Edgar Meyer
Double Concerto for Cello and Double Bass, Concerto in D for Double Bass and Orchestra
(hear it)

When you see and hear Edgar Meyer, as I have in his DVD with Bela Fleck, as well as at the Telluride Bluegrass festival (also with Fleck), you can understand that this is a person whose tone and expressive style, affinity for folk melodies and for episodic structures, utterly puts forth his character. Especially his tone instantly calls forth in my mind the man creating it. It's quite unlike Yo Yo Ma, who plays in the first piece here. Ma makes a beautiful sound, but not one which in my view expresses his own soul. He rather seems to have sacrificed his individuality to speak to humanity in a broad sense. Meyer's tone is not exactly pretty - almost hollow, it has a plaintive dog-at-the-door quality. It takes bravery to be honest in the face of social norms.

Edgar Meyer’s concertos here are very strange. They are, as I mentioned, structured episodically. What I mean by this is that they are like film, where multiple storylines intersect and alternate. A “normal” piece of music will have a number of themes, but which are much more harmonically, texturally related. Each theme develops and reflects on the others. Here, the music cuts suddenly from gloom to exuberance, as if the characters are being shown driving toward one another, cutting back and forth. As far as I can tell, the great collision never occurs in these Concertos, which is too bad.

I got this CD originally because I had heard Edgar Meyer’s Quintet, which is fantastic, and which I believe is not episodic. I heard it on NPR’s “Performance Today”, so I don’t think a recorded version is widely available. I have to look into it.

bb, 23 Jan 08