Night After Night

Agenda.

WiFi signal is dire where I am right now, but I want to get something posted quickly in order to get word of tonight's events circulated. I'll come back to this later in the day to flesh out the list.

Official business

Wednesday, April 2: Unsound Festival New York 2014
Issue Project Room; 8pm; $25, members and students $18

Having bypassed New York last year, Poland's groundbreaking Unsound Festival returns for five days and nights of sonic intrigue. The opening-night concert brings together guitarist-composer Oren Ambarchi with members of Sinfonia Cracovia and other guests for a live version of Ambarchi's Knots, and also features Spanish "post-rave" duo EVOL in music by Hanne Darboven – whose fascinating work I just learned about last year in an Eyvind Kang concert.

Friday, April 4: American Composers Orchestra
Zankel Hall (at Carnegie Hall); 7:30pm; $43–$50

George Manahan conducts the world premiere of Marcos Balter's Favela and Luciana Souza sings a new Derek Bermel song cycle; the program also includes a rarity by Silvestre Revueltas, a New York premiere by Gabriela Lena Frank and one more piece, by Gunther Schuller.

Saturday, April 5: Music for Contemplation
Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary; 8:05pm; $15

Trombonist and Wandelweiser Group composer Craig Shepard, saxophonist Ty Wilcox and hammered-dulcimer player Dan Joseph — three of the four founders of this welcome new Brooklyn series — play Wandelweiser Group founder Antoine Beuger's hushed, mysterious Peckinpah Trios.

Elsewhere and -when

Monday, March 31: Ilana Davidson, Jing Li and Mikhail Korzhev perform Ernst Krenek at the Austrian Cultural Forum (more) FREE

Monday, March 31: Musica Sacra performs Meredith Monk and Jocelyn Hagen at Alice Tully Hall (more)

Tuesday, April 1: Tony Arnold and Jacob Greenberg perform Olivier Messiaen at Miller Theatre (more) FREE

Tuesday, April 1–Sunday, April 6: JACK Quartet residency at the Stone (more)

Tuesday, April 1: New Juilliard Ensemble plays Molly Joyce, Robin de Raaff, Michael Ippolito and Valentin Bibik at Alice Tully Hall (more) FREE

(more to come…)

Jacob Greenberg and Reinier van Houdt at Spectrum, March 25, 2014

Reinier van Houdt, by Michelle V. Agins for The New York Times

Jacob Greenberg and Reinier van Houdt at Spectrum, March 25, 2014
The New York Times, March 27, 2014

Two separate recitals by brilliant pianists heard most frequently in group settings: Jacob Greenberg with the International Contemporary Ensemble, and Reinier van Houdt in the Ives Ensemble and Ensemble MAE (which, I learned at length, was once bassist Maarten Altena's band).

One remarkably broad span of avant-garde piano, from Ludwig van Beethoven to Michael Pisaro. The playing was brilliant, the instrument outstanding, and I've never heard a better mix of piano, electronics and amplification than during van Houdt's program, the Pisaro and Luc Ferrari pieces in particular.

Two subsequent revelations: Via Facebook, I learned that the Alvin Curran piece that ended van Houdt's second set was in fact discreetly amplified, something that evidently neither I nor van Houdt noticed, so subtly was it enacted. And via email, I learned that Greenberg's rendition of Helmut Lachenmann's treacherous Serynade was his first public performance of the work. Look forward to more chances to hear it, and to hear it grow in Greenberg's hands.

Emerson String Quartet at Alice Tully Hall, March 23, 2014

Emerson String Quartet at Alice Tully Hall, March 23, 2014
The New York Times, March 26, 2014

My first time to see and hear the Emersons with their new cellist, Paul Watkins. Nice to know that it all still works, and that youngblood has lit a new fire in his crew.

Change is come.

Yesterday, I missed my mark for my weekly Wandelwatching series, due to a combination of conflicting chores, duties and circumstances. I'll get to that post a bit later, but first, an acknowledgement of something that happened yesterday in the social-media realm. A Facebook post I wrote in the afternoon – intended to set the record straight about a new development – caused rather more response than I'd anticipated. Here's the post:

Dear everyone: Since an official memo has circulated internally, and since word will now commence to spread outside of these walls, please allow me to officially state that after very nearly 13 years of dedicated service, I will be leaving Time Out New York on Friday, April 11. My departure is bittersweet but completely amicable, a choice that I made in order to devote more life and time to my fabulous wife and daughter, while also creating the brainspace for future developments to become clear.

Let me repeat, to ward off speculation summarily: there is NO foul play involved here. It simply became the right time for me to move on to the next stage, and to clear the way for some new professionals to make the most of an opportunity to shine.

More on that front soon. For now, please join me in congratulating new Music Editor, Craw enthusiast and Facebook refusenik Hank Shteamer. And to my Time Out peeps past and present, it's been an honor and a privilege to work with, laugh with, cry with and learn from all of you.

My closest confidantes have known for some time now that I'd been mulling a change of this nature, meant to clarify and simplify my life. I alluded to change strongly in this February post about my sabbatical surrounding the arrival of my daughter, who came just a few days later.

 

Annina, not surprisingly, acted as a strong arbiter of, and initiative for, some fairly drastic change, and that's what's finally taken place behind closed doors over the last few weeks. I'd realized even before she came that being able to spend more time with her – and with her mother! – took precedence over an overbooked, overextended schedule that had already begun to wear. Once she came, the choice was clear.

 

Something had to go, and Time Out – where I've done some work that I'm very proud of during the last nearly 13 years – was the proper choice. I talked about a wide variety of alternative scenarios with supervisors there, but it became apparent fairly quickly that moving on was the thing to do… not least because it will create an opportunity, albeit it a different one than what greeted me on my arrival as a wet behind the ears Classical Music & Opera Editor back in 2001. Whatever the trials and tribulations I may have faced over the years, they were more than matched by camaraderie, compassion and having a place to grow up in public, professsionaly and personally. Whoever takes up that particular torch is going to have a different experience, but a life-changing one nevertheless.

 

There's literally no way that I can thank everyone who deserves it, but I'll always be grateful to my friend and colleague K. Leander Williams for inviting me to visit the office on Broadway between Bleecker and Houston for an intriguing conversation; to Joe Angio for deciding that I was a risk worth taking; to Elizabeth Barr, ever my rock; to Susan Jackson, my immediate predecessor as classical guru, for showing me the ropes with patience and good humor; to Jem Aswad, Elisabeth Vincentelli and Mike Wolf for wise lessons about editing that I still apply every day; to Olivia Marlowe-Giovetti, Amanda MacBlane and Sarah Hucal for helping me to apply those lessons and making me look really, really good; to David Shengold and the sorely missed Marion Lignana Rosenberg for stalwart service and continual inspiration; to Music teammates Jay Ruttenberg, Cristina Black, Sophie Harris, Colin St. John, Corban Goble, Marley Lynch, Leah Greenblatt, Alison Rosen, Drew Millard and Kristen Zwicker; and to my successor as Music Editor, Hank Shteamer, for duty, valor and friendship above and beyond the call.

 

To everyone who responded to my news on Facebook or Twitter: many, many thanks. The kindness and generosity you've showed has been genuinely overwhelming. And for those who've asked: yes, my writing for The New York Times will continue, and almost certainly could even increase. Remember, though, that this is for Annina and Lara, who come first.

Colin Stetson with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at Merkin Concert Hall, March 22, 2014

Colin Stetson and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, by Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

Colin Stetson with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at Merkin Concert Hall, March 22, 2014
The New York Times, March 25, 2014

This one came out really, really quickly, despite some hair-splitting fact-checking that ran up to deadline hour. Once I had that lede – don't ask me where it came from; I just accepted its arrival – the rest of the review just fell into place as it needed to.

Given conversations going on among many of my more music-literate friends following Ted Gioia's recent Daily Beast article about music criticism degenerating into lifestyle reporting, arguably I could have spoken more exactly and in greater detail about the structural makings of Stetson's songs, especially as regards the choral component. But when you're faced with a tight word count, a looming deadline and a general audience, those aren't always the first things that occur to you. Should they be? That's worth thinking about. (If the notion is resonant for you, DO NOT miss this Owen Pallett analysis of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" on Slate.)

I do hope that Stetson will complete his wondrous arrangement of Gorecki's Symphony No. 3, and his colleagues from this concert's second half will commit the whole thing to disc. I could very easily imagine it being something that would really work on the Constellation label, for which Stetson already records – the arrangement is faithful to Gorecki, yet for me it also had an unmistakeable whiff of postrock à la Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions in the Sky or Mono.

Agenda.

This week's agenda – delayed due to circumstances beyond my control, and reined-in because of my family's arrival in NYC to meet the newest member of the clan – includes just two events, both tomorrow night. That said, they're unquestionably meaty items.

Tuesday, March 25: Jacob Greenberg
Spectrum; 7:30pm; $15

Tuesday, March 25: Reinier van Houdt
Spectrum; 8:45pm; $15

Two recitals back to back; taken together, a pretty broad survey of pianistic modernism. Greenberg, pianist for the International Contemporary Ensemble, plays Beethoven's Sonata No. 31 in A-flat and Helmut Lachenmann's Serynade. Van Houdt, who plays in the Ives Ensemble and Ensemble MAE, heads to the outer limits in pieces by Luc Ferrari, Alvin Curran, Peter Adriaansz and Michael Pisaro—the last of which I wrote about here on Friday.

Elsewhere and -when

Monday, March 24: Benefit for Three Robert Ashley Operas at Issue Project Room (more)

Monday, March 24: Build, Victoire, itsnotyouitsme and Empyrean Atlas at Roulette (more)

Tuesday, March 25: Eric Huebner and Max Mandel play Annie Gosfield, Yotam Haber, Michael Vincent Waller, Gavin Bryars and Morton Feldman at Roulette (more)

Tuesday, March 25: Kathleen Supové and Le Train Bleu play Randall Woolf, Daniel Wohl, Sean Friar and Ted Hearne at Drom (more)

Wednesday, March 26: Chris Brown/Suzanne Thorpe/Nate Wooley and Alexandra Gardner at Issue Project Room (more)

Wednesday, March 26: Mivos Quartet plays Katharina Rosenberger at Longhouse Projects (more)

Wednesday, March 26: S.E.M. Ensemble and Ostravská banda celebrate Christian Wolff's 80th birthday at Roulette (more)

Thursday, March 28: Eviyan at the David Rubenstein Atrium, Lincoln Center (more) FREE

Thursday, March 28: S.E.M. Ensemble and Ostravská banda celebrate Christian Wolff's 80th birthday at the Bohemian National Hall (more) FREE

Thursday, March 27: String Orchestra of Brooklyn plays Eli Keszler, Catherine Lamb, Zach Layton and Doron Sadja at Roulette (more)

Friday, March 28: ensemble mise-en plays Reiko Füting, Brian Fennelly, Clara Hunter Latham, Enno Poppe and Isang Yun at Tenri Cultural Center (more)

Friday, March 28: Ghost Ensemble plays Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, Luciano Berio, Alvin Lucier, Damon Loren Baker and Sky Macklay at Spectrum (more)

Friday, March 28: loadbang plays David Smooke, Martin Iddon, Scott Wollschleger, Edward Hamel and Quinn Collins at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music (more)

Friday, March 28: The Music of Alvin Lucier with the Callithumpian Consort at Roulette (more)

Saturday, March 29: Jean-Baptiste Barrière composer portrait at Miller Theatre (more)

Saturday, March 29: Composers Concordance plays Milica Paranosic, Dan Cooper, Gene Pritsker, William Schimmel and more at the 92nd Street Y (more)

Saturday, March 29: The Music of Alvin Lucier with Charles Curtis and Stephen Drury at Roulette (more)

Saturday, March 29: nmperign and Peter Evans/Sam Pluta at Snugs (more)

John Zorn: Masada Book 3 at the Town Hall, March 19, 2014

John Zorn: Masada Book 3 at the Town Hall, March 19, 2014
The New York Times, March 21, 2014

The biggest surprise about this particular concert was the fact that I was there; I'd originally been scheduled to cover a different event, but a sick colleague prompted a last-minute shuffle, and here we are. Because of a last-minute space crunch, a few things were excised from the review without my knowledge. I reckon that at least a few people might be interested in the bits that were lost.

First, the paragraph about Masada numerology originally ended with an interesting announcement.

The reason? 215 plus 306 plus 92 equals 613, the number of commandments that Jews are obliged to observe, according to the Torah. A 614th commandment introduced after World War II, he added, will prompt a final, long-form Masada composition that he intends to write next year.

Keen-eyed Zornithologists will note that the first two numbers are actually 205 plus 316, a point we quickly corrected. My original draft as submitted and edited also identified the trio of Steve Lehman, Vijay Iyer and Tyshawn Sorey by their collective name, Fieldwork.

Finally, lost entirely in the cut was my final paragraph. While there's no way that I could have cited all the worthy performers who participated in Zorn's shuffle-concert, I did in fact name more than saw print. These things happen all the time, and no hard feelings – but for those who might be curious, here's the original ending.

Many Arms, a Philadelphia trio, read “Panim” in a manner that recalled the Nels Cline Trio in its punk-jazz-vinyl salad days. The guitarist Gyan Riley and the art-rock band Secret Chiefs 3 wrested adrenalized fusion from their respective selections. The singer Sofia Rei brought out a throaty romantic sway in “Setumah.” And Zion80, a joyous ensemble that usually patches Shlomo Carlebach’s songs into Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat template, found “Hod” amenable to its positively Zornian hybrid approach.

Classical Playlist: George Antheil, Haydn, Sibelius and More

Third Coast Percussion, by Saverio Truglia

Classical Playlist: George Antheil, Haydn, Sibelius and More
The New York Times ArtsBeat, March 19, 2014

My contribution:

DAVID T. LITTLE: ‘Haunt of Last Nightfall’
Third Coast Percussion
(New Amsterdam)

Coming soon: Elliott Carter; Gil Shaham; Jeffrey Mumford; David Bowlin; Henri Dutilleux; Catherine Christer Hennix

Wandelwatching: Reinier van Houdt, March 25, 2014

I find the implication that there are “ears” everywhere, at every point in a world, a fascinating concept, even if it is rather hard to imagine. It implies that position might be more important than time in hearing; and that the sounding configuration of a world can be understood (differently) from an infinite number of points. It says that what is audible to any one person is unique, but at the same time contiguous (and therefore directly related) to what is audible to others.—Michael Pisaro

On Tuesday, March 25, Dutch pianist Reinier van Houdt is presenting a particularly choice recital at Spectrum, the Lower East Side loft that quickly has become a research & development epicenter for locals as well as a hospitable beachhead for visitors. Van Houdt, pianist for the acclaimed Ives Ensemble and Ensemble MAE, calls his program "The Well-Extended Piano." In addition to music by Luc Ferrari, Peter Adriaansz and Alvin Curran, it includes an important piece by Wandelweiser composer Michael Pisaro, Fields Have Ears 1.

You can hear a bit of that piece, a 20-minute composition for piano and four-channel playback (field recordings, sine tones and noise) from 2008, in the YouTube embed at the top of this page, posted by the English label Another Timbre to promote its wonderful recording by Philip Thomas. You should also read Pisaro's essay about the piece, and about the series of related works that emerged subsequently, on his Gravity Wave label blog.

Van Houdt's recital is at 8:45pm, but real conoisseurs will want to turn up for the evening's early set: at 7:30pm, International Contemporary Ensemble pianist Jacob Greenberg will play Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat (Op. 110) and Helmut Lachenmann's Serynade. That's quite the long view of pianistic modernism if you take in the whole evening, as I intend to do.

I'd be remiss if I failed to mention a second event happening next week. On Thursday, March 27, the String Orchestra of Brooklyn will introduce a new piece by Catherine Lamb, a violist and composer whose music I've greatly admired on discs released by Another Timbre and Engraved Glass; through a fantastic free download from the Absence of Wax netlabel; and in a Roulette concert by the French chamber group ensemble dedalus last year.

Lamb isn't a Wandelweiser Group member per se, but her aesthetic is clearly sympathetic. She studied with Pisaro and James Tenney at CalArts, and now lives and works in Berlin, where among other activities she performs with violinist/composer Johnny Chang in a duo devoted to the music of Viola Torros.

"String Theories," presented by the SOB and Issue Project Room at Roulette (got that straight?), will include the premiere of Lamb's portions transparent/opaque: 1. Expand alongside three more works that should be well worth hearing, by Eli Keszler (casing, duct, stack), Zach Layton (k…y…r…i…e…) and Doron Sadja (Pillars of Light).

Sadly, I can't make it. If you go, give ’em my regards.

Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, March 15 & 16, 2014

Zubin Mehta, Diana Damrau and the Vienna Philharmonic, by Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, March 15 & 16, 2014
The New York Times, March 17, 2014

The whole time Diana Damrau was cavorting on the Carnegie Hall podium – during a long evening's third and final encore, understand – I was praying aloud to my companion, "Please let the Times photographer be getting this." Had I seen that Hiroyuki Ito was on duty, I'd have known not to worry – Hiro's always got exactly the shot I've hoped for, only better.