How it's done: John Zorn celebrates his 60th birthday at the Barbican

On Thursday evening, not a seat was vacant in Alice Tully Hall for The Holy Visions, the inaugural concert of Lincoln Center Festival’s three-day performance series honoring John Zorn’s impending birthday. The series is just a small installment in Zorn@60, an international celebration of one of New York’s most revered avant-garde composers and musicians, who will turn 60 on 2 September.

An intermittently sparkling evening culminates in a thrilling explosion of art.

One minor Balanchine, elevated by commanding performances; a rare Albert Evans; Peter Martins at his most compelling and Jerome Robbins at his funniest.

Alexei Ratmansky draws out exceptional individual qualities of each of five ballerinas in his intriguing world premiere for New York City Ballet, set to spoken word and live piano.

As part of the New York Philharmonic’s CONTACT new music series at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, Esa-Pekka Salonen drew connections among Olivier Messiaen, two of his students (Pierre Boulez and George Benjamin) and one outlier (Oliver Knussen).

On a program of musical works with imagery ranging from Mount Fuji to zygotes, the common thread was Japan and the sounds it has inspired over the past few decades.