One of Ten

I feel I would be remiss in my duty if I did not weigh in on one of the new music concerts that was woefully underattenderd on that fateful Night of the Ten New Music Concerts. I saw Double Exposure, mostly to hear the hilariously sweet "Take Jazz Chords Make Strange" by David Rakowski. The concert is a fantastic idea: Bruce Adolphe, in association with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, hosts (catskills style, which did my heart good!) an evening of chamber pieces, excellently played--TWICE! The composers were all there--Rakowski, Kieth Fitch, Anthony Gatto--and all gave pre-concert chats (pre-piece chats really). Then the music was played...THEN refreshments were served...then the music was played again, with the composers able to field questions from the now-educated audience. Gatto's piece, The Sheltering Sky, had a gorgeous slow movement; Rakowski's piece is pristine and elegant, but not unsexy as such--burbly with dissonance, spirited, consumed with aching melodies.

Of course, it was no competition for any of the other nine concerts you could have seen that night, but I've always rooted for the underdog.