Three unusual chamber music configurations are featured on this program. In Pierre Boulez’s Messagesquisse, written for the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, the solo cello casts multiple shadows. Six other cellos fan out its melodic lines, reinforcing individual gestures or allowing them to echo, thus setting them in relief. Composer-in-residence Marco Stroppa also achieves an effect of staggered sound in his piano trio Osja, an homage to the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky. The musicians take a different place on stage in each of the seven movements, and their positions in the room determine the musical events. Finally, with Francesca Verunelli, human meets machine, since the piano is controlled by a computer. We listen in amazement as we experience a succession of breakneck runs, intricate rhythms, and dense clusters of notes that exceed the capabilities of human interpreters but subside, like fine harmonic particles, in the solo flute’s microtonal chords.
