REVIEWS

“By far the evening’s highlight was the premier of the ‘Four Poems’ of Rainer Maria Rilke’”
–Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe

“Korde’s setting of Mondnacht (‘Moonlit Night’) on a poem by Rilke, captured the poem’s silvery mood through evocative arabesques in the violin and highly expressive vocal writing over undulating strings.”
–Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe

“Nesting Cranes, is a shakukiachi-tinted flute with a string choir to lovely effect…the strings often breathing with the same natural cadences on the soloist--the pacing and dynamic shadings of the Korde work are masterful.”
–Michael Cameron, Chicago Tribune

"Neuma, a label based in Acton, Mass., offers seven recent works in a sampler reminiscent of the new-music collections the major labels offered in the 1960's; indeed, a 60's avant-garde esthetic pervades the disk. Most enjoyable are two electronic pieces. Jean-Claude Risset's "Contours," a tactile and sometimes spacily atmospheric work, is a study in thematic transformation; and Anna Rubin's "Crying the Laughing and Golden" uses the sound of laughter and whispering to create an evocative, intensely emotional soundscape. Interesting too are the glittering, variegated Chamber Piece by Shirish Korde, and Drake Mabry's "12.5.83," a fleet virtuosic essay for alto recorder."
-New York Times

"The CD is rounded out by what is perhaps the most exceptional of the composer's works, Tenderness of Cranes, and award winning composition for solo flute. The techniques used in this piece are derived from the techniques traditionally used in shakuhachi playing: breathy sound, pitch bending, variation on vibrato speed, and flutter-tonguing, in combination with contemporary flute techniques such as the use of special fingerings for microtonal and timbral variations and multiphonics.  Tenderness of Cranes is a beautiful, original work that reflects many of the same cross-cultural tendencies encountered in Rasa, but in a more concise format. It is played brilliantly on this CD by flutist Jean DeMart, who has mastered all the new techniques demanded by the work. She delivers a flawless and moving performance."
-Computer Music Journal

"In this disc's other work, Tenderness of Cranes, we find touches of folk style and an expansion of pitch range as quarter tones or less are pressed into the sound patterns. This fantasy-like piece of imaginative beauty derives its construction mainly from the use of melodic fragments. It too requires a virtuosic technique on solo flute. Sound is clear and warm in both works. This is a CD of considerable musical richness. Highly recommended.”
-High Performance Review

"Tonally Shirish Korde's Tenderness of Cranes is very exciting. The flute line is free and unpretentious, even with its use of quarter tones, glissandos, odd attacks, breathy notes. It is very "Eastern" in its independence from harmony. The solo line is interesting and balanced like a river that has its own unpredictable rhythms and multiple origins. The river here is air, and its course seems to travel West from Japan."
-American Record Guide

"Korde was especially well served by a passionate rendition of his Tenderness of Cranes by solo flutist Jean DeMart. This work, derived from the traditional Japanese shakuhachi piece Tsuru No Sugamori, integrated the techniques of that ancient instrument with the modern flute in a breath-taking composition of complex expressive layers that De Mart delivered with flawless virtuosity and profound feeling.
-Musical America

"In Blue Topeng, the aureate sound of the gamelan shimmers in the air, supported by the Western instruments and bamboo flute, and the pulsing, cyclical rhythms both soothe and excite."
-The Boston Globe

"Time Grids is a fiercely atonal essay for amplified guitar and computer synthesized tape with great rhythmic energy and some of the best interlacing of electronic sounds and guitar that I have yet heard from this relatively new medium. The work's last movement culminates in a thrilling accretion of volume and texture, making a wonderful end to the album."
-Soundboard

"Shirish Korde's Time Grids is the anchor of this offering. The producer of this release, The Great American Guitar Solo, he appreciates the power of the acoustic guitar, but takes it into the high-tech realm of computer-synthesized sounds. To him, the musical notions of augmentation and diminution are merely ways of parsing out time (an intellectual concept that the novelist Vladmir Nabokov claimed had a texture all its own). Wave-form frequency, likewise, can only be renedered in terms of time coordinates, and this, I believe, is the key to Korde's stunning Time Grids.

Korde plays the full sonic spectrum, and does so with great skill and aplomb. His final movement, Mechanico, is truly disturbing in its manic obsessiveness--and show, like the rest of his sonically arresting piece, a fine marriage between the acoustic guitar and the computer age."
-Fanfare

"Worth several listens is Shirish Korde's Time Grids, another guitar-and-tape piece that manipulates clock and bell ticking into a busy gamelan ensemble. A mini electronic concerto for guitar and Indonesian orchestra? Now that's cool."
-American Record Guide
 
"This multi-media chamber opera makes a strongly positive statement for the New England Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, both which commissioned it. Rasa, remarkable in its beauty and subtlety, is of considerable musical richness and is deserving of widespread performances."
-American Record Guide

In Rasa, "the listener encounters a truly post-modern blend of musical languages, ranging from the Orff-like rhythms of the Wheelchair Dance, through the parody of 19th century traditional tonal composition, to the Ives-like multi-level resonances of I Want Thee. All of these cross cultural resonances seem to have as their purpose the enrichment of Jasmine's gradual enlightenment as she encounters a world full of new, unfamiliar ideas and feelings. Most striking in the regard is the opera's serene epilogue (Wonders of Flowers), in which flute music, distinctly flavored by the Japanese Shakuhachi, brings to close this young woman's passage through the vagaries of contemporary American life. For the listener, at this moment, Asia, America, and by its implication the many other cultures encountered in the Opera, come together in this one individual--Jasmine."
-Computer Music Journal

"The onstage orchestra and Pittman- all barefoot and costumed in bright Indian garb- had a hybrid look: tabla next to cello, sitar next to piano and harmonium.  Simple drones for folklike tunes gave way to complex 21-beat classical phrase structures, or to music with Western contemporary of jazz derivations.  Sometimes the orchestra chanted and yelled, like the audience in a village play. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. 

A concert singer (the gifted Elizabeth Keusch) acted as narrator and had the voice of Chitra. Serene of presence, cool of tone, and lucid of diction, Keusch’s lyric soprano bent itself around Indian-style coloratura, and scatted on Indian drumming and solefege syllables with masterful ease.

Tara Ahmed danced the role of the warrior/seductress with edgy verve.
Ted Simpson’s set- sparsely furnished with trees that resembled parasols, rolling shadowboxes, and a stylized painted forest – held visual interest without insisting on itself. But did this mix of styles and form achieve fusion? The enthusiastic audience answered that question in the affirmative."  
- The Boston Globe- Tuesday, May 2, 2000. Susan Larson

"Shirish Korde and Lynn Kramer’s awe-inspiring Chitra (2000). It’s difficult to imagine a more startling and entertaining close to the Boston Musica Viva’s 31st season. 

Rabindranath Tagore’s Chitra, which is in itself a re-telling of an episode from the Mahabharata, a famous Hindu epic. Their opera is a dazzling mélange; with spoken and sung text in Hindi, Sanskrit, English, Urdu, Kawi (an ancient Sanskrit dialect) and Balinese. There is also plenty of dancing as well as interpretive English supertitles. The opera is fully-staged, with a pastoral set design by Ted Simpson, and exotic lighting by Joe Saint.
 
The dramatic space was separated form the ensemble by five fabric palm-trees, which were placed next to a large Balinese gamelan (set of gongs) tuned chromatically and created especially for the performance.
 
Shirish Korde’s musical scoring is an enormous feat in itself. A full ensemble of traditional western instruments (flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, and cello) meets tabla, sitar, tamboura, harmonium and gamelan—an enormous palette to reckon with. Korde’s expert blending of not only three styles of music (Western, Indian and Balinese) but two different tuning systems, is no small feat. This makes the legendary 1960s concerts of Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin seem like children at play. Where Indian classical music can often sound thin to a Western ear, Korde has used the richness of the violin and cello, for example, to flesh out the orchestration. Some organizing factor had to exist, so Korde chose a rhythmic cycle of 21 beats (namely, 11 beats plus 10 beats, with the first beat being the beginning and  the end of the cycle), which he taught to the audience at the pre-performance lecture. He explained that this system, being cyclic, is therefore very much affected by Hindu philosophy. Individual players had the opportunity to shine. At many points Geoffrey Burleson’s expert pianism seemed to tie the whole thing together, serving as a foundation for the ensemble as much as the drone. And not enough praise can be given to Samir Chatterjee’s tabla playing, which supported almost all of the musical material (many sequences, both musical and choreographic, were doublings of the tabla). Pittman’s expert conducting gave the impression that the ensemble was enjoying itself, rather than struggling with the complex material.

Elizabeth Keusch, as “The Soprano” looked sumptuous in her gold crown and luscious black eye makeup, with smoky persona and knowing glances that heightened the theatrical atmosphere. This mellifluous but also commanding voice provided the perfect balance to I Nyoman Catra’s mad, multi-dialect sprechstimme. Her position for much of the performance was exactly center stage, indicating her presence in both the dramatic real and also as a member of the music ensemble. Keusch easily moved from subtle Mélisande-like introspection (singing the opening repeated phrase “for the first time in my life, I felt myself a woman, I knew that a man was before me…”) to an enthusiastic chanting Hare-Krishna devotee, her voice souring over the harmonium. As if this were not enough, she also sang bols, the drum syllables of Indian music, or Kecak rhythms (which are inspired by the Balinese monkey chant) or Indian solfège symbols (Fa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa). Often the ensemble joined her singing. Likewise, she didn’t hesitate to pick up the drone or some gamelan mallets and jam along with the ensemble.
 
Korde and Kramer are presenting their own unique idea about one such possibility. The last line of Chitra’s exquisite libretto is “The fighting is finished, the stories go on forever. We apologize for stopping so soon.” While the apologies are accepted, let’s agree that this opera deserves more than one revival."
- East comes West. Theodore Bale. May 4, 2000 

"Last night’s Boston Marquee concert at the Tsai Performance Center found Pittman and company performing works by Shirish Korde: the world premiere of a concert piece, Blue Topeng, and a revival of the composer’s opera/dance drama Chitra.

The main characters are the warrior-maiden Chitra (Tara Ahmed) and the demi-god Arjuna (I Nyoman Catra), whose love Chitra wins with the help of a couple of droll, growling gods. Portrayed by shadow puppets voiced by Catra, the pair looked and even sounded like Hindu versions of Beavis and Butthead- and weren’t averse to a contemporary reference or two, including a joke about the Big Dig.

Korde, of Indian background, taps musical sources including African, Indian, Balinese, Western classical and jazz.  Both scores mingled instruments from Western and Eastern traditions, the latter revealing music that lies between the pitches of our do-re-mi scale.
 
Blue Topeng is a chamber concerto for instruments from the Balinese orchestra, or gamelan, and the BMV players. …

This shortish, three-movement work impressed with its metallic sheen and its formal construction.  The sound was vivid indeed, as the BMV players alternated between their usual piano, violin, etc., and the gamelan instruments while guest soloists Desak Made Suarti Laksmi and Bethany Collier attacked their Balinese instruments with gusto and percussion. 
Chitra is a joyously witty telling of a story from the Hindu epic, “The Mahabharata” that, in an adaptation by director Lynn Kremer, mixed classical Indian music and dance tradition with an almost vaudevillian spirit.
 
Soprano Elizabeth Keusch was splendid as the Narrator, tossing off Korde’s scat-like vocal line with warmth and confidence."
- Boston Herald; Boston, Mass, Mar 9, 2003; T.J. Medrek 

"Last weekend, conductor Richard Pittman and the Boston Musica Viva revisited one of their greatest hits, Chitra, an opera/dance drama by Shirish Korde that played to standing-room-only audiences in 2000.
 
…the series also commissioned a new piece by Korde to open the program, Blue Topeng. The new piece is a 20-minute work for Balinese gamelan and Western chamber ensemble; the Boston Musica Viva musicians played not only their own instruments, but Balinese percussion.  The gorgeous purple-and-gold gamelan was especially built for Korde and the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester.

Before the piece, Korde provided an amiable introduction to instruments and music, marred only by the unprofessional handling of the microphone issue that should have been addressed before the audience arrived.

In Blue Topeng, the aureate sound of the gamelan shimmers in the air, supported by the Western instruments and bamboo flute, and the pulsing, cyclical rhythms both soothe and excite.  One of the most beautiful effects is called “kotekan,” in which interlocking parts played by two instruments create one rapid melody.  Blue Topeng is constructed as a set of variations; one theme comes fully into view only at the very end, Duke Ellington’s “Mood Indigo.”

Chitra is based on an episode from the great Indian epic The Mahabharata.  Chitra, a warrior queen, has been raised as a man; to beguile the demigod Arjuna, she asks the gods to make her a beautiful woman.  She doesn’t like the result, feeling dishonest.  Ultimately, love can flower only when planted in honesty and trust.

Korde tells the tale in six Asian languages and in English ranging from highfalutin to low comedy; one god takes credit for the Big Dig.  Korde also uses song and dance; the slap of Indian classical dancer Tara Ahmed’s feet on the floor and the ringing of bells on her ankles become part of the music.  Guiding us through the maze is a narrator, soprano Elizabeth Keusch, who sang across a range of Western and Asian vocal styles with precision, aplomb, and pellucid tone."
-The Boston Globe, Monday Mar 10 2003, Richard Dyer, globe staff 

"Musica Viva’s two big pieces by Shirish Korde, at the Tsai Center last weekend, synthesized the music of at least four cultures with dance, song, mime, poetry, and puppet performance, also in multicultural styles.

In his brief introduction to Blue Topeng, which was having its world premiere Saturday night, Korde described the stylistic mesh of his concerto for Balinese and Western instruments.

The Balinese instruments are part of a gamelan made for Holy Cross College, where Korde heads the music department, and he explained that one of the metallophones and the trompong (a set of tuned brass bowls) had been built to play a chromatic scale in addition to its standard Balinese tuning. This unusual design made for more compatibility with the Western instruments. 
With Musica Viva’s Richard Pittman conducting, Blue Topeng featured the flashy, unpredictable style of Balinese Kebyar, a slow movement with Balinese flute (suling), and a more sustained final movement where the solo women played interlocking rhythms along with drums, clarinet, flute and strings.  Even jazz made its way into the agreeable mix. At one point, accompanied by the cello, Desak sang a chorus of “Mood Indigo” in a high wordless soprano.

Blue Topeng at times reminded me of some of McPhee’s gamelan-influenced orchestral works.  Korde’s dance drama Chitra (first performed in 2000) turned from the rambunctious clang of the gamelan to the more melodic unfurling of the sitar, voice, and tabla, which led the ensemble through a staged excerpt from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Combining elements of Indian music and dance with Balinese dance and puppetry, Chitra dips into a tremendous, philosophical literature where mortals and deities meet, clash, fall in love, make mistakes, find their way home, deceive each other, die, resurface in other stories.

Directed by Lynn Kremer, Chitra seemed less a narrative than a series of meditations on an unfolding relationship between the hunter god Arjuna and Chitra, a young woman raised to hunt and lead her tribe.  The narrative stretches over a year’s time, debating the nature of male and female, desire and denial, competition and compatibility. At the end of the play, Chitra and Arjuna are happily united but that’s probably not the end of the story.

The majestic soprano Elizabeth Keusch sat with the orchestra and told the story in English and Sanskrit, song and chant, sometimes commenting on the characters and offering counsel to the audience.

Keusch was wonderful, but there was so much to see—puppets, moving screens, a stylized mountain backdrop with another screen behind it, the actors and musicians in gorgeous intense colors, the instruments themselves.  The whole panoply deserved to be spread out in a space big enough to match its expansive concept."  
-The Boston Phoenix Arts. March 14, 2003. Marcia B. Siegel

"The showpiece of the evening was the 100th composition commissioned by Da Capo since its inception: Phoolan Devi Songs by Shirish Korde, three excerpts from an opera-in-progress about Ms. Devi, the Indian “Bandit Queen” and legislator who was assassinated in 2001.

This is a colorful, attractive piece, set on a lush, gaudy bed of amplification, aiming at an entertaining stylistic fusion; it will perhaps take a more charismatic singer than the game Alexandra Montano to play the lead role, defiantly non-Western in its vocal writing.  The highlight was the tabla playing of Samir Chatterjee in the final scene, which stood out from the other instruments with the kind of vivid, exciting performance that draws Western composers to non-Western music in the first place."   
-Wading Deeply in Melodic Streams that Flow from the East. New York Times. Ann Midgette.

"Three years ago, Richard Pittman and the Boston Musica Viva introduced one of their greatest hits, the opera/dance-drama Chitra by composer Shirish Korde, who teaches at Holy Cross in Worcester—people had to be turned away at the door.

Shirish Korde is completely trained in Indian classical music, Western classical music, and in jazz. This piece is a fusion of Balinese music and Western music, and we have some extraordinary guest performers. 
It also commissioned a new work from Korde to open the program, Blue Topeng, a work for gamelan. The ‘Blue’ in the title…comes from the inclusion of Duke Ellingon’s ‘Mood Indigo.’” 
-Boston Globe- Friday, March 7, 2003. Richard Dryer