Bargemusic gives a strong showing for composers old and new

By Joseph Pfender, 01 July 2013

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Reviewed at Bargemusic, New York City on 30 June 2013

Beethoven, Trio for Clarinet (or Violin), Cello and Piano, “Gassenhauer”, Op.11

Lutosławski, Grave (Metamorphoses for cello and piano)

Milhaud, Sonatine for clarinet and piano, Op.100

Ben-Amots, Cantillations

Brahms, Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op.114

Alexander Fiterstein, Clarinet

Nicholas Canellakis, Cello

Steven Beck, Piano

Argento New Music Project returns to live performance

Kurt Gottschalk, 15th August

The chamber ensemble offered a century-spanning programming, stretching from Béla Bartók and Ruth Crawford Seeger to Ann Cleare and Georg Friedrich Haas.

*****

A timely Mother of Us All at the Metropolitan Museum

Kurt Gottschalk, 11th February

The Mother of Us All isn’t an easy work and it’s far from one of Stein’s best pieces of writing. But in this centenary of women’s suffrage, it’s an important one.

***11

The Messiaen Connection: Salonen and members of the NY Phil

Jacob Slattery, 7th March

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).

****1

A Dancer's Dream: All the old showstoppers at the New York Philharmonic

Rebecca Lentjes, 28th June

Unusual scenes at the New York Philharmonic this past weekend: a ballerina flouncing across the stage; conductor Alan Gilbert lugging a life-size puppet down the aisle amid rows of laughing, bewildered audience members; black-and-white video projections of the orchestra musicians sipping tea.

****1

A dramatic night with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society

Kurt Gottschalk, 18th January

From the simple observations of Jessie Montgomery’s duets to the slow beauty of Kaija Saariaho’s Light and Matter, the program holds out promise that, whatever else happens, the sun will still rise tomorrow.

****1

Hungarian flair at ChamberFest Cleveland

Sam Jacobson, 25th June

ChamberFest Cleveland’s Hungarian evening traversed works of Liszt, Eötvös, and Dohnányi, alongside Brahms’ apt Hungarian Dances.

****1

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Joseph Pfender

Joseph Pfender, a PhD student in musicology at NYU, has active research interests in electroacoustic and multimedia performance, perceptual agency, music and folklore, and theorizing orchestration. He has presented work in conjunction with the Metropolitan Opera, and in Athens, Greece.