Photo by Samer Ghani
'Rituals, Spells and Charms' - 2026 Present Music
David Bloom conducts Present Music's 'Rituals, Spells and Charms' (2026)
On Friday night at Jan Serr Studio David Bloom conducted the first of two evenings as Present Music performed the program “Rituals, Spells, and Charms.”
The featured piece Radhe Radhe: Rites of Holi, was a homage to Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Written by pianist and composer Vijay Iyer, the music provided the soundtrack to the film by Prashant Bhargava which captures eight days and nights the Holi festivities in Mathura, India.
Opening with “Part I: Adoration,” over a dozen musicians accompanied images that moved back and forth from rural to urban settings. Woodwinds, brass, percussion, drumkit, keyboards and strings segued in and out of passages as the screen depicted livestock, dancing cranes, festive dancing and a pilgrimage. “Dawn,” “Promise,” “Spring Fever,” “Gathering” and more culminated in a whirling crescendo.
“Part II: Transcendence” began as something of a sonic reset. Woodwinds eased into place and gave way to a locomotive, driving, charging section of music. Onscreen a street festival captured images of revelers throwing colored powder at each other.
Onstage musicians clapped to underscore the growing turmoil happening onscreen during the festivities with cutaways to an unfolding sensuous scene and pyre taking place onscreen. Sections “Thirst,” “Intoxication,” “Exaltation” and more ended with “Purging Rites.”
Three Pieces
Opening the evening, a string group performed Jlin Patton’s “Little Black Book.” Moments of kinetic energy felt as if the strings echoed the bottled energy of the first day of spring leaving winter behind. Passages of dissonant call and response were buoyed by a thumping, throbbing pulse.
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Christopher Cerrone’s “Hoyt-Schermerhorn” was a placid piece for duo with clusters of keyboard chords that could have been written to match the unfolding crepuscular backdrop of the Prospect Avenue skyline. The backdrop of Jan Serr Studio’s wall of windows facing south could not have been more appropriate. Only the attention-getting percussion at the end of the piece broke the spell.
“Jitter Pocket,” Judd Greenstein’s 2024 composition for large chamber ensemble corralled marimba, horns, woodwinds and drum kit. Suggestion motion, the rising and falling marimba worked as an exoskeleton as the strings and horns took flight.
