CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK

Composer's many projects connect several worlds

By Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe |  June 8, 2004

Sophocles, Greek dramatist, and Artie Shaw, American bandleader, lived in different worlds, but it's no surprise that composer/clarinetist Evan Ziporyn can bridge them -- his whole career has been about making us see and hear that music is one world.

Now in his 45th year, Ziporyn has arrived at some kind of midcareer consolidation. Knowing him, it will be the launching pad for further fascinating developments. Late last month he had three world premieres within a couple of weeks: "Aradhana" ("Long Bow"), a concerto for the Chinese lute, the pipa, and its reigning virtuoso, Wu Man; the music for the current production of Sophocles' "Oedipus" at the American Repertory Theatre; and a stunning orchestral work, "War Chant," for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

Thursday night he joined the Boston Pops and Keith Lockhart to play Shaw's 1943 Clarinet Concerto on MIT night (Ziporyn is head of music and theater arts at MIT). Shaw's piece isn't a traditional concerto by any means; it's not really even a crossover effort, despite the presence of strings. It's basically a big-band work with a spectacular showoff part for clarinet.

Dressed in a dark suit with a diamond glittering in one ear, Ziporyn played long operatic recitatives (you could almost hear words) and flowing arias; he made his instrument swing, purr, and wail. A vigorous episode for clarinet and percussion brought a wave of applause from the audience, and he ended on a B-flat an octave higher than most sopranos can even think about. Amazingly, this was Ziporyn's first performance of the work.

His contribution to "Oedipus" is equally remarkable, and perhaps the most convincing aspect of the production. The direction and the cast bring Sophocles into the modern world. Oedipus is a little like Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman," desperately trying to sell the population of Thebes, and himself, a truth he can't quite make himself believe.

Jocasta is played as harridan and slut, and her delivery of the text may remind us a little too often of Joan Rivers. But Ziporyn's music -- ancient and modern, Asian, European, and American -- inhabits several worlds simultaneously. It is both austere and in-your-face, ritual in gesture but immediate in emotional attack. The music's looming and terrifying predecessor, Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex," is one of the 20th century's greatest works. Ziporyn couldn't ignore it; what he did do was assimilate it and move on.

The superb band includes Nathan Davis (percussion), Ha-Yang Kim (cello), Jeff Lieberman (guitars/keyboards), and Blake Newman (bass). The unusual chorus, which performs in Greek, includes some of Boston's most promising young voices.

Ziporyn's stroke of genius was to add the great Balinese artist I Nyoman Catra. Although not an ensemble singer, he cuts across and through everything else, adding a new, keening resonance and far-reaching dimensions to the music.

Ziporyn has part of an opera here with this work, and he should write the rest. He says he does have an opera in his future, along with new works for piano, string quartet, wind ensemble, and voice. This summer he'll be at the annual Bang on a Can institute at Mass MoCA in North Adams ("Banglewood"), and in the fall he will take his Balinese gamelan to Zankel Hall in New York as part of a festival curated by composer John Adams.

He says he's ready for a bit of vacation, but this recent whirlwind of activity is "what composers are always working for."

"It all happened at once," he says. "There must have been something in the karma." 

© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.