U-Md.'s 'Little Match Girl' Never Quite Catches Fire

The University of Maryland's student-run contemporary music group TEMPO (The Experimental Music Performance Organization) gave an impressive concert Tuesday evening at the Clarice Smith Center, featuring David Lang's recent Pulitzer Prize-winning vocal quartet, "The Little Match Girl Passion." Lang's work recasts a tragic Hans Christian Andersen tale into the Passion story, with the four singers variously playing roles of narrator, crowd and characters.

The music had moments of shimmering ecstasy, in the mold of Górecki or Tavener, but insufficient contrast. The Bach Passions, to which the composer paid specific tribute, feature passages of humor and playfulness, but here the mood was unremittingly grim. The central lament, "Have Mercy, My God," and the closing "We Sit and Cry" were both overkill and overlong. But the work is otherwise well-crafted and well-paced. The performers, called upon to play percussion as well as sing, brought the piece off impressively, some intonation problems aside.

The concert's other major work, Stephen Hartke's piano quartet "The King of the Sun," was a more wide-ranging effort, combining some minimalist twitterings with suave French harmonies and not a little Stravinsky. One never knew what was coming next, but the flow of ideas was bracing and engaging. The performers handled the rhythmic challenges admirably, but here again intonation was troublesome at times.

Oboist Emily Madsen displayed superb control, particularly of her upper register, in Thea Musgrave's challenging "Niobe for Oboe and Tape." Percussionist Lee Hinkle gave an amusing, theatrical rendition of Vinko Globokar's "Toucher for Speaking Percussionist," which involved playing his array of instruments in syllabic, note-for-note parallel to the French text. A silly concept, but fun to experience once.

-- Robert Battey