Let’s call it a gathering of the clan. Let’s also call it what it is – the most powerhouse revisitation of the University at Buffalo’s 1970s avant-garde you’re likely to see for quite a while. It takes place 8 to 10:30 p.m. Friday in the Burchfield Penney Arts Center as Samuel Beckett’s radio play – with music by former UB Varsese composer Morton Feldman – “Words and Music” is presented in a “A Musical Feast” with works by Elliott Carter and Amy Williams.
Beckett wrote the play in 1961 for the BBC. It takes place in a radio station where one character is called Words, the other Music. They are also called Joe and Bob. A third character – a cosmic kibitzer not unknown in Beckett plays – is called Croak. The actors are Vincent O’Neill and David Oliver and playing Feldman’s music is an octet conducted by Jan Williams and featuring his virtuoso composer/pianist daughter Amy and percussionist John Bacon. Tickets are $20 general, $10 for members.
Amy Williams’ eventful visit to Buffalo this weekend also will produce a unique event at 8 p.m. Thursday in Pausa Art House (19 Wadsworth St.). In a Buffalo rarity, she will perform the complete Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano, in which the great primal percussion composer realized that as a practical matter, he could simulate the sound of a percussion ensemble by dampering piano strings with nuts, bolts, screws, coins and bits of rubber and plastic. The pianist will be using a set of piano “preparations” that John Cage himself approved.
– Jeff Simon
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