Went to a really lovely performance tonight by Alias at the Judy Turner Recital Hall at Blair.
Unfortunately, their final performance of this season! Check them out next season if you are unfamiliar. A rotating cast, mostly players with the Nashville Symphony, they do great smaller ensemble pieces of all descriptions.
They’ve been doing a series of second performances of the works of living composers—Double Take—which has been fabulous. There were two pieces tonight from that series by Michael Daugherty and Kevin Puts, the latter’s reminiscent of a happy love child of Philip Glass and Aaron Copland (and that is meant as a compliment). As a big fan of Gavin Bryars, I’m a little hard on pieces like Daugherty’s that loop audio components. The musical part was smashing however. The audio was Paul Robeson declaring his brotherhood with Communist Youth or something...in Russian...hmm...
In addition to the Double Take pieces, there was an excellent Bach Cantata “Mein Herze schwimmt in blut” (My heart swims in blood) with soprano Barbi McCulloch, and an early 20th c. piano quintet by Amy Beach.
Alias performances are always incredibly satisfying, often stellar. They aways benefit a chosen charity partner, tonight Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee.
One of the truly great things going on in this city...Bravo!
