Newsday, March 2005

As critics and arts organizations fret over classical music's aging and dwindling audience, issues of musical propriety invariably surface. The unspoken rules governing U.S. concerts basically guarantee that musicians "play much the same menu, at the same time, in the same venues, for the same duration and wearing the same waiters' uniforms as they did when Roosevelt was president," wrote one British journalist.

The genre-busting career of pianist Anthony de Mare flies in the face of such fusty artistic conventions. With his chiseled physique, the 40-something New Yorker can give bodacious tenor José Cura a run for his money in the musical pin-up department. Over the years, de Mare has put his body to work in the service of new music: draping it across the piano during his celebrated recital performance "Playin' My Self" (2001), singing as he plays, and even breaking into a tap dance for Randall Woolf's "Legs Akimbo," created to showcase the multifarious talents of this self-described "multimedia pianist" and "interdisciplinary performer."

"Gotham Glory," tonight's Zankel Hall presentation, typifies de Mare's innovative concert-theater offerings. The program features lighting designed by Jared Sayeg and video by Anney Bonney to accompany the title piece: David Del Tredici's 35-minute, world-premiere celebration of New York City, which ranges from the 9/11-inspired "Missing Towers" (with a section played on the inside of the piano) to "Wollman Rink," a virtuoso extravaganza based on Waldteufel's nostalgic "Skater's Waltz."

"As a child, I studied dance, theater and music all at the same time," de Mare said by phone from Manhattan. "My exposure to theater and dance—the discipline of them, but also their creative aspects—intrigued me so much. After having been involved in this career for nearly 25 years, I find that music is many, many things."

De Mare recalled the philosophy of minimalist composer John Cage, one of his mentors: "He believed that all sound was music, with the exception of that which created pain or induced fear. I try to extend the boundaries of music, while breaking down the barriers of people who seem so fixated on what classical music 'should' be."

Another work on the "Gotham Glory" program that exemplifies this all-embracing perspective is "De Profundis," Frederic Rzewski's 1992 oratorio that commingles spoken and musical elements (making it "melodramatic" in the strictest sense). "De Profundis" alternates instrumental meditations with excerpts from Oscar Wilde's shattering letter from Reading Gaol, where he was imprisoned for what his society called "gross indecency"—that is, homosexual relations.

De Mare explained why he included "De Profundis" in a New York-themed program. "New York is a place that celebrates gay life," he said. "With all the difficulty that we're going through in this country with conservatives trying to destroy civil rights for others, New York is still where people speak out the most and the clearest about what the issues really are."

He also cited the chronological link between Rzewski's oratorio and jazz composer Fred Hersch's "Saloon Songs," another world premiere. "They date back to New York City at the turn of the [20th] century, downtown—old pop forms like a slow drag dance, a waltz, ragtime. They take us back in memory to a time when, across the ocean, Oscar Wilde was going through that traumatic experience."

"Gotham Glory's" vast stylistic scope promises to showcase de Mare's massive technique, regularly cited by reviewers and highlighted in Paul Moravec's "Isle of the Manhattoes," which evokes what de Mare called "the frenetic energy" of the city and its inhabitants.

Another world premiere, Jason Robert Brown's "Mister Broadway," pays homage to a time when theater composers such as Gershwin, Weill and Bernstein wrote for the concert stage. "There hasn't been a lot of that in the past 30 to 40 years," de Mare remarked wistfully.

"Out of My Hands," de Mare's new CD for the Port Washington label Koch International, is similar in stylistic diversity to "Gotham Glory." It ranges from Del Tredici's voluptuously lyrical music to Aaron Jay Kernis' gonzo showpiece "Superstar Etude," which requires the performer to strike the keyboard with his palms, forearms and left foot.

For those who balk at the unabashed physicality and eclecticism of his work—"Why can't we have just the pure music?"—de Mare has a simple response. "Music right now is a fusion of so many different styles: crossover with pop, rock, folk, funk, along with just trying to experiment with sound. What 'pure music' is, sometimes is the combination of all these elements."

WHEN & WHERE: Pianist Anthony de Mare performs "Gotham Glory," with world premieres by Jason Robert Brown, David Del Tredici, Fred Hersch, Paul Moravec and other works tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Carnegie's Zankel Hall, Manhattan. Tickets $18 to $28. Visit www.carnegiehall.org or call 212-247-7800.