Taiwan Aspects Festival Has a Strong Multicultural Flavor

It might seem a peculiar take on the global-village idea to begin a festival of Taiwanese music with works by an African American composer performed by a German ensemble. But Taipei and Berlin are both sister cities of Los Angeles and cross-cultural influence is the theme of Taiwan Aspects, which opened Friday at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex of Cal State L.A., with Ensemble Oriol Berlin making its U.S. debut with music of Maurice Weddington.

The much-traveled Weddington--born in Chicago in 1941 but now living in Berlin--has grouped six structurally related pieces, composed over the last 23 years, under the rubric “The Art of Unfolding.” The conceptual conceit of this suite, which includes modern Chinese dance and films of Ming Dynasty scroll paintings, is the oneness of various art forms across time and place.

That is the kind of idea that plays better in program notes than on the stage, although Weddington’s music, at least in these pieces, certainly has its own unity of style. Call it retro-modern: atonal and fluid in sound, texture and movement.

The newest piece is “Lunaria,” a tone poem for antiphonal double chamber orchestra that had its premiere at this performance. The density of the music seemed roughly related to that of the painting “Plum Blossoms in Moonlight” by Chen Lu, shown on film in a slow pan, right to left. There were technical glitches at the end of the film, but synchronization between sight and sound was allusive rather than literal in any case.

“Xiang Aspects” presented Xia Chang’s scroll “Spring Rain on the River Xiang” in similar fashion, with the addition of dance by Taiwanese choreographer Tsu-Ying Hsu. Clad in white, she appeared directly in front of the film screen, and her movements brought the rocks and trees of Chang’s river-scape to eerie life.

The most organic connection of visual and musical elements was made in “Deovolente,” for Hsu and the quarter-tone flute of Harrie Starreveld. Feet firmly rooted, Hsu worked wonders of fluttering, caressing supplication with her arms and hands to the sinuous, expressive urgings of Starreveld.

“Seul” offered an extroverted, cliched variation on that for bass clarinetist Harry Sparnaay and Hsu, this time mirrored by dancer Cho-Yi. Oboist Ernest Rombout proved in “Nebulae” that Weddington’s music stands up on purely aural terms.

All three wind soloists are members of Ensemble Oriol and are the dizzyingly virtuosic protagonists in the triple concerto “Nearness,” a work full of striking instrumental colors--particularly in the soloists’ multi-phonic chords--but wearisome in its insistence on doing everything in triplicate. Sebastian Gottschick was the conductor of the ensemble pieces, which his capable band played with conviction and flair.