A centennial homage to Harrison
It’s hard to believe that Lou Harrison would have turned 100 this year. With his adventurous, ebulliently melodic music, he always seemed forever young.
Born in Portland, Oregon, Harrison spent time in New York alongside midcentury composers such as John Cage. But he remained a quintessentially West Coast figure until his death, in 2003, at age 85. He taught at Mills College in Oakland and spent much of his time at home in Aptos, where he composed, recorded and built instruments with his life partner, Bill Colvig.
“His motto was ‘Cherish, Conserve, Consider, Create,’” says Charles Amirkhanian, the founder and artistic director of Other Minds, the San Francisco-based contemporary music organization. Amirkhanian, who first met Harrison in the 1960s, hosts the Other Minds festival each year. This year’s event — Other Minds’ 22nd — will mark Harrison’s centennial with two concerts and a minifilm festival.
“Just 100: Homage to Lou Harrison” opens Feb. 18 at Mission Dolores Basilica, with international conductor-pianist Dennis Russell Davies leading the Other Minds Ensemble in Harrison’s 1951 Suite for Violin, Piano and Small Orchestra. Composed for unusual forces including tack piano – an upright piano with tacks inserted in the instrument’s hammers — the suite is a brilliant example of Harrison’s fascination with Indonesian music, Amirkhanian says.
“It’s a very powerful and interesting piece,” he adds. “It has energy, this unconventional accompaniment and really beautiful contrapuntal writing. Melody was so important to Lou, and these are melodies that everybody remembers. Leopold Stowkowski conducted the piece for the RCA recording, and when the LP came out in 1952, it really made Harrison’s career.”
Davies, a longtime champion of Harrison’s music, will also conduct the composer’s “Canticle No. 3” for ocarina and percussion, featuring the William Winant Percussion Group. As pianist, Davies will join violinist Yumi Hwang-Williams in the composer’s “Grand Duo” and serve as soloist for Harrison’s “Sonata No. 3.”
Completing the Feb. 18 program are three works by 20th-century Korean composer Isang Yun. Born in Tongyeong (later incorporated into South Korea), Yun established a major career, but was targeted as a political dissident; arrested as a spy, he spent two years in a Seoul prison and was intermittently tortured. Those who protested his innocence included composers Igor Stravinsky and Gyorgy Ligeti.
Both Harrison and Yun will be featured on Feb. 19, when the festival moves to the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. The afternoon program includes two documentaries: “Lou Harrison: Cherish, Conserve, Consider, Create,” directed by Eric Marin, and “In Between – The Composer Isang Yun in North and South Korea,” directed by Maria Stodtmeier. Marin’s film includes footage of Harrison, Colvig, composers Virgil Thomson and John Cage; Stodtmeier’s film, shot in North and South Korea, makes its American premiere in this screening.
On May 20, Amirkhanian presents the final program of the Harrison homage. Returning to Mission Dolores, the festival will focus on the composer’s gamelan masterpieces. Nicole Paiement conducts “La Koro Sutro” and “Suite for Violin and American Gamelan”; also featured are Harrison’s “Suite for Cello and Harp,” “Threnody for Oliver Daniel,” “Pedal Sonata for Organ” and “Praises for Michael the Archangel.”
The performances are just part of Other Minds’ Harrison centennial. The organization has created a special webpage – www.otherminds.org/lou100 — devoted to the composer, with news and information about Harrison events around the world throughout the year. According to Amirkhanian, the list is still growing: “We got one from Lapland the other day,” he says.
Details: Other Minds Festival 22, Feb. 18 and May 20, Mission Dolores, S.F.; $12-$20; www.otherminds.org; film presentation Feb. 19, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley; $7-$12; www. bampfa.berkeley.edu. NEW OPERA SAN JOSE
SEASON: Operas by Mozart, Puccini, Wagner and Verdi are on the schedule for Opera San Jose’s 2017-18 season, announced last week by company general director Larry Hancock. The season opens Sept. 9, with Mozart’s “Cosi fan Tutte.” Puccini’s “La Rondine,” Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman,” and Verdi’s “La Traviata” complete the season, which runs through April 29, 2018. Subscriptions are available now; single tickets, priced at $56-$176, go on sale July 24. 408-437-4450, www. operasj.org.