JAZZ ETC.: A GIFT OF MODERN MUSIC FROM THE "CELLO GODDESS"
By Paul de Barros
Seattle Times, WA
Nov 17 2006
Maya Beiser discovered Belgian surrealist poet Henri Michaux when
she was a teenager, playing cello in an Israeli army string quartet
during the Lebanon war.
For years, she wanted to do something with Michaux’s strange and
compelling "I Am Writing To You From A Far-Off Country," which
describes with deadpan naivete the conditions in a strange place –
another country? another planet? an imaginary world?
Last year, Beiser invited composer Eve Beglarian and video artist
Shirin Neshat to collaborate with her on Michaux’s poem.
The glorious result is on offer at 8 p.m. today and Saturday at On
the Boards, part of Beiser’s "Almost Human" program ($24; 206-217-9888
or ).
Though neither Michaux nor Beglarian was inspired directly by war or
by terrorism, the work’s solitary, post-apocalyptic atmosphere feels
terribly right for this moment.
"It feels more relevant than ever," agreed Beiser from her home in
New York, where she premiered the piece earlier this year, at Zankel
Hall. "One way I understand it is as this woman desperately trying to
describe her world to this person that she loves. But there’s another
layer, too – as a solo performer, this ability to open yourself up
and say, ‘Look, see, this is where my world is.’ It’s very powerful
for me, performing that piece."
Beglarian’s music, inspired by Armenian melodies, ranges through rich,
forlorn landscapes with achingly slow vibrato; strident electric
guitar samples; icy high notes; voluptuous, pastoral overlays;
industrial repetitions; and a bit of thrumming and plucking, too.
Neshat’s video is screened on nine monitors. It features desert
landscapes from the Sinai, rippling images of Beiser performing and
"lots of images of water and the sea." (One beguiling line in the poem:
"Does water flow in your country, too?")
As you may have surmised, Beiser is not your garden-variety cellist.
Nicknamed "the cello goddess" by the New Yorker magazine, she is a
sort of one-woman Kronos String Quartet, having commissioned and/or
performed pieces by Philip Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, Arvo Part and a
host of other contemporary composers.
Beiser also has been compared to Laurie Anderson, which makes a
certain amount of sense in the context of the Michaux piece.
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