ACHT BRÜCKEN Festival day 3I just saw one concert last night, the Hochschule orchestra led by Manuel Nawri.The program was an eclectic mix of Leonard Berstein’s Prelude, Fugue & Riffs, new works by Minkyu Kim and Irene Galindo Quero and Ligeti’s Melodien and three arias from Le Grand Macabre. Each piece had a different setup and, I kid you not, we spent more time watching the setup changes than listening to music. Plus there was a break of a half hour. So in the end the concert lasted two hours but there was certainly less than an hour of music. It was like watching American football games – so much standing around and commercials. But those moments of waiting only serve to ramp up the anticipation for the music, right? While the orchestra played well, I found the program a bit hit-or-miss. The two Ligeti works were by far the strongest. He had such a great sense of timing, knew when to change things up and when not to. So much of new music these days is just changing all the time, constantly saying new things at the same rate, and I often find myself struggling to follow. Of course there are a lot of great pieces that do this in a good way, but my attention immediately picks up when a piece make use (at least sometimes) of simple and clear gestures – when the music breathes… Just when Ligeti’s textures start to get too complex and tedious, he throws in a long unison note to clear the air. I guess that’s one reason there is a whole festival formed around his work.Oh, and great solo by guest tubaist Melvyn Poore.