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| Marc Destrubé some years ago when I was having my Picasso Blue Period |
A preview explanation of the concert
I have to admit that if I were alone in my house (not quite, as I have two cats, Niño and Niña) I would not play a Béla Bartók CD (I don’t have one).
But Marc Destrubé and his Microcosmos Quartet know something that has been plainly evident to me too, as I have gone to two previous performances in the quartet’s house concerts of Bartók’s 6 string quartets and also 3 of Benjamin Britten’s.
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| 24 May 2024 |
What is evident is that music that might seem unlistenable in the comfort of your home has a pleasant immediacy when one is in the first row (my friend graphic designer Graham Walker and I always sit on the front row). By observing each musician, who often smiles in pleasure, I can almost feel that I am with them in their joy.
Last night’s concert, at The Amenities Room of Ocean and Lee’s residence, had outstanding acoustics. In particular, the sound (and the playing ) of Hannah Addario-Berry’s cello (a rich reddish brown) was literally music to my ears.
Of the other featured composer, (my Valencian grandmother would have told me, “En su casa lo conocen,” or they know him at home, American Ned Rorem, was another example of Marc Destrubé’s talent of being an educator. We were pleasantly educated by music that had all kinds of moments that were lyrical and not so. Who would have known that a composer would have been so inspired by an artist (Picasso) to write this piece of music?
I was so interested in this process that I found out that my Argentine hero, Ástor Piazzolla, also wrote a composition on the painter.
Please go to the link below of the Microcosmos Quartet as there are a few more concerts that will repeat this program in the next few days.
And as for me, while I am no artist, I can attest that recently I have been having my very own Picasso Blue Period.
And for anybody not willing to listen to Béla Bartók, while sipping some Hungarian red wine, I can only repeat what American composer Charles Ives once said when he noticed people making a quick exit from one of his concerts, “Stand up and take your dissonance like a man.” And that applies to all you women, and the gender fluids, too.
