Zorn fest

Just got back from John Zorn. First of three concerts. This is difficult music. L asked me how it was, and I had to think hard just to say whether I enjoyed myself. I did--but of course I'm still not sure if I'm smart enough to enjoy the music.

One thing I definitely enjoyed was the encore. The pianist, Stephen Drury, didn't know that Carny was on the playlist tonight. He, Zorn, and the cellist came on stage, and Drury announced that he hasn't played the piece for a year, so they were going to play snippets and talk about it.

Zorn is charming--and smarmy. He cursed. He admitted that passage after passage of the piece were lifted from other composers. He made it sound as if the whole thing was cut-and-pasted together.

I'd never seen anything like it. It wasn't quite like a rehearsal. Nor was it a public broadcasting meet-the-composer shtick. In the pre-game interview, he said they would "deconstruct the piece," but I don't think that's exactly what they did. It was more like talking a book. 'This is what is going on, and if you're smart you'll catch all these references, but you can also enjoy it if you sit back and listen.' or: 'This is what's going on. In 50 years, graduate students will catch all these references, but for now, it's not important: we'll point them out to you and sorry we' not going to play the thing straight through.'

At one point, with the score out of order, Zorn points as Drury is playing: "What the fuck is that? Where did that come from?" At another, something like: 'I like this bit, look how pretty it is on the page.'

Cobra tomorrow afternoon. Masada tomorrow night.