It was an evening of contrasts, half devoted to familiar works by Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms and the other half to more contemporary works by Steve Reich and Carl Vine. First half: Warren Jones’s sensitive Mozart Adagio in B minor, Beethoven’s Sonata for Piano & Cello in G minor exquisitely rendered by Warren Jones and Ani Aznavoorian, and the Brahms Trio in A Minor for Piano, Clarinet & Cello, in a spirited performance by Warren Jones, José Franch-Ballester and Ani Aznavoorian . The other half: darkened hall, 9 ft. wide video screen and 2 musicians playing with audio and video recordings of themselves. José Franch-Ballester with as many as 9 versions of himself in the multilayered and hypnotic “New York Counterpoint” by Steve Reich followed by Ani Aznavoorian’s impassioned playing of Carl Vine’s slightly spooky “Inner World” with close-up video clips. It was fun filming the video portions in the weeks prior to the show with José, Ani and Adrian.
