Review: Salonen’s little man
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In the end, ‘Homunculus’ happened, the little man simply couldn’t be kept quiet. ‘Homunculus’ is a new string quartet by Esa-Pekka Salonen that had its West Coast premiere at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Saturday night after considerable drama.
‘I have long been fascinated (and amused) by the arcane spermists’ theory,’ Salonen writes in his program note about the nutty notion ‘that the sperm was in fact a ‘little man’ (homunculus) that was placed inside a woman for growth into a child.’ Despite the absurdity of it all, the composer concludes, ‘I find the idea of the perfect little man strangely moving.’
It’s not, though, a perfect world. Written for the Johannes String Quartet last year, this 14-minute score was supposed to have had its West Coast premiere Wednesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, which helped commission the work. But the ensemble’s violist was forced to drop out when his brother suddenly died the day before, the program changed and the premiere had to be postponed.
But maybe miracles do happen. Lesley Robertson, violist of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, managed to learn the difficult viola part in a couple of days, and the Johannes was able to play the work Saturday when the quartet, in a joint appearance with the Guarneri String Quartet, repeated the O.C. engagement for UCLA Live.
The work begins with furious strumming from all four players, as the little man sets about his business. Lush and most homogenous, ‘Homunculous’ is rich in tremolos, arpeggios and flighty scales yet stil lushly lyrical. That is not, though, to say that Salonen’s spermists aren’t a wacky lot. About two-thirds of the way through the piece, the foursome frenetically pump back and forth between low and high notes reaching a climax that then deflates in a huge falling glissando pretty much taking all the wind out of the room.
A long, unexpected denouement allows for a sinewy viola solo, and the score ends with slow, beautiful thick chords. The performance, from Robertson and the young Johannes, sounded flawless. With luck, the Johannes will be able to return soon to Orange County to give OCPAC its money’s worth. And if it does, the little man should really be able to crow. Wednesday’s Johannes-Guarneri concert in the intimate Samueli Theater had an involving sonic immediacy that the much larger Royce couldn’t come close to matching Saturday. Still, a pretty terrific new string quartet has been born, and a long life is anticipated.
-- Mark Swed
