Composers Salerno, Wollmer, Estes and Pimental (N. Bell photo)

POTENT STUDENT WORKS IN ARIADNE TRIO CONCERT

On a lovely August 24 afternoon the Trio Ariadne played the seventh of ten concerts inaugurating the opening of SSU’s Schroeder Hall in the Green Music Center. It was part of a celebratory splash to introduce the music community to this little jewel of a hall, the 250-seat capacity and acoustics perfect for chamber music.

In the second year of University residence, the Ariadne premiered four compositions composed by SSU Music Department students, under the guidance of Marcia Bauman. This elegant ensemble includes pianist Elizabeth Joy Roe, cellist Sæunn Thorsteindottir and clarinetist Carol McGonnell.

The first work was Tyler Salerno’s “Big Bang,” and one might have expected drama and explosiveness. However, Mr. Salerno’s universe was one of great beauty, spaciousness and variation. From a single tone, picked up by all three instruments, the music trembled into growth and eventually sprouted into many directions. Textures, colors and tempos receded before dying back to a single tone. It was a fitting introduction to the universes to come.

Lauren Estes’ “Trees” championed the music of our time, and she developed her piece from the idea of tree rings fed into a computer to be translated into a musical scale. Sparse and quiet piano notes were developed by the other musicians (using Apple iPads) and the slowly changing harmonies were a procession to a peak and then back to a slow and quiet pulse. Offering a change of mood, Albert Wollmer’s “Planting Potatoes in land of Rocks” used all 12 tones and was an explosive farming experience. Here were dissonant clusters, trills, rustles, pizzs and furious back and forth volleys between the instruments. This often chaotic work was a feast of varied sound.

Last on the program was Gerry Pimental’s “Phantoms of the Heart.” The composer spoke to the audience that the piece was in the spirit of Brahms and his relationship with Clara Schuman. There was also reference to Robert Schumann, as reminiscence of things that happen and things that don’t. Fragmentation seemed to be a source of phantoms. The work had a true romantic flavor with lush sounds and a main theme of complexity and shape. The Ariadne played this tempestuous and throbbing trio with virtuosic flair.

In a way the four pieces could be taken as a complete sonata: an opening movement of beauty and variation; an inward slow movement; a furious scherzo and a conclusion wholly dramatic. The Schroeder audience was delighted with this “sonata” of innovation performed by the wonderful Ariadne.