International Contemporary Ensemble at Alice Tully Hall and the Kaplan Playhouse
The New York Times, August 9, 2011
Everything about these two Stravinsky-centric concerts was hugely admirable. But the opening stretch of the Tully concert -- an unmanned "player piano" piece seguing into four small-ensemble pieces in tight sequence, accompanied by thoughtful lighting design -- was also outstanding music theater. And leave it to ICE to unveil without warning a world premiere composed in 1972 by John Zorn, then aged 18.
ICE plays two more Mostly Mozart Festival events tomorrow (August 10), both conducted by composer Matthias Pintscher. The first program, at Alice Tully Hall at 7:30pm, includes Mozart's "Gran Partita," Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1, Pintscher's wonderfully titled Occultation and an arrangement by Salvatore Sciarrino of Mozart's Adagio (K. 356). The second concert, in the Kaplan Penthouse at 10:30pm, features Mozart's Adagio and Rondo for glass armonica (K. 617), Zorn's Christabel, Jonathan Harvey's Serenade in Homage to Mozart and newly composed pieces by Steve Lehman and Phyllis Chen. (As I reported at the time, ICE's evening-length engagement with Lehman's music in April was a night to remember.)
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