Empac Review 2
Multimedia Century
Thursday November 6th
Adam Vasilakis
Michael Century Bach and Beyond Performance Review
The venue for the event was held in the Empac studio 2, which I think was a great venue for the night, as it was a more intimate setting for the music to be enjoyed in. The night started off with a classical touch playing J. S. Bach’s Overture (Partita) in the French style. It was a nice opener for the night, acting as a foundation of musical theory and technique. It was very pleasant to listen to and I enjoyed sitting in the front row, being able to see the piano’s strings being played from the reflection from the highly glossed piano’s top. I have never heard live classical music before and thought that it was quite pleasant. He then transitioned into a few selections from the 48 preludes and fugues Bach had composed. I thought that these were a bit livelier than the overture, and I enjoyed the expression that he played with. Another advantage to being in a small environment to listen was that I could really hear and appreciate the reverberating strings when the chords and notes were held out for a period of time. The next part to the performance was an accordion interpretation to Terry Riley’s second keyboard study. He was sitting in between two microphones and used a foot controlled looping component to really give the song life. Granted he did forget to place the microphone in front of his right hand, but I didn’t even notice that anything was wrong with it until he commented on it at the end, so he played a quick version with the correct microphone placement and it did sound much more vibrant and compelling. I really enjoyed this piece and thought that it was the Dream song by cage because of the trance like feel to it, which seemed like a dream. The complex finger placements and timing that must have had to go into that song was baffling. It was by far my favorite piece of the night. After the intermission, he began with John Cage’s
Thursday November 6th
Adam Vasilakis
Michael Century Bach and Beyond Performance Review
The venue for the event was held in the Empac studio 2, which I think was a great venue for the night, as it was a more intimate setting for the music to be enjoyed in. The night started off with a classical touch playing J. S. Bach’s Overture (Partita) in the French style. It was a nice opener for the night, acting as a foundation of musical theory and technique. It was very pleasant to listen to and I enjoyed sitting in the front row, being able to see the piano’s strings being played from the reflection from the highly glossed piano’s top. I have never heard live classical music before and thought that it was quite pleasant. He then transitioned into a few selections from the 48 preludes and fugues Bach had composed. I thought that these were a bit livelier than the overture, and I enjoyed the expression that he played with. Another advantage to being in a small environment to listen was that I could really hear and appreciate the reverberating strings when the chords and notes were held out for a period of time. The next part to the performance was an accordion interpretation to Terry Riley’s second keyboard study. He was sitting in between two microphones and used a foot controlled looping component to really give the song life. Granted he did forget to place the microphone in front of his right hand, but I didn’t even notice that anything was wrong with it until he commented on it at the end, so he played a quick version with the correct microphone placement and it did sound much more vibrant and compelling. I really enjoyed this piece and thought that it was the Dream song by cage because of the trance like feel to it, which seemed like a dream. The complex finger placements and timing that must have had to go into that song was baffling. It was by far my favorite piece of the night. After the intermission, he began with John Cage’s