Review: Out of the Dark concert with 45th Parallel Universe

A string nonet eliciting the intense tango music of Osvaldo Golijov’s “Last Round” provided a knock-out punch for 45th Parallel Universe at The Old Madeleine Church (October 13). The near-capacity audience easily got into the emotional content of the Piazzolla-inspired piece, which was the second number in a program that included the mysterious “Succubus Moon” by Eleanor Alberga and “Out of the Dark” by Kenneth Fuchs.

The dueling string quartets positioned on either side of bassist Mariya-Andoniya Andonova in the “Last Round” created an emotional tug-of-war by leaning into notes with fierce abandon that was contagious. The music picked up speed until it seemed to verge on careening out of control, but suddenly stopped and like a balloon with the air going out of it, slid to a hot and sultry melodic line, supported by a throbbing bass. The piece then gradually wheezed and came to slow, subdued end that was very satisfying.

“Succubus Moon,” an oboe quintet by Jamaica-born, British composer Alberga evoked a demonic presence at night when the moon is out. Oboist Karen Wagner created all sorts of beguiling sounds in arresting exchanges with the string quartet (violinists Emily Cole and Shin-Young Kwon, violist Matthew Ross, and cellist Marily de Oliveira). An uneasy pensiveness pervaded much of the piece with the oboe dishing out some extremely high notes or tones that wiggled about suggestively. Perhaps they were meant to lead the strings astray. Whatever the case, it was an arresting number that deserves to be heard more than once

The abstract nature of “Out of the Dark (After Three Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler)” by Fuchs was more difficult to absorb. Performed by the Arcturus Quintet (hornist Joe Berger, flutist Martha Long, clarinetist Lou DeMartino, Bassoonist Carin Miller, and oboist Karen Wagner) and a string quartet (violinists Greg Ewer and Ron Blessinger, violist Charles Noble, cellist Kevin Kunkel), the music was accompanied by the projections of Frankenthaler’s paintings on a large screen behind the musicians. The first image was kind of a like a boxy Rorschach test framed in rust and black colors. The strings started in an argumentative fashion with the winds more contemplative and the horn fairly loud and robust, and it ended in a pointillistic, almost fragmentary way. The bouncy string sounds in the second movement seemed at odds with the projected painting, which was similar to the first painting but with yellow and brown and black hues. A soaring line from the horn and trilling passages from the woodwinds filled in the third movement. The painting paired with them was more defined and less blotchy. I guess it all fit together as a whole, but I wasn’t convinced one way or the other. Maybe a post-concert Q and A would have helped. Blessinger, in his introductory remarks, explained how the piece travelled from a serial style to a more graspable ending in C major, but I think it was fairly elusive to actually hear and comprehend. Nevertheless, everyone applauded enthusiastically.