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Libby Larsen, Joan Tower, Ravel: Cassatt Quartet, Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre, 18.9.2008 (BH)

Libby Larsen: Quartet: She Wrote (2008, world premiere)
Joan Tower: Night Fields (1996)
Ravel: Quartet in F Major (1904)

The Cassatt Quartet

Muneko Otani, violin
Jennifer Leshnower, violin
Michiko Oshima, viola
Nicole Johnson, cello

Before the world premiere of her Quartet: She Wrote, composer Libby Larsen said, "If I could be one-eighth of Joan Tower, I'd be a happy woman," acknowledging Tower's 70th birthday milestone and achievements.  It's hard to believe Tower is now 70, but celebrations are happening all over the country, including a three-concert tribute by the Cassatt Quartet, of which this was the first.

Larsen's inspiration comes from a portion of James Joyce's Ulysses, specifically these five sentences: "She thinks.  She writes.  She sighs.  Wheels and hoofs.  She hurries out."  Larsen imagines what the woman might have been doing between each thought, a sort of fleshing out of the silences, the untold story that might occur in units as tiny as micro-seconds.  After the opening bars, built on close intervallic relationships, the work seems a meditation on rhythm.  Some brief passages seem influenced by medieval hocket, the technique of rocking back and forth between two tones or chords.

As the evening's honoree, Joan Tower was also present and in a gleeful mood, commenting that "Usually I'm played between two dead composers."  (NB: Tower was the curator for all three of the Cassatt programs.)  Her initial title for Night Fields was Nightmare, but after hearing it I think she made the right call.  A unison pulse launches a landscape teeming with activity, as if one were plunged into a swirling universe of wind, bird and insect sounds, although when the moon appears, so does a measure of calm.  Much of the writing involves sudden rhythmic shifts, all the way to the work's bristling, prestissimo conclusion.  For her first effort in the genre, it's an attractive work, and the Cassatt players gave it loving attention.

The concert closed with a warm-hearted reading of Ravel's Quartet in F Major, albeit with a little shaky intonation.  The second movement pizzicato had carefully judged dynamic levels, and in the third (Très Lent) the players opened up with some of the best music of the night, mysterious and slightly sad.  The feverish final movement reignites some of the earlier themes, like flashbacks of swirling autumn leaves, and at least in this case, this dead composer made a fine companion to the living ones.

Bruce Hodges

The Cassatt Quartet continues its Joan Tower Celebration with concerts on October 2 and October 16.  More information is Here

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