Vcl^8

Amsterdam Cello Octet

Le Poisson Rouge

First of all, the title looks a bit like an emoticon, but “Vcl” is short for “violincello” which is long for “cello,” and ^8 means to the eighth power. As in, if you have eight cellists sitting next to each other, you have Vcl^8. Also, 400 years ago today (yesterday) the Dutch settled “New Amsterdam” (that’s here).

“You’ve probably never heard a cello octet before.” Actually, Mr. Romanian cellist, I have. Twice. So I’m well-versed in the cello octet repertoire, thank you very much, and–oh, wait, what? One of those times was you guys? You just changed your name? Interesting, because I remember distinctly only sort of agreeing with your choices last time you came around, and I’ll do the same this time. First of all, Arvo Pärt, Estonian-Mystical-Orthodox-Minimalist Composer, I’m a sucker for solo pizzicati. I always go into Pärt’s stuff cynical (it’s just a few pretty major-key melodies repeated over and over!) but come out in awe. Minimalist in the best sense: not as a crutch (i.e., let’s repeat these three notes a hundred times, or let’s paint this canvas all white lol) but in order to focus deeply on timbre, on repetition and memory, and on the sound itself. His “O Antiphonen” pieces were (I think) antiphonal, meaning that the two groups of cellos talked back and forth.

Terry Riley continues to be one of the few composers who can convincingly use jazz structures (that is, “trading fours,” blues licks and fills) in a convincing way, and “ArchAngels,” written in response to 9/11 and the Iraq War, continued to affirm that. Not that it was a blues–blues in the best sense, where, like the Mississippi Delta guitarists, the cellists would play their instruments like they were broken, making noises more evocative than notes–but it was actually informed by old black blues music without being pastiche. The only problem is that I’ve never heard a convincing performance of this. Groups either go all crazy on the classical-informed parts (which Vcl^8 Amst. did well on) or they (like this performance) play the blues-influenced parts in such a stilted way that they become significations of blues, rather than the blues itself.

Don’t worry, there were bad ones too: cheesy Penderecki, some Spanish dude who was obsessed with sounding like 1810, and some Polish dude who I completely forgot. Completely.