“It's about chickens who want to go to outer space”: Composers Now Festival at JackNY

By Rebecca Lentjes, 20 February 2013

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Reviewed at Jack NY, New York City on 18 February 2013

Cohen, Long Count

Holland, Conference of the Birds (arr. Quiet City)

Schwartz, Wheel

Schwartz, Routes (Atlas no. 2)

Riley, A Rainbow in Curved Air

Panicker, Fix

Pinto, mini_001

Pinto, mini_004

Pinto, mini_005

Bell, Dial Tone

Rogers, Trajectories (excerpt)

Muchmore, Fr. VI.a-j

Sankaram, boxesBoxesBOXES

Rosenberg III, Chickenometry

Agócs, Hymn

Pinto, Saxophone Quartet (third movement)

Wohl, Microfluctuations in Plainchant

Gatto, Plastic Facts

Rogers, Urban Composites (II and III)

Bracken, Real Numbers

Xenakis, Okho

Quiet City

Elevator Rose

thingNY

Anti-Social Music

New Thread Quartet

Iktus Percussion

Back to the future: Iktus Percussion present Nono, Stockhausen and Kagel at Roulette

Meg Wilhoite, 21st May

The 1960s and 70s are famous for breakthrough developments in rock music, but the story was really no different for the field of art music during those decades. The advent of electronics seems to have instilled in composers a fresh thirst for sound-exploration and conceptual writing.

****1

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Buniatishvili in Hamburg

Mengguang Huang, 24th March

Jonathan Nott and the OSR bring surgical precision to Debussy’s vivid sketches, while Khatia Buniatishvili’s Brahms evokes the soulful, improvisational warmth of a pre-war piano legend at the Elbphilharmonie.

****1

Text and textures in New York premieres by The Crossing at Zankel Hall

David Wolfson, 24th March

Donald Nally’s much vaunted chamber choir The Crossing give a program of three New York premieres at Zankel Hall.

****1

Concertos – for violin and for orchestra – from the Hallé

Peter Connors, 22nd March

Viktoria Mullova is a superb soloist in Brahms' Violin Concerto, while an orchestra full of soloists play Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra with Kahchun Wong presiding.

*****

Kristiina Poska makes an exciting return to conduct the RSNO

Simon Thompson, 20th March

Kristiina Poska directs the RSNO in gripping Tchaikovsky and Pärt, but words and music only occasionally match in Elena Langer's new song cycle.

***11

Chopin and Franck reframed with elegance and insight in Dublin

Andrew Larkin, 20th March

In Dublin, Jean-Luc Tingaud and Louis Lortie bring clarity and purpose to two composers often ill at ease with the orchestra.

****1

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Rebecca Lentjes

Rebecca graduated from New York University in 2012, where she studied Music and Romance Languages. She now works as an assistant editor at RILM (Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale) and as manager of contemporary music collective ensemble mise-en.