Resonance Works Pittsburgh is a small performing arts company that programs a mix of traditional classical composers like Bach and Bernstein alongside living composers like Missy Mazzoli and Chen Yi.
It’s also the most recent local arts group to emerge from hibernation after producing digital-only content for more than a year and a half. Resonance Works delivered a program of music for string orchestra by living female composers at the Greer Cabaret, Downtown, on Saturday and Sunday.
The four composers programmed, Chen Yi, Jessie Montgomery, Missy Mazzoli and Gabriela Lena Frank, are top-notch artists whose work can stand alongside any composer, living or dead. This is music that deserves regular performances, that deserves to be spoken of with the same reverence as the great chamber works of yore.
Resonance Works, founded and conducted by Maria Sensi Sellner, has committed to a quota system of programming wherein at least half of the works performed each season are by women and one-third are by composers who are Black, Indigenous or people of color. Committing to perform music that has been ignored by previous generations is a worthy goal, as classical music will eventually wither without drawing on fresh material by creative, innovative voices.
Indeed, there’s no shortage of intriguing new music. Take the weekend’s program. Chen Yi’s “Shuo” is a burst of color and brilliance, a rollicking, exciting adventure in melody with contrasting, contemplative moments. Montgomery’s “Source Code” is masterful and innovative, and Frank’s “Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout” is an intellectually fascinating piece that utterly thrills in its best moments.
Saturday’s performance was a welcome return to live music making from a fine Pittsburgh organization. But it was not of the finest quality. While Sellner led a clean and rhythmically tight performance, the music came off static and lacking in character or drama. An absence of nuance caused the concert to come off as uninspired.
The exception was Mazzoli’s “Dark with Excessive Bright” for contrabass and string orchestra, with former Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra contrabass player Jeffrey Turner delivering an outstanding, subtle account of the work in all its tectonic rumblings, leaping arpeggios and shivering cries.
There is a larger issue at stake here than the performances, however. Presenting such pieces in a programmatic box — touting programs of all-female composers, for example — may be a disservice to the field, limiting audience interest in the same way that only performing old Beethovenian warhorses can limit interest. It can also widen the divide between new and traditional music audiences.
The intention is good, but placing such works in their own category instead of integrating them into the canon seems slightly misguided. Let’s emphasize that these works are wonderful on their own merits instead of emphasizing that they’re by composers from historically underrepresented backgrounds.
Most new music already faces an uphill battle due to its reliance on lesser-known names and unfamiliar harmonies and sounds. To give such works the best chance of capturing the ear and inspiring repeated listens and return ticket buyers, a fully committed performance is necessary.
Resonance Works is programming fantastic music, but tweaking the way the company frames its programs and exploring the music’s potential more fully will be the ensemble’s next step along the road to excellence.
Jeremy Reynolds: jreynolds@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1634; twitter: @Reynolds_PG. His work at the Post-Gazette is supported by a grant from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Getty Foundation and Rubin Institute.
First Published: November 18, 2021, 12:43 p.m.
Updated: November 18, 2021, 12:50 p.m.