{"id":29022,"date":"2016-03-10T11:05:49","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T19:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/?p=29022"},"modified":"2021-03-01T14:25:38","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T22:25:38","slug":"lori-freedman-and-the-beauty-of-extremes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/lori-freedman-and-the-beauty-of-extremes\/","title":{"rendered":"Lori Freedman and the beauty of extremes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LoriFreedman-banner\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If there were some sort of measuring tool that could compare Classical music with cheeses of the world<\/em> on a one-to-one basis \u2014 where Pachelbel\u2019s Canon<\/em> would be Cheez Whiz and Stravinsky\u2019s Le Sacre du Printemps<\/em> would be some strain of blue that took you twenty years to work up the nerve to try \u2014 well, Lori Freedman\u2019s \u201cVirtuosity of Excess\u201d tour would have to be well off that scale\u00a0out beyond the farthest margins of Epoisse (a curd so odorous, it was banned from public transport in France), or perhaps even further \u2014 can one make cheese from platypus milk?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not in any way to suggest that Lori\u2019s music has anything malodorous<\/em> about it. Pas du tout.<\/em> It\u2019s more a comment on her audience, which for deeply nuanced individual reasons has come to revel in her extremes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s arguable that what she\u2019s doing isn\u2019t Classical music anyway. But it draws from many of the same roots, and being a fellow clarinet player who once played bass clarinet alongside Lori back in the last century (it was Le Sacre<\/em>, which is scored for two bass clarinets), I know her roots. Now I\u2019ve come to get to know her routes.<\/p>\n

What is virtuosity?<\/h2>\n
\"LoriFreedman-side\"
photo credits: Jan Gates<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had the good fortune to sit with flautist Mark McGregor who\u2019d come out to the Fox Cabaret\u00a0to hear, above all else, the Brian Ferneyhough work. He explained Complexity music, which I paraphrase here broadly: The composer, without going beyond the instrument\u2019s physical capability, employs myriad layers of complexity (such as assigning individual contrapuntal lines to different fingers) in an attempt to present to the audience a picture of the performer either breaking down or breaking through psychologically. \u201cSo, it\u2019s sort of like a snuff film\u201d I asked and Mark snorted with laughter, \u201cI guess you could put it that way.\u201d The title of Lori\u2019s tour \u201cThe Virtuosity of Excess\u201d is a quote from the French composer Rapha\u00ebl Cendo, referring to the exploration (and sometimes exploitation) of the beauty of extremes.<\/p>\n

Enter the “Virtuosity of Excess” tour<\/h2>\n

And then, before anyone could say, \u201cRelease the Kraken\u201d, onto the stage strode Lori brandishing her contra-bass clarinet like a kalashnikov.<\/p>\n

As we listened to Brian Ferneyhough\u2019s Time and Motion Study #2<\/em> for bass clarinet, I started to get the full measure of Lori\u2019s virtuosity. She puts her entire body, voice, and being into her playing. It\u2019s so immediate and raw because what she\u2019s after is emotional virtuosity<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Paul Steenhuisen’s Library on Fire<\/em> for bass clarinet followed in what was by now an established pattern of extremes. This multi-movement, multi-music-stand work again showed how Lori transcends the cerebral by laying bare her humanity. Steenhuisen is a deep\u00a0thinker able to layer complexity with the best of them, so it\u2019s to Lori\u2019s credit how she also brought warmth and humanity to the work \u2014 whether mumbling feverishly sotto voce<\/em> or sucker punching us from the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n

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