eighth blackbird

The sextet’s two-part program, “PowerFUL/LESS,” takes its inspiration from Igor Stravinsky’s provocative claim that “music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all.”

In late January, part one, “PowerFUL,” begged to differ with the Russian master. As evidence, the group paired John Corigliano’s war-soaked setting of Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” with ecologically sensitive composer John Luther Adams’s “The Light Within.”

“PowerLESS,” in contrast, is rooted firmly in Stravinsky’s notion of “absolute music”—music that stands alone, utterly objective, and finds inspiration for itself within itself without overtly expressing political meaning. The second half of the debate for the MCA Stage spotlights violinist Matt Albert’s arrangement of Bach’s Chaconne in D minor. It’s a terribly difficult, show-offy piece that utilizes every trick of the instrument (at least those known in the late 18th century).

Steve Reich’s exuberant, percussion-dominated ode to musical abstraction, Music for 18 Musicians, follows. Fellow new-music devotees Third Coast Percussion lends hands on drums, further abetted by Meehan/Perkins Duo and fantastic local pianist Amy Briggs. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of this bipolar program is that 8bb prove both sides right.

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