In Sunday’s (10/27) New York Times, Steve Smith profiles composer Michel van der Aa, whose “best-known works require musicians to interact meaningfully with companions and counterparts present solely on film. Up-close, which will have its American premiere on Monday at the Manhattan Center as part of Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival, provides a cello soloist with an enigmatic alter ego: a silent woman who appears in a film written and directed by Mr. van der Aa. The music is sophisticated yet approachable, with assertive rhythms, pungent harmonies and seamless shifts between acoustic and electronic sounds. Thanks to the film, it is also something more. Last November, Up-close won the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, presented annually by the University of Louisville…. Up-close requires its participants to be keenly aware of what is happening on screen, the soloist most of all. Kaori Yamagami, who will perform with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra on Monday, comes to her role prepared: She was the principal cellist of the Amsterdam Sinfonietta during the original tour and has been the soloist in four subsequent performances.… Presenters are keen on multimedia, Mr. van der Aa confirmed, but music dictates its own terms.”
Posted October 28, 2013
