Reviews of

Joyful Seriousness

  It is very fortunate that there are some musical events to give an idea what playing music in a fulfilling serious way might be like in the future.

  One of those rare events was a concert organized by the Goethe-Institute at the Muffathalle which presented a portrait of the U.S. American Maurice Weddington who was rather unknown here so far.

  Weddington emigrated to Europe after he had just finished his education in Chicago. He arrived with only 300 dollars in his pocket, but a heavy load of musical ideas in his luggage and was determined to succeed as a composer.

  His music cannot be put under any label of familiar musical categories. There is no pompous gesture, but an extraordinary carefulness, weaving lines into a texture that is bulky and organic at the same time. This texture creates a strange microcosm which seems to be dominated by a foreign law.

  In "Xiang Aspects" Weddington turns to a Chinese scroll, 18 inches wide and 27 feet long. The scroll is in ink and it depicts a river landscape. A videofilm leads the audience, pausing sometimes along bamboo, rocks, hills and a small waterfall.

  Weddington transforms a number of philosophical ideas into music, describing the meaning of a single detail and putting it into its cosmic context at the same time, or he shows all possible facets of one element. He masters his means of expressing his ideas without showing banal congruencies.

  The joyful seriousness was transferred to the musicians of the continually growing and maturing Munich Chamber Orchestra, that was conducted by Christoph Poppen, as well as to the highly concentrated and inspiring soloists Ernest Rombout (oboes), Harrie Starreveld (flutes) and Harry Sparnaay (bass clarinet). The performance at the Muffathalle breathed in front of a "different" audience an atmosphere of ideally extensive communication, as Sergiu Celibidache had asked for many times, and even extended it into new regions.

Reinhard Schulz
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Munich, Germany, Tuesday, July 2, 1996

A Score against the Stream

  Watch and listen to "Xiang Aspects"! Maurice Weddington, born in Chicago, rather unknown here, searches for relations and similarities between the eye and the ear.

  On a huge video screen images of a Chinese scroll in ink, "Wind and Rain on the Xiang River" (1455) by Xia Chang are passing by while the music reacts perfectly to the pictorial elements water, rocks and bamboo.

  However, the connection between the music and the videofilm has to be developed by the audience. Christoph Poppen and the very committed Munich Chamber Orchestra performed this very subtle score which seemed to be composed almost "against the stream" at the Muffathalle.

  Weddington's three solo pieces were just as interesting as the chamber works. They were performed by outstanding soloists, the "intensely talkative" "Deovolente" for quartertone-flute by Harrie Starreveld, the melodic, far reaching "Nebulae" for musette (piccolo oboe) by Ernest Rombout and "Seul", a bass clarinet piece, which exceeds all limits, by Harry Sparnaay. "Nearness", a triple concert for flute/altoflute, oboe/English horn, bass clarinet and chamber orchestra develops spatial and structurally changing sound movements.

  The soloists change places on the stage while playing, and communicate with one another and the orchestra. The orchestra functions as the fourth independent element. A too little, but enthusiastic audience!

Johannes Rubner
Münchener Tageszeitung
Munich, Germany, Tuesday, July 2, 1996

... Across Time and Place

  It might seem a peculiar take on the global-village idea to begin a festival of Taiwanese music with works by an African America composer performed by a German ensemble. But Taipei and Berlin are both sister cities of Los Angeles and cross-cultural influence is the theme of Taiwan Facets, which opened Friday at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex of Cal. State L.A., with Ensemble Oriol Berlin making its debut with music of Maurice Weddington.

  The much traveled Weddington - born in Chicago - has grouped six structurally related pieces, composed over the last 23 years, under the rubric "The Art of Unfolding". The conceptual conceit of this suite, which includes modern Chinese dance and films of Ming Dynasty scroll paintings, is the oneness of various art forms across time and place .... .

  The newest piece is "Lunaria", a tone poem for antiphonal double chamber orchestra that had its premiere at this performance. The density of the music seemed roughly realized to that of the painting "Plum Blossoms in Moonlight" by Chen Lu, shown on film in slow pan, right to left. There were technical glitches at the end of the film, but synchronization between sight and sound was allusive rather than literal in any case.

  "Xiang Aspects" presented Xia Chang's scroll "Spring Rain on the River Xiang" in similar fashion, with the addition of dance by Taiwanese choreographer Hsu Tzu-Ying clad in white, she appeared directly in front of the film screen and her movements brought the rocks and trees of Chang's river-scape to eerie life.

  The most organic connection of visual and music elements was made in "Deovolente", for Hsu and the quarter-tone flute of Harrie Starreveld. Feet firmly rooted, Hsu worked wonders of fluttering, caressing supplication with her arms and hands to the sinuous, expressive urgings of Starreveld.

  Oboist Ernest Rombout proved in "Nebulae" that Weddington's music stands up on purely aural terms. All three wind soloists are the dizzyingly virtuosic protagonists in the triple concerto "Nearness" a work full of striking instrumental colors particularly in the soloists multi-phonic chords ....

  Sebastian Gottschick was the conductor of the ensemble piece which his capable band played with conviction and flair.

John Henken
Los Angeles Times
August 3, 1998

  The Lofty Art Of Challenging

  An unusual concert event in every respect: Seven years after the world premiere of "The Art of Unfolding" a whole evening is dedicated to the works of a contemporary composer who won many prizes but is rarely played because of his extremely complicated compositions.

  Maurice Weddington's program arouses the public's attention to chamber music pieces, Japanese lyrics, films about Chinese paintings from the Ming Dynasty and now in an extended version of the 1996 Munich performance, by the dance interpretation of the Taiwanese choreographer and dancer Hsu Tzu Ying.

  The Goethe Forum of the Goethe Institute brought Weddington's fascinating "The Art of Unfolding" back to the Muffathalle after it had also been performed in Chicago and Los Angeles. And again the composer doesn't only rehearse with the soloists of his choice, but works together as well with Christoph Poppen and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. During the rehearsals Weddington said:

  "In 1996 my collaboration with the Munich Chamber Orchestra and Poppen happened near their beginning and everybody was very committed. In the meantime the orchestra has developed greatly. Also. in 1996 the solo flute piece "Deovolente" which is notated, to a large extent in quartertones, was played on a conventional flute with altered fingerings and slight embouchure changes. But now it is played on the new quartertone flute with eight additional keys and levers which tonight's soloist developed the proto-type for an American flute making company. "Deovolente" was used as the test composition."

  The Munich audience has not really discovered Weddington yet. In his early twenties after he had just finished his studies the young composer , who was born in Chicago, left the USA. He lived for a while in Paris and Scandinavia and has been living in Berlin for many years, where many of his works have been performed and where he gained a lot of recognition from a widely diverse audience.

  Weddington is notorious (but has been praised by colleagues as Ligeti) for his unconditional demands concerning the musicians as well as the public.

  "The interpreters have to go through hell, as I have to when I'm composing, but there is no room for moral compromises. I don't want to torment them by continuously challenging them, but I can not have them just attempt to play the notes "perfectly", I want to arouse a lively musical spirit in the musicians as well as in the audience.

  When, for example, in my Concerto for Symphony Orchestra, from "The FIRE IN THE LAKE Trilogy" (45 min. duration) I require an orchestra of more than a hundred musicians, some people might ask if such an unusual demand could not be reduced in size and extravagance.

  My answer is "No". I worked on that composition day and night for one and a half years (and the trilogy for 16) with the result that everything is as it should be. So it has to be as it is."

  "The Art of Unfolding" is a multifaceted art form which has at its core, contemporary solo and chamber music, augmented by solo dance, films of paintings and a composition containing music, dance and film. " Weddington devoted several years to the study of Chinese paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries and his solo and ensemble compositions reflect upon this. What he discerned he avoids manifesting in purely academic terms.

  "My music tries to interpret what I discovered and at the same time develop further the portrayal of Chinese landscape painting. Everything is "On Stage" at the same time: film, instrumentalists (soloists) and dancer. It is a music theatre and I want to tempt the public to an unfolding of all kinds: The Chinese art lovers, dance enthusiasts, the faithful community of those waiting for complicated modern sounds, Americans who report about Afro-American composers and the fans of the Munich Chamber Orchestra."

Anton Sergl
Süddeutsche Zeitung
March 23, 2002