New Music Group Brings Druckman’s Spirit to Life

Living composers provide vital fluid to the business of new music-making. Their passing can provide poignant transitions in an art form in which long-dead composers are the norm. With new music, we’re often privy to both sides of the mortal equation.

Such is the case with noted American composer Jacob Druckman, whose music has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its New Music Group since the group’s inception in 1981. Monday night at the Japan America Theater, the Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella series paid tribute to Druckman, who died last year at the too-young age of 67.

It didn’t matter greatly that this was an ill-focused tribute. There were two works by the composer, one by a promising newcomer (Ketty Nez, the world premiere of her “Pir-Ondine”), one by a flowering cross-cultural composer (Chen Yi) and one archival work by a contemporary icon (Elliott Carter, his lyrical “Pastoral” from 1940). The spirit, carried over into the performers’ high level of commitment, was what counted.

The best came last, with Druckman’s 1992 work “Come Round” in its L.A. premiere. Here, small themes are considered and reconsidered as they’re passed around a septet. The pianist and percussionists mainly lend punctuation and a loose structural grid for events laid in an evocative continuum. Violinist Mark Baranov and cellist Ronald Leonard navigated the brooding duet of Druckman’s aptly titled 1994 piece “Dark Wind.”

Chinese American composer Chen Yi offered the world premiere of “Qi,” another of her fascinating cultural interweavings, a poetic essay marked by dynamic extremes and textural imagination. It was a good night under the Umbrella.