensitively played by flutist Elizabeth McCormack and marimbist Soojin Kang. Protean singing by mezzo-soprano Carmen Edano of touching poems by Nathaniel Bellows, accompanied by four nimble percussionists (Jack Rutledge, Matthew A. West, Jeremy D. Sreejayan, and Michael Rogers) playing 25 instruments, captured the fearless energy of Mackey’s rock-based “Afterlife.”

Friday’s concert followed a similar pattern of music by five composers for small instrumental groups. Standouts included: jazz pianist Vijay Iyer’s cross-genre “The Law of Returns” for piano quartet, which includes some improvised passages, and whose title denotes reinforcing interaction between performers and audience; and Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s stunning “Aid for Sex,” inspired by 2018 reports of sexual exploitation by UN aid distributors in war-torn Syria. 

Monday’s closing concert was performed by the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. TMC conducting fellow Ross Jamie Collins led cogent accounts of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s declamatory curtain-raiser “Celebration” and Leon’s dazzling tribute to her Afro-Cuban ancestors, “Ser” (“Being”). TMC conducting fellow Na’Zir McFadden directed a vibrant take on T. J. Anderson’s challenging “Squares,” a dense collage of gospel, bop, and avant-garde classical traditions.

Orli Shaham & Stefan Asbury

Stefan Asbury, head of the TMC conducting program, took the podium for electrifying
renditions of the program’s two highlights. Mackey wrote his 2011 “Stumble to Grace” piano concerto for soloist Orli Shaham, who displayed a deep mastery of its technical and interpretive demands. She, Asbury, and the TMCO found infectious fun in its five “stages” of a child’s growing up and uninhibited joy in the exhilarating final fugue. Leon’s kaleidoscopic “Pasajes” (“Passages”) combined sharply contrasting sonorities from all sections of the orchestra to end the concert and the entire FCM on what felt like a note of all-embracing love. 

Many FCM composers were present at these concerts. Their frequent bows to enthusiastic audiences reinforced the power of classical music as a living art form. The composers’ thanks to the accomplished young performers will be priceless milestones in their brilliant musical careers.