Live, Video: Kritiken zu klassischen Konzerten, Opern, Ballett und Tanz finden | Lincoln Center: Clark Studio Theater

This performance of Georg Friedrich Haas’ Third String Quartet, performed in the dark as part of Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival,  was an engulfing, unique experience, made all the more so by the ethereal music.

It is difficult to write comparatively about Pauline Oliveros’ music. Typically, when listening to new music, the ear begins to chart differences and repetitions, and the way these are structured with dynamics, pitch, and texture.

The Mostly Mozart Festival continued Sunday afternoon with another program of new music – quite literally, as all were world premières – from two more young composers. Tyshawn Sorey, in addition to being a composer, is a jazz instrumentalist and improviser, though the distinction between composer and improviser quickly breaks down in his practice.

I was fortunate to hear one of the best hours of new music in recent memory from ICElab, a collaboration between the International Contemporary Ensemble and a select group of young composers, currently hosted at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart festival.

The ceiling at the Clark Studio Theater was hung with white gauzy curtains descending all the way to the floor. The wispy fabric served as dividers between four stages, on which were arranged different combinations of instruments.