Mostly Mozart Festival: Intelligence and vigor with Phyllis Chen, Carla Kihlstedt and the ICE

By Dan Wang, 29 August 2013

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Reviewed at Lincoln Center: Clark Studio Theater, New York City on 17 August 2013

Chen, Hush

Chen, Archipelago

Chen, Everything Turns Everything Revolves

Chen, Mobius

Kihlstedt, At Night We Walk in Circles and Are Consumed by Fire

International Contemporary Ensemble

Phyllis Chen, Piano

Carla Kihlstedt, Violin

Wordless stories take root in ICE‘s Hannah Kendall portrait concert

Kurt Gottschalk, 23rd April

The International Contemporary Ensemble performs a program of Hannah Kendall at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre.

****1

Julia Bullock in Meditations for Joséphine at Adelaide Festival

Sandra Bowdler, 3rd March

A challenging depiction of Joséphine Baker brilliantly performed by Julia Bullock under the direction of Peter Sellars at the Adelaide Festival.

****1

ICE plays Jennie C Jones at the Metropolitan Museum

Kurt Gottschalk, 5th October

The Met Museum is currently home to three large sculptures by multidisciplinary artist Jennie C Jones, whose graphic scores are performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble.

****1

ICE shows a new and exciting side of Dai Fujikura at Miller Theatre

Kurt Gottschalk, 5th March

Building on 15 years of collaboration with the ensemble, Gilded Wings (for two clarinets and strings) revealed a new maturity in Fujikura's always enjoyable music.

*****

Jörg Widmann's somber humor at Carnegie Hall

Kurt Gottschalk, 28th January

In fragments and miniatures, the ensemble pieces were most satisfying, allowing Widmann not to build arguments but define subjects by contrast, showing a quick wit and a flair for suspense.

*****

Kopernikus revival finds inspiration – and cliché – in the afterlife

Kurt Gottschalk, 15th May

Composer Claude Vivier approaches the unknowable with a text delivered by a septet of vocalists in a language of his own invention. But the new production adds overly literal video, trading abstraction for the obvious.

***11

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Dan Wang

Dan Wang is a graduate student in music history and theory at the University of Chicago.