Eighth Blackbird Concert Review

This past Thursday, I was privileged enough to be in the audience for Eighth Blackbird's "The Only Moving Thing." Having received rave reviews nationwide, I was anticipating this latest dose of blackbird quite eagerly.

The opening work was the Chicago premiere of Steve Reich's Double Sextet. Seeing the length of the piece listed at 22 minutes, I settled in for a typical Steve Reich trance-ride. While I genuinely enjoyed the work, it presented nothing truly special to my ears. The use of tape seemed almost superfluous to me, as it did not seem to achieve anything that a different orchestration could not have accomplished.

The highlight of the evening was "The Only Moving Thing," composed by the Bang-on-a-Can trio of Lang/Wolfe/Gordon. The work was clever, moving, and genuinely Mahlerian in how it seemed to confuse the audience's emotional responses. For instance: in one of the slow movements, clarinetist Michael Maccaferri was loaded down with various metal and percussive objects. He stood there uncomfortably, a pleading face directed towards the audience as a poignant flute and vibraphone ostinato tolled pathetically behind him. Slowly, the objects fell from his arms, clattering loudly to the floor in counterpoint with the pathetic sounds behind him. At first the audience laughed, then the laught diminished and turned sympathetic, and finally a general sense of sadness permeated the hall. It was a brilliant musical moment.

After all of the emotional movement of the work, the final movement (composed by Lang) presented the best of what the composer could offer, uplifting the listener with post-minimalist groove and ending in a resounding cut-off which seemed to resonate dramatically with all those assembled.

The evening was brilliant, and Eighth Blackbird certainly continued their tradition of presenting a difficult music in a way which is cool, energetic, and completely relevant. Of all the new music offerings I have seen, Blackbird remain my first choice for taking an "uninitiated" listener to their first new-music experience. Bravo!