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REVIEW: Classical New Jersey Society Journal
New Music by New Jerseyans
Ars Vitalis' annual performanceWednesday, April 10
Ars Vitalis: the New Jersey new music forum. The New Jersey Saxophone Ensemble: Frederic Davis (soprano), Avi Goldrosen (alto), James Garde (tenor), Paul Larsen (baritone); Geoffrey Burieson (piano); Sharon Roffman (violin), Allison Brewster Franzetti (piano); Philip Smith (trumpet); Beth Robinson (harp), Laura George (flute), Michelle Michaelis (violin), Christine Terhune (viola), Ted Hoyle (cello). Music by New Jersey composers. Patrick Bums: Ride the Red Horse (2001, premiere); Barbara White: Reliquary (2001); Matthew Halper: Metamorphoses on "Hatikvah" (2002); Joseph Turrin: Intrada (1988), and Two Portraits (1995); Raymond Wpjcik: Vanishing Lands (2001, premiere of 2002 revision). Wilkins Theatre, Kean University, Union.
By Paul Somers
The annual Ars Vitalis (living art) concert at Kean University, produced by composer Matthew Halper, this year featured only New Jersey composers. In the past there has always been one out-of-stater, and may be again in the future. But this year was a celebration of the excellence and wide variety of composing in this state.
Giving preference to no one, the works will be considered here in the order in which they were programmed.
Patrick J. Burns, best known as a composer of first-class music for wind ensembles, led off the program with the premiere of his all-too-short Ride the Red Horse. Composed for saxophone quartet, it was played excellently by the New Jersey Saxophone Ensemble. Every small nuance as well as the larger issues of balance between the instruments were solved by the Quartet, and they played with the technical excellence we have come to expect from them. Burns' writing is assured within this difficult medium. It would be so easy to allow the already rich sound of saxophones to become self-indulgent, to smother its essential sweetness in an overabundant blanket of textures. But Bums knows how to keep the writing lean, how to make accompaniments remain subdued, and above all how to allow each range of instrument to have its own space in which to sing out.At the work's conclusion there was only one thought: why was it so short? One could have easily listened to the economical yet emotionally satisfying music for at least half-again as long! Perhaps Burns adheres to the show-biz adage, "Keep 'em wanting more."
