Reconfigurations

Trumpeter Rajesh Mehta leads his six-piece Mehta-Metric Ensemble through his three-part "Reconfigurations Suite." Mehta composed what he calls skeletal architecture based on the relationship between mathematics and music, with his talented set of players filling in the details. There is a certain minimalism to much of it, an almost static quality that sometimes is effective, but sometimes is not. Mehta focuses the sextet on abstract sound, absent melody. Using a somewhat unconventional lineup (trumpet, clarinet, percussion, string bass, and viola, supplemented by all sorts of secondary instruments), the results alternate between the post-bop improvisations of Vlatko Kucan¡'s reeds and Mehta's puffs of air. There is a meandering quality that is part of the landscape, giving the whole a surprising elasticity. Mehta seems to enjoy the confusion and the open spaces, which the strings fill with buzzing sanguinity.