For all of the world-class performing ensembles that come trotting through NYC on a regular basis, it's easy to overlook the regular concerts given here by one of the world's great music conservatories. Sure, the students at Juillard may not technically be professionals, but the standard of acceptance there is so impossibly high these days, they can hold their own against almost anyone. And, not just in the standard repertoire, as I found out in two concerts I saw this past week.
On Monday, I heard Juillard's period-instrument music ensemble, Juilliard 415, perform music from the 17th century written to accompany the plays of Shakespeare. The ensemble, named for the pitch (A=415) used in the performance of Baroque music, was joined by the extraordinary conductor and viol player Jordi Savall, who, in the span of a five-decade career, has revolutionized the performance of early music from all corners the world.
This being a Juilliard joint, they were also joined by students from the Drama division—no slouches themselves—who enacted scenes from The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, and The Tempest, with music by Robert Johnson and Matthew Locke, respectively. This was music of pure joy and infectious rhythm, which the Juillard kids played as if they had been performing it all of their lives. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall during their rehearsals; no doubt they soaked up Savall's instructions like a sponge.
On the second half of the program, they turned things up a notch with four scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream, interspersed with various symphonies, preludes, and chaconnes from Henry Purcell's masterpiece, The Fairy Queen, based on A Midsummer Night's Dream. In a clever conceit, the actor playing Puck adjusted the final line of his closing speech; no doubt the Bard would have approved:
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Maestro shall restore amends.
And with that, Savall led the ensemble straight into the final symphony—which was, in fact, a compilation of six of Purcell's instrumental interludes. No matter: it was a fitting end to a night that left little doubt as to the staying power of this timeless music. (They followed it up with a rousing rondo by Jean-Philippe Rameau, which Savall instructed us to clap along to, "but not too loud.")
On the other end of the musical spectrum lays AXIOM, Juillard's contemporary music ensemble, which played a program of postclassical classics (for lack of a better term) at Alice Tully Hall on Thursday night. Led by their music director, Jeffrey Milarsky, they started out with Ollie Knussen's Two Organa, which made use of piano, celeste, and harmonium, along with standard instruments. Louis Andriessen's minimalist sextet Zilver (Silver) skirted between Reich, Messiaen, and Stan Kenton. And they gave David Lang's cheating, lying, stealing with just the right amount of ominous funk, as Lang instructs in the score.
The night ended with Georg Friedrich Haas' extraordinary Monodie, which was originally written for the Berlin Philharmonic in 1999. Haas' microtonal score employed a number of unusual sonic effects, including various degrees of layering and glissandi that sounded like foghorns rising and lowering in the mist. Towards the end, Haas inserted was an astonishing romantic motif that sounded like something straight out of Wagner's Ring; it lasted only a few bars before being punctured by an ear-piercing shriek in the winds. Haas, who began teaching at Columbia this year, appeared from the back of the half-empty hall for a curtain call, warmly acknowledging the young performers, almost as if he couldn't believe what he'd just heard came from a bunch of kids who aren't even old enough to drink yet. Believe it, Georg.
More pics on the photo page.