MUSIC REVIEW : Aequalis Plays Ung’s ‘Spiral’

Chinary Ung has received plenty of renown as the Cambodian-born, Arizona-based composer who won the $150,000 Grawemeyer Award in May. But if anyone wondered if this dark horse for the honor deserves such attention, they should have been in the Recital Hall at Cal State Northridge Saturday night when the Aequalis Chamber Ensemble--John Bronstein on piano, Elizabeth Mohr on cello, and Michael Parola on percussion--presented Ung’s “Spiral” (1989).

With masterful sonorities, melodies and extended techniques patterned after Cambodian folk music, “Spiral” unfolds with uncompromising precision, using an accessible language that is lucid and sophisticated. Each moment resonates undauntingly with some references to his former teacher, George Crumb, but in an otherwise thoroughly original language. Ung, who will be 47 on Thursday and who was in attendence, received an immediate standing ovation from the small audience of students.

Other works offered by the dutiful, but sometimes unfocused New York trio included two uneven examples of neoclassicism: Marjorie Merryman’s trio of modal rompings “Bending the Light” (1989), and Miriam Gideon’s sentimental Cello Sonata (1967). Less interesting interpretations of two familiar works, Stockhausen’s “Zyklus” (1959) for percussion and Davidovsky’s “Synchronisms No. 6” (1970) for piano and electronic tape, completed the program.