The Attacca Quartet, the string ensemble in residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, played a robust, gripping concert of music by John Adams on Tuesday. The program paired Mr. Adams’s 2008 “String Quartet” with selections from “John’s Book of Alleged Dances” from 1994. Mr. Adams was present, as were 17 dancers. But the choreography they performed, by Francesca Harper, was so flimsy and poorly constructed that the fanciful title of Mr. Adams’s music remained descriptive. Whether the pieces should even count as dances stayed in doubt.
“John’s Book of Alleged Dances” is an antic suite, exuberant and sardonic, its tone indicated by section titles like “Stubble Crotchet” and “Alligator Escalator.” Yet the most amusing moment on Tuesday came during the introduction by the museum’s general manager of concerts and lectures, Limor Tomer. When she described “John’s Book” as “Bach meets John Cage,” Mr. Adams winced. “You must be reading Wikipedia,” he said.
According to the program notes, Mr. Adams has said he called the dances “alleged” because “the steps for them had yet to be invented.” But nothing about Ms. Harper’s choreography was antic or sardonic, and there weren’t many steps, invented or borrowed. Instead, dancers from Howard University raced around and lined up and touched parts of their bodies (groin, biceps, breasts) in a senseless series of aggressive-chic poses. The profusion of floor work, invisible for much of the audience because of the sightlines in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, was particularly ill considered. Rather than attending to Mr. Adams’s rhythms, Ms. Harper appended her own cruder ones, having the dancers stomp, slap themselves and slam into walls.
For the second movement of “String Quartet,” the Howard dancers were replaced by members of Dance Theater of Harlem, with the women in point shoes. Ms. Harper’s choreography, benefiting from the greater definition, amplitude and authority of these professionals, caught some of the music’s urgency. But the audience’s premature applause toward the end was another indicator of shoddy craftsmanship.
The best part of the program by far was the first movement of “String Quartet,” when the dancers were absent. Attacca plays with tremendous energy and enthusiasm, agilely pouncing on rhythms and sudden changes in dynamics. Its performance, though, wasn’t just aurally superior. The rock-star facial expressions of the cellist, Andrew Yee, were the closest visual analogues to the music all evening.
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