eighth blackbird flies in Finney

A joyous and celebratory aura permeated Finney Chapel Thursday evening with the performance of the much-praised contemporary music sextet eighth blackbird. The ensemble, consisting of Oberlin graduates Molly Barth (flutes), Michael Maccaferri (clarinets), Matthew Albert (violin and viola), Nicholas Photinos (cello), Matthew Duvall (percussion), and Lisa Kaplan (keyboards), performed a varied and intense program.

From the beginning, the group's motives were clear: their selections became the vehicle for a rich and immensely varied array of sounds, modulated thoughtfully and skillfully by the performers. The first piece, Paramo by Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, opened with quick, lilting staccato runs which immediately brought out the groups strengths - their striking dynamics, technical virtuosity and forceful, communicative musicality. Duvall's percussion became a whirlwind that would continue to build throughout the concert.

The second selection, Trés lent (In Memoriam Olivier Messiaen) by Joan Tower, scored only for piano and cello, proved to be perhaps the most haunting and memorable moment in the evening. Slowly the music extended itself in intervals, growing in a manner reminiscent of a string orchestra tuning up (though more rich and complex). Within this texture, the voice of the cello entered, playing a mournful, contemplative melody that was emotive and subtly played. Trés lent became an emergence which grew harmonically around the audience in a way reminiscent of Gorècki and other East European minimalists, The piece included all the ambiguity between harmony and melody that a comparison such as this implies.

Luciérnagas by Carlos Sanchez-Guiterrez marked a return to the faster tempos and atonality that dominated the evening. Flickering, running lines, moving between the piano and the marimba, and sometimes into other instruments, imitated the seemingly arbitrary dance of the fireflies of the title. Against this entered an amazing variety of effects; through the sextet the music created a grab-bag of startling attacks, slides, buzzes, and falls, employing ponticello bowing and other unusual effects. The running line of the piano and the percussion eventually grew less scattered, honing in until finally reaching an insistent, knife-like, one-note ostinato, crescendoing to a dramatic climax.

David Schober's Variations alternated in mood between a mysterious, uncertain piece and a more playful, rhythmic section. Here eighth blackbird displayed musicality and a sense of communication beyond the previous (and already impressive) fare. The piece was performed memorized, and the musicians passed their lines so well that one scarcely noticed the change in timbre. The slower sections relied on vibraphone (bowed as well as hit), and the ambiguous harmonies it produced, to sustain its evocative mood, while the faster sections were more varied.

Donald Martinos' Notturno was a difficult, surrealist piece. While technically dazzling, it seemed less accessible than the preceding pieces Nonetheless, eighth blackbird shined with their virtuosity and maturity, and delighted with their candid, thoughtful approach to contemporary chamber music.