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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2007 > November > 13 > Entry
Review: Audio Inversions
Audio Inversions rewarded the crowd that followed the new music presenters to Laguna Gloria Monday night — a change from the group’s usual downtown venue — by delivering a tight, pretty and polished program. Sure, the acoustics of the historic villa weren’t ideal. But the beguiling setting allowed the group to do what it does best: Present the work of living composers in an accessible, friendly manner to make an absolutely engaging evening.
Karmen Suter — AI’s artistic director — set the tone for the evening with Ian Clarke’s engaging, and slightly whacky, flute solo, ‘The Great Train Race.’ Sure, we knew a flute can mimic plenty of train noises, but who knew it took so much sheer virousity to do so.
P. Kellach Waddle’s ‘The Grave Concerns’ was a delightful series of vigorous vignettes for flute and bass (not your typical duet pairing of instruments), while ‘Rhapsodic Variations on a Theme of Wieniawski’ was Waddle’s smart answer to the problem of a lack of solo bass pieces: Write your own and show off the range of the instrument.
David T. Little’s ‘Descanso (waiting)’ proved the artistic standout of the evening. The New Jersey-based Little, who made the trip to Austin to introduce his piece, was inspired by the tradition of marking the sites where someone has died with a cross or other memorial. An emotional-filled sonic poem for a small ensemble, ‘Descanso’ reverberated with haunting layers. The playful ring of ordinary wind chimes floated in and out of melancholic yet slightly dissonant melodies that rose and fell, intensifying then pulling back. ‘Descanso (waiting)’ was the perfect musical portrait of the swirl of contradictory emotions that surge when anticipating the loss of a loved one.
Guest artists violinist Stephanie Teply and cellist Benjamin Westney impressed with Russian composers Sophia Gubaidulina’s haunting sonata, ‘Freue Dich.’ And the duo did a superb job with ‘There Shore Serenity’ by James D. Norman, one of AI’s two composers-in-residences. ‘There’ started out an inward-turning series of overlapping melodic arches that deftly built to more dramatic sweeps. (Norman wrote the piece specifically for Teply and Westney.)
Audio Inversion’s formula for a tight 90-minute program of new music is like the best kind of artistic buffet: Plenty of surprise, delight and variety with none of the unnecessary filling. And that treat-filled after-show reception the group presents to just because they want to thank their audience? That’s first class!
Comments
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By James Norman
November 13, 2007 6:37 PM | Link to this
Thanks, Jeanne Claire, for your kind words. We’re thrilled that you enjoyed the show. We really appreciate your help in furthering the cause of music here in Austin. Everyone involved with Audio Inversions was excited to see so many new faces in the audience, and we’re always delighted to get a chance to talk to both new friends and old ones after the concert…we thank you for that opportunity.
Just a note: our next concert is scheduled for February 18th, when we will present a special recital of Brian Sacawa, one of the country’s premier young saxophonists. Both Anthony Suter and myself are currently composing new works for the occasion.
By P Kellach Waddle
November 13, 2007 6:34 PM | Link to this
Thank you so so much !!.. For a concert that had so many.. special.. circumstances to put together— getting a review like that is even more of a thrill !! Thanks so much for coming