Live Log 2023: AndPlay's Poems For Spring
The violin/viola duo plays Vine, McIntosh, and Toraman
The last time I descended to the Crypt beneath the Church Of The Intercession in Hamilton Heights was in fall 2019, when I heard the JACK Quartet in a magical evening of John Luther Adams pieces. And it was just a few months later, in January 2020, that andPlay, the violin and viola duo of Maya Bennardo and Hannah Levinson, played there for the first time. They hoped it would be the first of many performances there, but we all know what happened next, which is why it wasn’t until over three years later that they were making their second appearance in the intimate underground space.
Entitled Poems For Spring, the evening began with an opening set by Anthony Vine, during which he meticulously crafted a shimmering soundscape from an electric guitar, a few pedals, and a couple of small tape recorders. It was easy to drift along as he built up layers of sound, but it was also fascinating to watch him make tiny adjustments to a pedal or tape deck, witnessing each moment as he created exactly the sound he wanted. You can hear some of what that sounds like on Remnants, the fine album Vine released in 2017.
After a brief break to reset the stage area, Bennardo and Levinson took their places and began their set with Terrain, a composition by Vine they premiered in 2019. Played on open strings with the bows unusually close to the pegbox, the sound created was airy but complex and full of muted scrapes and whispers. Coming after Vine’s solo set, you could start to get a fix on his interest in continuity of sound, which created a meditative space that seemed to enthrall the musicians as much as the audience.
The second piece, by Andrew McIntosh and called Transgressions, was one they first played in 2020 in Los Angeles. Oddly enough, its New York premiere was by another violin/viola duo, who performed it in the Crypt during a collaborative evening with andPlay. Finally, they got their chance to play it here themselves!
Written in three contiguous parts, much of Transgressions consisted of long held notes, which lent any tiny variations, like a single plucked note - a bright diamond in the haze - extra importance. Another spellbinding moment had Bennardo drag her bow behind the bridge for a dryly rhythmic 1-2-3-4 followed by Levinson plucking a single note, a sequence that didn’t lose its mystique upon being repeated. The final section was loud and rhythmic with melodic material arising out of the overtones. With a hypnotic effect somewhere between ritual and Appalachian folk song, it brought the piece home in stunning fashion.
The last piece, a world premiere by Turkish composer Zeynep Toraman with the lovely title Slow Poem: those thin clouds above, featured many varieties of interplay between the two instruments. One such moment had a high-pitched note on the violin hover over a lower drone on the viola - until the squeal stopped and the viola was left sounding deeper, creating an almost cavernous sense of space like a dub effect. Overall, like McIntosh’s piece, Toraman’s work was anchored by the little touches: a strum here, a melodic fragment there, creating a sensation almost like a palimpsest, as if sounds from a previous score were bleeding through. Clearly, the poetry in the work was not just in the title! It was a privilege to hear it take shape for the first time beneath the arched ceiling of the Crypt in a typically excellent performance by andPlay. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait three years to see them there again.
Note: If you’re in the Boston area on April 29th, you can hear another variation on Toraman’s Slow Poem performed by Lovemusic. While there aren’t many recordings of her work, it’s well worth seeking out percussionist Noam Bierstone’s 2021 album, Mountains Move Like Clouds, which takes its title from a piece by Toraman.
From the archives:
Live Log 2023: Written For Talea
Live Log 2023: Elana Low Welcomes The Equinox
Live Log 2023: An Eastman Excursion
Live Log 2023: A Thorvaldsdottir Nightcap
Live Log 2023: In Our Daughter's Eyes At Prototype
Record Roundup: Envelope Pushers
Record Roundup: String Theories