Night After Night

(Not) Goings On About Town, March 16 & 23, 2020.

Last week, before I could collect and share my contributions to the Goings On About Town section in the March 16, 2020 issue of The New Yorker, covering the dates March 11-17, the cancellations started to trickle in—and then came the flood. Here are screenshots of my listings for that issue as they appeared online, before they were hidden away one by one. (Click on an image to enlarge it, or hit the link to read the listing on the New Yorker website.)

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While all of this was going on, we GOAT contributors already had put the finishing touches on our listings for the March 23 issue, covering the dates March 18-24, with our valiant editor, Briana Younger. Those listings never made it to page or to the website, and none of the events transpired. Perhaps some of them will, some time down the line; for now, I'm preserving the text here simply for posterity.

Again: The following events are not happening on the dates and times listed.

Switch~ Ensemble
DiMenna Center; March 21 at 7:30

Switch~ Ensemble, which devotes itself to fusing music with technology in innovative ways, presents the world première of “Up Close,” by the resourceful Swiss composer Katharina Rosenberger. The new piece, the result of a yearlong collaboration between Rosenberger and the group, features tiny sounds that are closely amplified and conjoined with interactive lighting in a darkened room. Complementary works by Cathy van Eck, Dieter Ammann, and the ensemble members Jason Thorpe Buchanan and David Clay Mettens complete an intriguing program.

Latitude 49
Areté Venue and Gallery; March 24 at 7, free with suggested R.S.V.P.

A well-travelled sextet widely known for its technical assurance, stylistic versatility, and abundant personality, Latitude 49 visits Brooklyn on the heels of its vivid new recording, “Wax & Wire.” Playing at the cozy, comfortable venue Areté, the group serves up compositions by Gabriella Smith, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Viet Cuong from the album, plus a newer piece by Juri Seo and a longtime favorite by Pierce Gradone.

Belcea Quartet
92nd Street Y; March 24 at 7:30

The Belcea Quartet recorded a compelling Beethoven cycle not quite a decade ago; it’s no surprise, then, that the British group would mine this lode during a season dominated by the two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the composer’s birth. The program isn’t quite an alpha and omega, but it’s close, pairing the blithe Quartet No. 1 in F Major with the powerful Quartet No. 13 in B-Flat Major—the latter outfitted with its still jolting original ending, the “Grosse Fuge.”

Johnny Gandelsman
Irish Arts Center; March 24 at 8

The violinist Johnny Gandelsman, a linchpin of Brooklyn Rider and the Silk Road Ensemble, celebrates the release of his superb new recording of Bach’s six suites for unaccompanied cello, as rearranged for violin. The Irish Arts Center is an ideal setting in which to hear the set of beloved works anew, both for its intimacy and its close association with dance—a quality Gandelsman emphasizes in his interpretations.

Passing notes: 50 Years of S.E.M. Ensemble, online April 1.

As has been the case with basically every upcoming concert scheduled to occur during the next six weeks or more, New York new-music institution the S.E.M. Ensemble has announced that its planned concert for April 1 at the Bohemian National Hall has been canceled. In this instance, presenting the concert online for an empty house also wasn't an option. But with admirable resourcefulness, the ensemble and its leader – the composer, flutist, and conductor Petr Kotik – will present a virtual recreation of the celebratory event, featuring recent live recordings of the pieces involved.

Dates and sources for the recordings have just been announced:

Christian Wolff
Small Piece for Orchestra (2019, American premiere)
Ostravská banda, Petr Kotik, conductor
August 26, 2019 at Ostrava Days Festival, Czech Republic

Robert Ashley
The Mystery of the River (2014)
Excerpt from the opera Atalanta (Acts of God) (1991)
Thomas Buckner, baritone; Tom Hamilton, electronics
September 11, 2014 at Roulette Intermedium, NYC

Miya Masaoka
States of Being, States of Becoming (2018, world premiere)
S.E.M. Ensemble, Petr Kotik, conductor
December 19, 2018 at Paula Cooper Gallery, NYC

Julius Eastman
Joy Boy (1972)
S.E.M. Ensemble
September 26, 2017 at Studio 1 of Czech Radio Ostrava

Petr Kotik
Wednesdays at RW on Spring Street (2019-20, American premiere)
Ostravská banda, Petr Kotik, conductor; Hana Kotkova, violin
August 30, 2019 at Ostrava Days Festival, Czech Republic

The streaming presentation also will include commentary from Wolff, Masaoka, and Kotik, as well as an overview of S.E.M. activities by George Lewis. You can watch on April 1 at 1pm EST at www.semensemble.org.

Goings On About Town, March 9, 2020.

My contributions to the Goings On About Town section in the March 9, 2020 issue of The New Yorker, covering the dates March 4-10. (Links lead to detailed listings on the New Yorker website.)

Dai Fujikura
Miller Theatre; March 5 at 8

The intrepid musicians of International Contemporary Ensemble present a Composer Portrait showcasing music by a gifted longtime associate of the group, including a world premiere.

yMusic
Rockwood Music Hall; March 5 at 7

The unpredictable sextet yMusic celebrates the release of a brilliant new album, Ecstatic Science, featuring music by Missy Mazzoli, Caroline Shaw, Gabriella Smith, and Paul Wiancko.

New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center; March 5 and 10 at 7:30, March 7 at 8

The stylish and insightful conductor Louis Langrée makes his Philharmonic debut (!!) with a top-to-bottom luscious program that includes the mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard.

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center; March 8 at 5

Robert Schumann gets top billing, but the real headline news here is the New York premiere of a new piece by John Harbison, featuring soprano Joëlle Harvey—who also lends her voice to music by Schubert and Chausson.

Goings On About Town, March 2, 2020.

My contributions to the Goings On About Town section in the March 2, 2020 issue of The New Yorker, covering the dates February 26-March 3. (Links lead to detailed listings on the New Yorker website.)

Bearthoven
Le Poisson Rouge; Feb. 27 at 7:30

Yes, this group looks like a jazz piano trio—and, in its way, it swings like one, too. This concert, the group's annual "new works" showcase, includes commissioned pieces by Michael Gordon and Shelley Washington, and the duo Popebama opens.

New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center; Feb. 27 at 7:30, Feb. 28 at 2, Feb. 29 at 8

Franz Welser-Möst, music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, leads the Philharmonic in picturesque scores by Jörg Widmann and Richard Strauss.

Nicole Mitchell
The Jewish Museum; Feb. 27 at 7:30

Presented as part of Bang on a Can's series at the Jewish Museum, flutist, composer, and bandleader Nicole Mitchell collaborates with Chad Taylor on drums and Val Jeanty on electronics and percussion, in a trio called Matape.

Ecstatic Music
Merkin Hall; Feb. 29 at 7:30

Missy Mazzoli and Kelly Moran, creative, original keyboardist-composers who've forged idiosyncratic paths to global renown, share an Ecstatic Music program, playing individually and together. (You must click the link to see the swell cartoon.)

Passing notes: Liza Lim, Clarice Jensen, Clara Iannotta, Ben Johnston, more.

Liza Lim (Photograph: Astrid Ackermann)

Among the choice items included in today's Winter-Spring 2020 season announcement from The Kitchen was news of the latest installment in Density 2036, the enthralling 23-year commissioning program initiated by the industrious flute genius Claire Chase in 2014. Density 2036, part vii will be presented at Queenslab, a Ridgewood venue with which The Kitchen has been partnering for some time now, on May 15 and 16. The program comprises a single work: Sex Magic, by the brilliant Australian composer Liza Lim. One of several current projects that, according to Lim, "celebrate ideas of spirituality bound together with feminine energy and erotics," the piece is scored for "contrabass flute, alto ocarina, Aztec death whistle, bell, pedal bass drum, electronics and installation of kinetic percussion instruments designed by the one and only Levy Lorenzo," Chase revealed on Facebook a few weeks ago. A few more details are available here; Chase shared a schematic of the stage plot here.

While you're waiting, look out for Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus, a new collection of Lim's music on the Kairos label. The disc is due for release on March 6, and already has earned a spot high up on Alex Ross's newest playlist.

The cellist Clarice Jensen, a founder of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) and a burgeoning composer, has signed to 130701, the new-music imprint of London-based indie label FatCat Records. Jensen's second full-length solo album, The experience of repetition as death, is due April 3 in vinyl, CD, and digital formats, all of which can be pre-ordered now on Bandcamp. One track already available for streaming, "Metastable," shows that Jensen's prowess as a formidable, unpredictable composer is growing rapidly. More evidence will be on offer when ACME performs new arrangements of Jensen's solo pieces in the second event of the group's 15th-anniversary series, on March 13 at Tenri Cultural Institute in Manhattan; advance tickets are available here.

The composer Clara Iannotta has just shared on SoundCloud a recent live recording of the JACK Quartet performing You crawl over seas of granite, an evocatively titled new work for amplified, detuned string quartet. The group has just completed studio recordings of all four of Iannotta's string quartet works, for release later this year on the German label Wergo.

Speaking of the JACK Quartet, the group's new recording of Sonare & Celare, by Cenk Ergün, arrives on March 13 via the New Focus label. On that same evening and the one that follows, JACK plays the complete string quartet works of John Zorn at National Sawdust. (Obligatory disclaimer: I am employed by National Sawdust.)

In 1988, the visionary American composer Ben Johnston – most widely known for his use of just intonation and microtonal systems – completed a symphony, which he intended to be played by a local community orchestra near his home town in Tar River, North Carolina. No performance transpired at the time, but now Johnston's Symphony in A is set to have its long-delayed world premiere on March 21 at the second annual Pacific Pythagorean Music Festival, in San Francisco. Organized by the Del Sol Quartet, who played Johnston's music widely (and launched the festival inspired by a visit with the composer), the event includes performances by the quartet, guitarist Giacomo Fiore, the Cornelius Cardew Choir, and others; the symphony will be played by the Pythagorean Festival Orchestra, conducted by John Kennedy.

More details about the festival are available here. Should you wish to know more about Johnston and his work, the remembrance Kyle Gann wrote for NewMusicBox is mandatory.

Finally, congratulations to the composers Catherine Lamb, Francesca Verunelli, and Samir Amarouch, recently named the winners of this year's Ernst von Siemens Foundation Composers Prize. Information about all three can be found on the foundation's website.

Hear, now: loadbang.

Once in a while – more often than I'd like, unfortunately – I'll receive details for an eminently worthy, possibly mind-blowing event juuussstt ever so slightly too late to pitch it for possible inclusion in the Goings On About Town section at the New Yorker, where I beat the drum for such events on a near-weekly basis. Here's a textbook illustration: I recently got a note from Andrew Kozar, trumpeter for loadbang, a busy new-music ensemble well-loved in New York City and points far afield, providing notice of an upcoming concert that just happened to fall during a range of dates already done and dusted.

Now, loadbang is a genius group, as indeed you'd have to be, were you to contemplate making at least part of your living in an ensemble comprising baritone voice, bass clarinet, trumpet, and trombone, a conglomeration that makes Louis Andriessen's Hout lineup seem mundane by comparison. Seriously, there's plenty of recorded evidence attesting to how brilliant this quartet is; you really don't need to take my world for it.

Thing is, pretty much all of the recorded evidence attests to how well the group's four members – Kozar, baritone Jeffrey Gavett, trombonist William Lang, and until recently bass clarinetist Carlos Cordeiro – play together in an almost wholly bespoke canon. That's part of what makes the concert the group is presenting on Wednesday, February 26, at 8pm such a big deal. Titled "Plays Well with Others," the program features new pieces for loadbang and a string ensemble, by Eve Beglarian, Reiko Füting, Paula Matthusen, Heather Stebbins, and Scott Wollschleger. The opportunity to hear loadbang – including the quartet's newest arrival, clarinetist Adrián Sandí – working with other musicians is so rare and unusual, you really wouldn't want to pass it up.

Another part of what makes this concert special: did I mention it includes music by Eve Beglarian, Reiko Füting, Paula Matthusen, Heather Stebbins, and Scott Wollschleger? That is a killer lineup.

One more part of what makes this concert special is the string ensemble. You've got Christopher Otto, Erica Dicker, Conrad Harris, Lauren Cauley Kalal, Andie Springer, and Teagan Farran on violins. The viola section is Hannah Levinson, Carrie Frey, and Leah Asher. Mariel Roberts and Alan Richardson are the cellists, and Evan Runyon plays bass. Steve Beck lends a couple of hands on piano, and Eduardo Leandro conducts.

So, yeah, if you've read this far, then either you should think very seriously about heading waaayy uptown to the Hebrew Tabernacle of Washington Heights (551 Fort Washington Ave., at 185th St.) on Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 8pm, or else you knew about the concert already and you're already planning to be there. If you're in the former category, tickets are available here.

But just in case your disbelief requires suspension, here's proof positive loadbang plays well with others: a video of the group performing Tarantism by Taylor Brook – whose Ouaricon Songs: Volume 2 is included on the quartet's most recent album, old fires catch old buildings – with the Beyond Orchestra, at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Music Hall in 2018.

Feeling the Love for "Phil the Hall."

One of the new initiatives the New York Philharmonic rolled out last season, to coincide with the arrival of music director Jaap van Zweden (and Deborah Borda, the institution's president, as well) was "Phil the Hall," an unambiguously populist gesture in which first responders, volunteers, and other public-service professionals were invited to come to Lincoln Center, hear some very good music played by the city's flagship ensemble, and feel welcomed and celebrated.

The program – hosted by Miss America, Nia Franklin, and conducted by Van Zweden – was presented four times, with tickets priced at $5. A video featuring highlights from last year's events is available on the Philharmonic website. Tony Tommasini's New York Times review conveys many details and impressions—including praise for two of the composers, both 11-year-old participants in the orchestra's Very Young Composers program.

This year, it appears that "Phil the Hall" is happening only once, on Friday, April 3, at 8pm. There's no specification about types of professionals being invited to participate on the page for the event on the Philharmonic website, which simply states that Van Zweden and the orchestra "welcome our fellow New Yorkers to this special concert, back by popular demand."

There are a few new wrinkles. Along with the program announced in advance, audience members are requested to cast votes (here) for additional works to be played: the overture to Mozart's Marriage of Figaro or Rossini's William Tell, a splashy brass passage from Also sprach Zarathustra or Pictures at an Exhibition, and so on. Also stipulated this year: audience response will determine which piece gets an encore performance right there, on the spot.

What impresses me most, though, is that along with the Bernstein-era canon fodder, from Copland, Shostakovich, and Bernstein himself, the Philharmonic will present two works of more recent vintage—and more recent significance, too. Tread softly, by Nina C. Young, was the first of the institution's Project 19 commissions to be performed: a sequence of impressions, ruminations, and ecstatic expressions that materialize in sequence, then get cut off all too abruptly.

Young's piece is vivid, resourceful, and unpredictable, and makes its point imaginatively and poetically. And it's wholly likely that Tread softly will sound even more impressive in this context than it did among the odd-bedfellow works by Haydn and Mozart that adjoined its premiere. (I wrote a bit more about Project 19 and Young last month, here.)

The other recent piece on the "Phil the Hall" bill is Sweating Bullets, by Paloma Alonso—who was 12 years old when her work had its world premiere on December 7, 2019, during a Young People's Concert conducted by Van Zweden (his first), alongside pieces by Beethoven, Steve Reich, and Reena Esmail.

Alonso's composition, a cinematic evocation of jangled nerves, was a hit—and a highlight of the first YPC event I got to attend with The Girl, who was wildly impressed that the relatively small person she saw onstage could marshal such big, big sounds.

My hat's off to whoever selected the Young and Alonso works for this event. Both are effective, exciting pieces—and both make strong statements about representation and ability, too.

 

Happening Tonight: Ben Neill Presents 'Fantini Futuro.'

If you happen to be in the vicinity of Ramapo College in Mahwah, NJ, tonight (Feb. 13) at 8pm, you can see the premiere performance of Fantini Futuro, a new multimedia piece by the great experimental trumpeter and composer Ben Neill. Inspired by Girolamo Fantini, the Baroque composer credited with bringing the trumpet in from the hunt and the battlefield to the concert platform, Neill collaborates with two musicians well-known in New York's early-music community, countertenor Ryland Angel and harpsichordist Gwendolyn Toth. Neill will introduce the Mutantrumpet4.0 (pictured above), the newest iteration of his longtime hybrid electro-acoustic instrument… this one even controls interactive video. Here's a brief preview:

Neill has created Fantini Futuro with support from the Nokia Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology program, and the show is directed by Bob McGrath of Ridge Theater. There's quite a bit more information about the piece on Neill's website, and you'll find more specifics about the Ramapo presentation (including directions) here.

And stay tuned… Neill is in hot pursuit of a New York City engagement for this new project.

Goings On About Town, February 17 & 24, 2020.

My contributions to the Goings On About Town section in the February 17 & 24, 2020 double issue of The New Yorker, covering the dates February 12-25. (Links lead to detailed listings on the New Yorker website.)

New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center; Feb. 13-18 and 20-22; times vary

Project 19, a Philharmonic initiative in which 19 prominent women composers received commissions in honor of the centenary of the 19th Amendment, presents premieres by Tania León (Feb. 13-18) and Ellen Reid (Feb. 20-22).

Philip Glass
Le Poisson Rouge; Feb. 16 at 4:30 and 7:30; Feb. 17 at 6 and 9
Mabou Mines; Feb. 21-22 at 7:30; Feb. 23 at 5 (through March 7)

At LPR, the Philip Glass Ensemble plays Music in 12 Parts, sans its namesake member; meanwhile, two compact new music-theater pieces open for a run in the East Village.

Melaine Dalibert
Areté Venue & Gallery, Greenpoint; Feb. 13 at 7:30
(Also: Daniel Goode's Loft, 167 Spring St.; Feb. 14 at 8pm)

The French composer and pianist plays his own music and works by others, include Anastassis Philippakopoulos, Sébastien Roux, and Michael Vincent Waller.

Jay Campbell & Conor Hanick
92nd Street Y; Feb. 14 at 9

Cellist Jay Campbell, most widely familiar for his adventures in the JACK Quartet, teams up with splendid pianist Conor Hanick for new works by John Zorn, Natacha Diels, and Marcos Balter.

Oscar Bettison
Miller Theatre, Columbia University; Feb. 20 at 8

Instead of a rangy survey covering a broad span of musical works, Alarm Will Sound focuses this composer portrait program on two dazzling large-scale works that demonstrate Oscar Bettison's refined ferocity.

Kirill Gerstein
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall; Feb. 20 at 7:30

Pianist Kirill Gerstein mixes physicality, poetry, and abundant dazzle in a wide-ranging recital, including the New York premiere of a Thomas Adès piece based on his most recent opera, The Exterminating Angel.

Charles Curtis
Issue Project Room, Brooklyn; Feb. 21-22 at 8

In December, cello iconoclast Charles Curtis anchored a coast-to-coast Éliane Radigue tour; in January, he issued a three-CD anthology. Now, he stars in an all-Alvin Lucier program, including a major new piece for cello, winds, and dancers.

Goings On About Town, February 10, 2020.

My contributions to the Goings On About Town section in the February 10, 2020 issue of The New Yorker, covering the dates February 5-11. (Links lead to detailed listings on the New Yorker website.)

"In C"
Le Poisson Rouge; Feb. 5 at 7:30

The 16th annual performance of Terry Riley's minimalist milestone, as coordinated by Darmstadt: Classics of the Avant-Garde, features an all-star ensemble.

Caroline Shaw
Miller Theatre; Feb 6 at 8

A composer portrait surveying new and recent pieces by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Kanye West collaborator includes performances by So Percussion (with Shaw singing) and the Attacca Quartet.

Doric String Quartet
Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall; Feb. 6 at 7:30

This polished, personable British foursome presents the U.S. premiere of Brett Dean's String Quartet No. 3, alongside canonical Haydn and Schubert works.

Danish String Quartet
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center; Feb. 7 at 7:30, Feb. 9 at 5, Feb. 11 at 7:30
(Also: Feb. 14 at 7:30, Feb. 16 at 5, Feb. 18 at 7:30)

The marvelous Danes present a complete, chronological Beethoven cycle, hosted by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and spread across six concerts.

"100 Years of Theremin"
Bushwick United Methodist Church, Brooklyn; Feb. 8 at 8

Ambient Church mounts a tribute to the electronic implement behind the eerie wail, including a salute to Clara Rockmore, a U.S. premiere by Laurie Spiegel, and plenty more.

John McCowen
Issue Project Room, Brooklyn; Feb. 8 at 8

Brooklyn clarinetist McCowen, who views his instrument as an "acoustic synthesizer," opens an Issue Project Room residency with an evening of music for unaccompanied contrabass clarinet.