Somewhere between a chamber music concert and a casual hang lies “Scribing the Void,” an off-center offering by the Hartford Symphony Orchestra at Real Art Ways in Hartford on Jan. 26.
“Scribing the Void” stages musicians around the various spaces of the Arbor Street gallery, surrounded by eye-popping works of art, blurring lines between performer and audience. Newer works — “Pale Blue Dot,” by British composer Roger Goula, RSM’s “Void” — rub up against older ones: excerpts from J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1, Stravinsky’s “L’Histoire du Soldat” and “Pulcinella” suite. There’s food and drink and people talking to other people.
One of several new efforts to “diversify and expand our audience,” says HSO executive director Steve Collins, “Scribing” adds a new flavor to the existing Masterworks series, Pops concerts, Talcott Mountain Music Festival and Sunday Serenades at the Wadsworth Atheneum.
“Those concerts are successful. They’re our standard offerings, our bread and butter. But there’s an appetite for a different kind of experience, for music presented in a different way,” Collins says. “Let’s face it: You can hear contemporary chamber music in a number of places, but not exactly in the way we’re presenting it here.”
Music director Carolyn Kuan wants to give listeners “the same great music, but with a different experience,” like having multiple cellists performing the same movement of the Bach Cello Suite at opposite ends of the gallery.
“Classical music is so great, but I feel like people don’t know how great it is,” Kuan says. “You play the [Cello Suite] and people respond: ‘Oh, yeah, I know that!’ … But I bet nobody has experienced it with the sound coming from different places.”
“Scribing the Void,” an apartment-sized wood sculpture, modeled after a Central Park boulder, by Kurt Steger, is on display at Real Art Ways. The piece supplied both the title of the concert and inspired composer RSM’s “Void,” which draws from the physical contours of each of the boulder’s four faces — north, south, east and west — for the melodic material of four separate musical movements. Kuan envisions musicians performing within and around the sculpture itself.
Goula’s “Pale Blue Dot,” inspired by the famous Voyager 1 photograph of Earth, is “also kind of like [Real Art Ways] in some ways,” Kuan says. “It’s not what you expect.” Goula mixes live, acoustic string parts with an ambient backing track. “The strings have a conversation within this sound-world,” Kuan says.
“Every piece in the program is interconnected somehow,” Kuan says. “Pulcinella,” drawn from Stravinsky’s neoclassical ballet of the same name (based on themes by Baroque composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi), for example, plays well with Bach. “It gives people a complete experience, whether they realize it or not.”
The HSO regularly partners with the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford Stage and TheaterWorks. But the relationship between the Symphony and Real Art Ways, two of Hartford’s most important cultural institutions, has been sadly underutilized.
With “Scribing the Void” and a still-unannounced sister concert in April, that seems to be changing.
“Our DNA is being a part of the community, serving the community,” Kuan says. “We’re always looking to collaborate with another arts organization. Now we’re not only doing an event for the Hartford Symphony, we’re getting our audience to support Real Art Ways.”
Collins and Kuan scouted a number of venues. They were drawn to RAW’s open spaces and provocative visual art. Capacity for “Scribing the Void” is capped at around 200 ticket holders, Collins says, and there won’t be chairs for everyone.
“We want to encourage the informality,” Collins says. “It’s a standing, mingling experience.”
Kuan, who listens to rock music, likens the experience to going to club shows: “You go, you walk around, you hear a set, the performers talk about the music. … I haven’t figured out how to field questions, but it’s definitely going to happen.” (At $25, it’s also do-able for rock fans.)
The unpretentious vibe will likely please HSO subscribers drawn to the popular Classical Conversations series, which ran from 1985 to 2000. Kuan also hopes for a big turnout of Real Art Ways regulars — lovers of contemporary visual art and independent cinema who might not turn up at The Bushnell for a Masterworks concert.
“We have all of our existing music lovers in mind,” Kuan says. “At the same time, we want to reach new people. I tend to think if we bring in really great performers, people will come.”
“SCRIBING THE VOID,” presented by the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, takes place at Real Art Ways in Hartford on Jan. 26 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 ($20 for HSO subscribers and Real Art Ways members). hartfordsymphonyorchestra.org.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the name of the sculpture artist Kurt Steger.
