La Gazzetta Musicale
martedì 31 marzo 2015 – Teatro Elfo Puccini, Milano
Kernis is the emblem of this otherness of American music. His work speaks to the ear rather than to the intricacies of the brain. It would be wrong to underestimate the music Kernis or branding it’s “piacionismo.” It is not. It is simply a different way to experience the musical consciousness, less intellectually smug and more directly linked to the experiential factor .
The three played pieces show the path of the composer in his versatility.
“Second Ballad” – duo for piano and cello – is certainly unsettling. For his indecent genuine melodic and excessive ease of listening. The real secret to his writing is the elegant way he weaves the melodies, as well as how to break down and destroy the sonata form is amazing. Just listen to the long introduction that melts in to a wonderful slow time which results in a frantic early period of a few bars.
“Trio in Red” (originally titled “Seeing Red”), is a song written around the sensations that can be perceived thinking about the color red. Synesthesia pure state in concept, eclectic music, freedom and fantasy in the form (or rather the absence of formal structure).
“Pieces of winter sky” for sextet, imagine being in New York. Indeed, imagine you are in Park Slope or Brooklyn Heights. Imagine being alone at the window and open all your sensory channels to the outside. The sky changes color. The shades of gray are not 50 but many more. A car slips on the ice. Steps slowed by snow. A tree gives its load. And then, for a second, a glimpse of blue. The windows and around the snowdrifts shine. Post-Impressionism musical and emotional neorealism. As if all it happens by chance.
Program:
Second Ballad
duo for piano and cello (European premiere)
Trio in Red
for clarinet, cello and piano
Pieces of Winter Sky
for sextet (Italian premiere)
Performers:
The Searchers
Carlo Boccadoro
director
Photo credit – John Daniotti