By Nancy Plum
Richardson Chamber Players participated in an unusual collaboration last Thursday night at the Princeton University Chapel. As part of Princeton University Concerts’ Music & Healing series, members of the Chamber Players joined composer and violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, pianist and harpsichordist Conrad Tao, and the Princeton University Chapel Camerata for an East Coast premiere of Kopatchinskaja’s dramatic Dies Irae. Kopatchinskaja conceived the semi-staged performance to be “a moving musical reflection on the challenges we face in our times, including climate change, war, and the fragility of our world.” A pastiche of seven works from a variety of eras, the music spanned what Kopatchinskaja called “centuries of spiritual exploration” and what University Concerts described as a “coming together of artists and listeners at different stages of their journeys, united by a common purpose: to be a part of something that speaks to this moment, and to one another.”
As a musician, Kopatchinskaja was no shrinking violet. Simultaneously defiant and fierce, she was also graceful and refined in leading the Chamber Players in the 16th and 17th-century instrumental pieces on the program. The large ensemble of Chamber Players, including University faculty, students and special guests, played Heinrich Biber’s Battalia à 10 with Baroque courtliness, interspersed with excerpts from George Crumb’s Black Angels and at times punctuated with cannon-like sounds. With the addition of drinking songs performed by the Players, the overall effect was intended chaos.
Crumb’s Black Angels was subtitled by the composer as “Thirteen Images from the Dark Land” and listed a 1970 completion date of “in time of war.” Contrasting full ensemble with solo string players, the eight Biber and five Crumb selections were augmented by sirens, radio static, lighting which changed with the music and musicians placed in different locations in the Chapel. Throughout it all, Kopatchinskaja maintained solid control over pacing and changes in style, with the Players stretching the capabilities of their instruments and spoken incantations adding to the intense power.
The dramatic centerpiece and longest composition of the concert was Galina Ustvolskaya’s Composition No. 2, “Dies Irae,” in which Kopatchinskaja played percussion alongside eight double basses and piano. Ustvolskaya’s work was preceded by a somber procession placing a coffin-like wooden instrument (designed by the composer) at the front of the stage, which Kopatchinskaja played as a drum with ferocious hammer strokes supplementing Tao’s strident piano part and the relentless repeated phrases of the double basses. This was the piece conveying the most foreboding aspects of the program’s overall apocalyptic theme.
The Chapel Camerata, a select ensemble within the Chapel Choir, presented the Crucifixus à 10 of the early 18th-century Italian composer Antonio Lotti — an expressive and chromatic setting of verses from the Nicene Creed. Positioned in the central aisle of the University Chapel, the Camerata, prepared by Nicole Aldrich, presented Lotti’s Crucifixus with a light sound from tenors and basses and solid and well-blended soprano and alto sections. The Camerata closed the concert singing the 13th-century Gregorian “Dies Irae” sequence from memory, also standing in the center aisle and holding both candles and metronomes, concluding the evening with a prophetic reminder of the Last Judgment.
Thursday night’s concert offered a great deal to listen to and watch, with musicians throughout the space of the chapel, including seven trombonists playing while running through the aisles. The University Concerts Music & Healing series aims to remind audiences that music is something to experience collectively, and with seemingly more than 1,000 people in attendance, this concert was certainly an evening of musical collaborative modeling. Kopatchinskaja’s work is one which should be heard more than once to catch everything in it, and hopefully repeat performances are in its future.
Princeton University Concerts will present the Ébène String Quartet on Wednesday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m. at Richardson Auditorium. Featured in this performance will be music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Maurice Ravel, and Johannes Brahms. Ticket information can be obtained by visiting concerts.princeton.edu.