There is nothing that can be said about the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, conductor Timothy Weiss, violinist J. Freivogel and guest pianist Marilyn Nonken beyond that they are all exceptionally talented performers (or groups of musicians). The level of musicality and virtuosity they bring to their work is truly incredible.

So, instead of hearing more about them, why not hear about the music they performed in Warner Concert Hall last Friday night?

The first piece on the program was the Chamber Symphony by Thomas Adès, a hotshot English composer now in his thirties. He was still a student when the piece was composed. Written in four continuous movements, the piece, with its clear jazz influence, helped ease the audience into a night of new music. Adès kept the piece interesting by employing a wide variety of colors, but sometimes the jazz references were a little too much. What redeemed the piece was its unique use of the accordion in contrast with the rest of the ensemble.

Up next was the first world premiere of the evening, St. Francis preaches to the birds, a violin concerto by the chairman of Oberlin’s composition department, Lewis Nielson. The piece had an extremely high energy level, built up by a minute attention to detail on Nielson’s part and by the music’s strong sense of gesture and direction.

The second world premiere came next with Trespass for piano and chamber ensemble by Jason Eckardt. The piece was commissioned by the Conservatory and as part of the commission, Eckardt spent the week in residence at Oberlin, during which time he held master classes and seminars for composition students. Also in his thirties, Eckardt proved himself throughout the week to be a very intelligent, thoughtful composer.

This was clearly evident in his piece, an incredibly well written, complex work that made great demands on the ensemble as well as the soloist, Eckardt’s wife Nonken. The long moments of carefully timed silence placed between sections of the piece were a little suspicious. These were intended to carry almost more tension than the other parts of the piece and perhaps they succeeded by virtue of their length, but they were a bit much.

The second half of the program brought the premiere of the revised version of faculty member Randolph Coleman’s “Apparitions.” The piece is scored for piano and a number of strings and was composed with Ezra Pounds one-line poem “In a station at the Metro” in mind. The piece was slow and at times eerie, often pitting tonal elements in the piano part with amorphous masses of sound in the strings.

Ironically enough, the weakest piece on the program seemed to be the piece by the most well-established composer. The ensemble had already played Alban Berg’s Chamber Concerto at a previous concert and the 45 minute long piece did not sound any better or more interesting on its second hearing. The work was too long and not memorable enough to justify its length. It was an unfortunate end to an otherwise incredible concert.

CME repeated their concert in Cleveland last Sunday and will be playing it again this Sunday at Merkin Hall in New York City.