VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY ALBAN BERG

“Richard Dyer articulates in his review [of the 50th Birthday Tribute Concert to Anderson at the Longy School of Music] that Anderson’s works “could stand up under the most searching scrutiny, both the ‘abstract’ Variations on a Theme by Alban Berg and the fascinating music Anderson has made by speaking of his Black heritage in the language of Viennese expressionism.

In the company of Vivian Taylor’s performance of Watermelon and Boston Musica Viva’s interpretation of the Tolson variations, the Berg variations “on a one-note theme” (a series of repeated b-naturals that well up at the end of the murder scene in Berg’s opera Wozzeck are used as Anderson’s generative material) were premiered by the duo of Marcus Thompson (viola) and Seth Carlin (piano). The variants move from the uncomfortable stasis of the fixated b-natural of the opening to the extravagant discombobulation of Variation VII and the near-emptiness/despair of Variation X preceding the repeat of the nearly catatonic theme. Composed in August of 1977 at Yaddo, this compact but difficult work made for an ideal companion to the Tolson variations and solo works that “The Conspirators” presented to celebrate Anderson at Longy."

- John D. McDonald