He’s Got Rhythm

If you think of music as a kind of language, then you’d probably have to consider most classical musicians to be semi-literate. Sure, these players may know the grammar and syntax of music—rhythm, harmony, counterpoint and such—and of course they know how to read notes. But they don’t know how to communicate spontaneously through improvisation, which basically means they don’t know how to speak their own musical language.

Larry Lapin, a jazz professor at the University of Miami, has been trying to bridge this communication gap. Indeed, he’s spent the past few years working on a hybrid trio for violin, cello and piano that incorporates elements of improvisational jazz into classical music. That piece, called Rhythm Changes Everything, gets its world-premiere performance at Alias’ Thursday concert at the Blair School of Music.

“As a jazz musician I’m obviously very comfortable improvising, but whenever I play with classical musicians, I usually have to cover all the improvised solos myself,” says Lapin, who will perform the piano part of his piece this Thursday. “Fortunately, that’s not the case with [Alias cellist] Matt Walker. He’s one of those rare classical musicians who also knows how to improvise, and I wrote the piece with him in mind.”

The title of Lapin’s piece is actually a play on words, since it refers to one of jazz’s most common chord progressions, based on the Gershwins’ “I Got Rhythm.” These changes dominate the first movement, while the second unfolds as a languorous and lyrical adagio. It’s in the finale that things get interesting—and treacherous.

Arranged as a fugue, the movement calls on the players to toss off fistfuls of complex counterpoint. But it also requires all three players to improvise, both separately and in tandem. “It’s when we all have to improvise at once that the heart skips a beat,” says Lapin.

It’s a good bet that Lapin will keep his trio partners together, since he’s an old hand at this business. He grew up in Miami, the son of professional musicians, and has spent the past 40 years teaching at the University of Miami (where his students have won 23 Downbeat magazine awards in the past 18 years).

Over the years he’s played with some of the best, from Sarah Vaughan and Bobby Shaw to Cab Calloway and Tony Bennett. His music and arrangements, meanwhile, have been a favorite with pianist Peter Nero and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Alias, which prides itself on being an adventurous chamber group with a pronounced modernist bent, will perform several other works this Thursday—Roy Harris’ Lincoln Walks at Midnight for mezzo-soprano and piano trio, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Quintet in D major for clarinet, horn, violin, cello and piano, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 9.

The last of these has a particularly interesting history. Shostakovich wrote a first draft of the piece in 1961. But the composer, who was known for getting his music right the first time, later wrote that, “in an attack of healthy self-criticism, I burnt [the manuscript] in the stove. This is the second such case in my creative practice. I once did a similar trick of burning my manuscripts, in 1926.”

It took Shostakovich three more years to finish the quartet, and it remains one of his most probing and difficult works. Says Alias artistic director Zeneba Bowers: “It’s certainly one of the most difficult pieces that we’ve ever played.”

NSO Plays Beethoven

Arguably the most amazing thing about the Nashville Symphony Orchestra’s classical concert last week was the music the orchestra didn’t play. There was no virtuoso concerto on the program, and consequently no star soloist at the Schermerhorn to attract a crowd. They weren’t needed, since the NSO under music adviser Leonard Slatkin had the ultimate classical ace up their sleeves—Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

This remarkable piece, which has probably been played about a zillion times since its premiere in 1808, contains the four most famous opening notes in all symphonic music—the three Gs and an E-flat that make up Beethoven’s motif of fate. Indeed, the music is so familiar it’s practically a cliché, but to their credit Slatkin and the NSO made the music seem as fresh and original as anything composed yesterday.