Two nights ago I stayed on campus after work to attend a student concert. The concert was a series of performances of wind-based chamber works by various groups of music students. The quality of the performances varied greatly, but one stood out from the rest.
Béla Bartók’s Contrasts is a piece for which I have long had a certain affection, perhaps because there are so few real masterpieces written for clarinet, my first musical instrument. According to the Grove Encyclopedia of Music, this piece was commissioned by jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman, who wanted a short (6 minute), two-movement piece to go on two sides of a single. Bartók did not quite comply, composing a three-movement piece that lasts about fifteen minutes.
I have a recording of Contrasts from 1940, with the composer on piano, his friend Joseph Szigeti on violin, and Goodman on clarinet. I’m listening to it as I write this. It’s a great performance. Goodman especially shines with his effortless fluidity punctuated by jazzy squawks and squeals. It has finesse, nuance, and finish. It’s played very professionally by three men who are comfortable with the music.
On Monday night at Ithaca College, no one was comfortable. The student musicians played the hell out of this piece and took no prisoners. They even left out the central slow movement so that the audience didn’t have a chance to catch its breath. While the performance was masterful, it was not the smooth mastery of Bartók, Szigeti, and Goodman. It was the mastery of students who had wrestled with something greater than themselves and who had triumphed and made it their own. Even the “pretty” folk melodies in the third movement came across like something from Hell’s cabaret. It was like a bar fight in music.
I want to thank those students for a great performance. It’s a wonderful thing to be shown a familiar piece in a very new light and this performance brought out aspects of Contrasts that I’d never heard before. A big hand to IC Music, especially Maeve O’Hara (violin), Adam Butalewicz (clarinet), and Atakan Sari (piano).
One Response to “Contrasts”
Adam Butalewicz
I was arbitrarily searching google for related articles to some of my past performances and ran across your article. Thank you for your kind words. It’s always nice to hear that we as musicians (regardless of age, level, venue, status or ability) are still capable of inculcating emotions in our listeners. Particularly in today’s society where I seem to continually ask myself, “Am I making a difference to someone?” This definitely just made my day and brought back some really wonderful memories of working with Atakan and Maeve. Thanks!