Stunning original performances in Alumnae

Mild and violent weather have competed for the Boston skies all March, and, on Sunday night, Alumnae Lounge mirrored this diversity with premiere cello and piano movements that were sometimes thunderous, sometimes genteel, and always fluid.

Five pieces were performed, four of which had been composed by students. The additional piece, a Concert Preface by John McDonald, was described as a tribute to the premature birth of colleague Emmanuel Feldman's child this past summer. McDonald said the piece dealt with both "the joy of having a child, and the experience of not being able to bring that child home right away."

The piece that Feldman played on the cello started off low and strong but quickly climbed the scale to reach desperate measures. It ended severely with a cracking pizzacato, perhaps representing the shock of an unexpected outcome. Feldman brought great sensitivity to his performance, and the piece itself allowed the cello, an instrument whose power is often overlooked in orchestra performances, to come through at great range.

The ensuing three pieces, composed by Rebecca Sacks, were milder than McDonald's thunderous opening number. The first and second, "Exploration on Bach," were solo cello pieces with soft and almost hauntingly beautiful chord combinations. The third, in which the cellist was accompanied by McDonald on the piano, was richer but just as soothing. This piece and several other premieres were performed twice so the audience could fully appreciate their intricacies. Asked to speak before the pieces were performed, Sacks commented that they span a year's worth of her development as a composer. While her early inspirations came from great musicians whose works she had listened to, these pieces used "more of my own voice as opposed to another composer's," she said.

One piece involving voice, "Los Espinos" by Aaron Clift, was performed by the composer. The piece was a poem by the Spanish poet Luis Cernuda that Clift set to music for the piano and cello. Clift's voice was strong and the poem lent itself to the music; the singer/composer also succeeded in balancing linguistic and musical pronunciation techniques.

A five-part suite composed by William Zuck III followed in a slew of various tempos; each movement had a different dynamic that was indicated by its title, such as "Crazed and dramatic," "Sensuous and moving, ad nausea and vomiteum," etc. Though creative and striking, these pieces were not as inviting as the ones before it. While the titles of the movements helped one discriminate between them, they seemed more concerned with living up to these individual themes than with cultivating individual personalities to move the listener.

The final piece was "Trio for Two", a composition by Alex Chechile. Though it offered a restoring tone after the previous Zuck piece, "A constant barrage," Chechile's piece did not stand out as much as the earlier movements of the concert had. They did show, however, that classical music can be soothing not by melody but by mere fullness and regularity of sound.

In bringing together music inspired by artists and composers from all over the world, the concert was not only educational but telling of the diversity and worldliness of Tufts students. Though modestly advertised, many of these premiere concerts are well worth attending.