NEWS
Three Cities, Seven Cacti
Dal Niente flutist, Emma Hospelhorn, recaps the Neue Musik Tour!
by Emma Hospelhorn
You know where the best place to hear Helmut Lachenmann’s Guero is?
From the stage.
I know – impractical! But honestly, if you get the opportunity, it’s incredible. And I got to experience it three times this week, as Mabel Kwan performed Guero immediately after Carola Bauckholt’s intensely rewarding Zopf for flute, oboe, and clarinet – in Chicago, Boston, and New York. Our decision to perform the two pieces in sequence, with all performers on stage, was the culmination of a week’s worth of practicing, rehearsing, refining, and thinking about the way these pieces interconnect. I hope it worked for the audience; I know that it worked for me.
What’s it like touring with Dal Niente, you ask? Well, it’s indescribable. Please hold while I try to describe it.
Some Things That Happened on Dal Niente’s Neue Musik Tour
12/4/2015
Rehearsal, Chicago, IL
We’ve just finished rehearsing the extended bass flute/ percussion duet in Enno Poppe’s Salz. “Now there’s a sound with a 50 inch waist,” someone says.
12/6/2015
Constellation, Chicago, IL
8:30pm: The band is hanging out backstage. It’s showtime, but apparently we can’t go on yet, because there are too many people and there’s a line backed up past the door and they have to put out more seats. SUCCESS!
8:45pm: At the end of Zopf, the instructions state that the oboist should turn a squeaky crank and the flutist should make noises with an empty cassette case for an indeterminate length of time. In rehearsal, Andy and I have been staring into each other’s eyes while we do this, and the mood has been intense. It’s intense now, but I’m losing control of my facial muscles. I can feel them curling. I don’t want to give in to the smile. The smile has a mind of its own. I’m smiling. I’m smiling at my colleague and he is turning a crank and I am scratching a cassette case and I’m smiling and the audience is staring and you can hear everything because it’s so quiet and I am so focused and I see his eyes widen, his chin rising, the barest hint of a cue, and we freeze. The piece is over. From somewhere behind me, I hear a delicate rustling as Mabel, who has been sitting at the piano this whole time, begins the Lachenmann.
12/7/2015
Midway Airport, Chicago, IL
6:15am: apparently our flight is delayed till 8:30.
8:30am: apparently our flight is delayed till 10am.
10:30am: oh, it’s because of the fog. I look out the window. Yep, fog.
11:30am: hey, we’re boarding! And they said it couldn’t be done.
4-ish pm: We arrive at our hotel. It’s a well-known chain, so I think I know what to expect. I am wrong. There is a giant atrium with streetlights and trees inside, leading to a raised area with a giant chessboard on it, which leads up to a pool. It kind of feels like a couple of small ghost children might appear and ask us to come out and play.
12/8
Busted trying to hang out in the hot tub past closing time, after a full day of composer workshops and readings at Boston University. NO REGRETS.
12/9
Tsai Performance Center, Boston. My aunt and uncle are here. They take a picture of me setting up chairs a half an hour before the concert begins. I am a professional musician.
I can hear things in Mark Andre’s “...zu staub...” that I never noticed before – even as I am playing. I think I am falling in love with this piece.
12/10
NYC. Permutations.
Goddammit Andy don’t make me laugh
Lachenmann: I am spellbound. There is a strange ticking sound that I can’t place – is it part of the piece? What is happening?
Andre: I knew this piece was good. But I think tonight it is transcendent.
adieu m’amour (hommage à Guillaume Dufay) * I am spellbound again. That ticking’s back. What IS it? Oh. Andy’s watch.
Poppe. POPPE!!!!!!
Beer.**
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*My sister thinks that the Spahlinger sounded like “a wistful cowboy ghost.” I think that my sister should be a professional music critic.
**We make it to McGillicuddy’s for the After-Party. I’m pretty sure it’s not called McGillicuddy’s. Our conductor takes a picture of the Manhattan he ordered. When I look at him, he says “What? It’s a Manhattan in Manhattan.”
Dal Niente Tours Colombia, Mexico, and Panama
Six Ensemble Dal Niente musicians recently returned from a three-week tour of Latin America, made possible by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's International Connections Fund. Get a full recap and check out a photo gallery from the tour.
Six Ensemble Dal Niente musicians recently returned from a three-week tour of Latin America, made possible by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's International Connections Fund. With stops in Mexico City, Bogotá, and Panama City, the tour presented incredible opportunities to work with new composers, perform in spectacular venues, and engage with hundreds of audience members and students in each city. The ensemble gave four world premiere performances of new works by Andres Carrizo, Francisco Castillo Trigueros, Federico Garcia, and Curtis Rumrill.
Dal Niente conductor and artistic coordinator Michael Lewanski offers this reflection on the impact of the tour:
"Our engagement with this music starts the process of building a deeper connection between cultures with some differences, but also with many significant similarities. It begins to broaden the definition of what 'American' music is -- not simply the works from the Northern part of the continent, but rather a branching-out of various different musics, styles, and practices that have deeply enriching affect on listeners, musicians and composers who engage with it."
The gallery below features images taken over the course of the tour.
