Jay Harvey Upstage

The Cook Theater at Indiana Landmarks Center made a welcome home for a visit Tuesday night by the Caswell Sisters, fronting a five-piece group with a rhythm section their equal in rapport and panache. Sara and Rachel Caswell (photo by John Abbott) The International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and Indiana Landmarks Center jointly sponsored the annual "jazz cabaret" in the IVCI's stellar Laureate Series of concerts. Each sister has a style — Rachel as singer, Sara as violinist — that's straightforward but imbued with personality, not bland or cut from common cloth. It was particularly gratifying in Rachel's singing not to be confronted with a clutch of mannerisms too common among jazz vocalists. In two sets brimming with vitality, the quintet entertained a large crowd enjoying food and drink at a number of round tables in the acoustically hospitable room. The initial full-ensemble assault in the first number must have been dialed back, for the thic...

The abstract energy of J.S. Bach's instrumental compositions tends to suggest the cooperative life-force that keeps organisms going. When a master of contemporary dance turns toward the 18th-century Saxon master, something elemental in that energy can be translated into a myriad interactions, gestures and physical self-definition. In the second of two performances Saturday in the Tarkington at the Center for the Performing Arts,  Rioult Dance NY presented founder Pascal Rioult's "Views of the Fleeting World,"  "City"  and "Celestial Tides," accompanied by the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. Rioult dancers performed  "Celestial Tides" at the Tarkington. The longest work occupied the first half. "Views of the Fleeting World" is set in nine movements, each using a string-orchestra setting of a Bach fugue.  It's a blend of natural imagery and its interpretation in terms of the human form —  singly, doubly and in compa...

The often-twinned stars of early 20th century French music are showcased in this weekend's Classical Series program — rare in that the I ndianapolis Symphony Orchestra plays three Debussy-Ravel concerts on successive days, concluding with a shortened Sunday afternoon performance in a "Student and Teacher Appreciation" outreach with discounted tickets. The revolutionary musical language of Claude Debussy and its classicizing successor in the output of Maurice Ravel are the focus of the program, with guest conductor Carlo Rizzi conducting works featuring the Indianapolis Children's Choir and two soprano soloists. ISO's "damozel": Isabel Bayrakdarian Debussy's foreground in late French romanticism shows amid firm signs of a burgeoning personal style in "La Damoiselle elue" (The Blessed Damozel), his 1894 cantata on a French translation of Dante Gabriel Rosetti's poem. The work brought to the Hilbert Circle Thearte stage two outsta...

There was everything from the raucous to the ethereal in Third Coast Percussion 's concert Thursday night at the Indianapolis Museum of Art — offering more bang for the Ensemble Music buck. With mallets aforethought: Third Coast Percussion played up a storm. The Chicago-based quartet, currently enjoying a residency at the University of Notre Dame, played three substantial works in the simpatico setting of the Tobias Theater, whose wide, high stage allowed the ensemble's sounds to flower throughout the hall. Lighting was complementary, particularly in the concluding piece, Augusta Read Thomas' "Resounding Earth," which was written last year for the ensemble. Three works were played by the versatile, dead-on-precise foursome of David Skidmore, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin and Sean Connors. Thomas's celebration of bell sonorities occupied the second half, its four movements saturated with tintinnabulation, a cosmic and never darkening expansion of  E...

In honor of Third Coast Percussion 's appearance tonight in the Ensemble Music season at the IMA's Tobias Theater,   I've revived for the blog a piece I wrote for fun years ago, blending my interests in music and tennis. Arnold Schoenberg (left) after a mixed-doubles match Two of the composers on tonight's program are among those covered in this gently satirical flight of fancy: John Cage Said to prefer playing with the net down.  Willing, even eager, to take chances — a real scrambler. Sometimes a crowd-pleaser, despite a tendency to forget the rules, or devise his own. May follow a weak second serve to the net just to see what will happen.  His strokes look ungainly, though he is apt to return any ball hit in or out of court.  Also a canny doubles player. Has intense interest in racket vibration dampeners. Igor Stravinsky Never uses the same game plan twice. Thorough knowledge of the game allows him to turn any opponent's style to his advantage. Alwa...

To the Worshipful Company of Taven(idolat)ers: I respect your impulse to mourn the passing of John Tavener .  So, out of respect to musicians I admire who are currently honoring his memory,  I have been listening again to the tiny part of my CD collection devoted to his music. John Tavener (1944-2013) And I am coming up empty.  I find it nearly impossible to listen to a Tavener piece without my mind wandering.  An honest music-lover would admit to that happening from time to time even when hearing music one enjoys.  But the challenge of Tavener's compositions is to train your attention on his procedure and keep it there:  its non-developmental nature, its devotional import, its silences and stasis, its simple-minded phrasing.  I wonder how long such training takes, and whether it is worth it, and whether it has anything to do with music. Any worthwhile music asks the listener to meet the composer halfway. That's a cliche, and to say "halfway"...

Deeply rooted acquaintance with rising stars can pay off in ongoing collaborations that might not have happened if somebody hadn't gotten in on the ground floor. David Bowden continues to benefit from getting to know Di Wu shortly after she made her first splash in this hemisphere by winning the Hilton Head International Piano Competition in 2005. So the Chinese native's growing prominence internationally is apparently no obstacle to her re-engagement with the orchestras Bowden conducts, most recently the Carmel Symphony Orchestra, with which she appeared as guest artist for the third time Saturday night at the Palladium. She gave extra brilliance to both halves of the program, her fashion consciousness showing as well in striking dresses that suited each of the two composers she played. Before intermission she performed George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" Variations. The American songwriter's last concert piece expounds on the popularity of the tune that ha...