The classical shoe drops: Mark Ortwein's 'Stretching Boundaries'

 

Mark Ortwein with his principal instrument

I'm glad to finally post a review of "Stretching Boundaries," bassoonist Mark Ortwein's* aptly titled compact disc of works across a vast range of his bassoon-centered artistry. The timing is coincidental but revealing: He plays the national anthem on his electrified bassoon on a special day on a special occasion — Memorial Day and Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals. 

The assistant principal bassoonist of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has been blurring whatever boundaries are usually associated with his bread-and-butter job since coming to town in 2002. He has made a name for himself on the local jazz scene (mainly as a saxophonist) and with modifications on the double-reed orchestral instrument that initially gave him a berth in Indianapolis music.

On "Stretching Boundaries," his plugged-in electrified bassoon is heard principally on the raucous "Breaking and Entering," a work driven by drum programming and the strenuous imagination of composer Daniel Burwasser. 

The suggestion of the crime that identifies burglary in nonmusical contexts is apt in this musical one, which challenges the patience somewhat and smashes some crystal and window frames. That's in part because the track takes more than three minutes longer than the 7 minutes, 37 seconds attached to the title on the CD booklet.

Putting that timing discrepancy aside, the piece shows what sonic latitude can be exploited when the essential sound of the bassoon — throaty, deep-grained, ominous as well as comic — is amplified and tilted toward an aggressive profile.  The antic, mysterious "Breaking and Entering" won't nestle in your ears, but (with a more uplifting significance, of course) neither will the electrified bassoon he plays tonight at Gainbridge Fieldhouse before the Pacers take on the Boston Celtics. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, perhaps from ignorance, evoked "the loud bassoon" in his "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and here it finally is.

The main attractions of  Ortwein's classical CD (successor to his jazz CD, released last year) is a couple of chamber-music works by Meadow Bridgham. Commissioned by oboist Pamela Ajango, "Trio Variations" is performed by Ortwein, with the composer at the piano. The expressive terrain is broad but never cluttered. Widely separated single piano notes seem to inspire the bassoon to pick up the pace, with the other two instruments following suit, and a frisky, dance-like atmosphere emerges. Suggestions of the careful piano statements that launched the work come back toward the end of the 12-minute piece. 

Concertino for Bassoon and String Quartet is another Bridgham piece, this one pairing Ortwein with the Indianapolis Quartet, an ensemble in residence at the University of Indianapolis. To my ears, the string quartet sounds stuck in an accompaniment role; if it had been placed more forward in the mix, I think the richness of the combination might have been more evident. It is clear that the design of the piece seems focused on making strings and bassoon equal partners. especially in the second movement "Marcia funebre."

To avoid the danger of overdescribing the variety of these pieces across the 71-minute musical span, let me just say that the attentiveness to song at the center of Ortwein's artistry is also represented specifically through the long, flowing phrases for unaccompanied basson in "Aquela modinha que o Villa" by Francisco Mignone and in the disc's encore, an arrangement for alto saxophone and piano of Gustav Mahler's tender song of farewell, "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen."  

Contrabassoon and electrified bassoon may command your attention, but not everything Ortwein turns his attention to is intended to blow you away. The instrument, and variations upon it, may speak to the listener in all sorts of ways under such expert applications.

(*his official ISO biographical page is in need of updating)