MUSIC REVIEW : Xtet Opens Monday Evening Concert Series

Xtet, one of our local new-music collectives, imported a French conductor and program to open the Monday Evening Concerts in honor of the French Revolution bicentennial. It was neither the best of times nor the worst of times at Bing Theater of the County Museum of Art, although the interesting agenda included three United States premieres.

The conductor was Alain Neveux, a pianist and Boulez disciple making his U.S. debut. He proved an efficient, if not terribly charismatic, music regulator, in repertory that seemed to provide little scope for interpretive freedom.

His greatest opportunity for expressive flair came in Gilbert Amy’s “Ecrits sur toiles,� one of the premieres. Amy has created a bravura display of variation technique for six diligent instrumentalists, which also serves as a backdrop for a reading of four excerpts from letters by Rainer Maria Rilke.

The texts were pointedly and clearly recited by Daisietta Kim. There were moments of word painting, but potent integration of text and music came only at the very end. Otherwise, the words seemed simply an overlay, a sort of allusive aesthetic context.

Neveux and his small band coped ably with the often busy variations. Amy’s style here was an extended neo-classicism of clean lines and deft ensemble, evocative but not exhibitionistic.

The other premieres were obsessive, deconstructivist etudes by members of the generation after Boulez: Michael Levinas, 40, and Tristan Murail, 42.

Levinas’ “Concerto pour un piano espace� No. 2 sounded like heavy machinery failing a wind-tunnel test. Electronics provided a steady roar, and prompted and modified the sounds of a hard-working, self-effacing pianist, in this case Gloria Cheng. Her efforts were sometimes synchronized with the tape explosions, sometimes not, and Neveux’s ministrations gave no clue as to whether that was intentional.

Neveux and another small ensemble handled the supporting roles boisterously. Having the trumpet and horn play into drum heads was a novel touch, but the music resembled the composer’s program note only in being obscure and academic.

Much the same could be said of Murail’s “Ethers.� There the tape was a continual maracas roll, and the unflattering solo labors were assigned to Gary Woodward, on flutes and piccolo. Built on the idea that it is possible to play little chuffing ideas at various speeds, it doodled desultorily for a long while, then whipped into a comic climax which tapered into a poignant coda.

Neveux and friends seemed to keep pace faithfully. They found much more grateful work, however, in Boulez’s “Derive,� which proved that complexity and earnestness of ideas need not preclude expressivity.

The concert began with Amy’s brief “. . .d’un desastre obscur,� in a tight, fluent reading by Kim and clarinetist David Ocker.