Christopher Rouse: Transfiguration (Calder Quartet)

This concert featured five works by Christopher Rouse: two percussion pieces performed by The Yale Percussion Group, as well as a septet and two quartets performed by the Calder Quartet (and supplemented by three other players for the septet.
1. Ku-Ka-Ilimoku (for four percussionists)
2. String Quartet #2
3. Compline (for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet)
4. String Quartet #3
5. Ogoun Badagris (for five percussionists)

The two percussion works were energetic and surprisingly varied and subtle, to the point of being spine tingling. The performers obviously were having a great deal of fun.

The Quartet #2 and "Compline" had a satisfying arc. Beginning with electronic sonorities (though produced on string and wind instruments), the quartet 'modulated' into an organ-like chorale that was heartbreakingly lovely and fragile. Similarly, "Compline" opened with reversed sonorities but moved toward more traditional timbres and sonorities; its final section was beautiful and poignant.

Quartet #3, a world premier of a Calder Quartet commission, was built on rhythmic rather than tonal complexity. Though it seemed to start with disintegration and reverse to integration, it didn't get to the beautiful part of the arc.

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