Venue: Galapagos Art Space, New York City

Believe all the hype: Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe—more famously called Anderson and Roe—are electric. At Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, this piano duo did more than celebrate the launch of their new album; they fashioned an entirely new concert experience.

In 1857, downtown Brooklyn—now fondly referred to as DUMBO—was a sleepy, riverside village. It was also the inaugural year for the Brooklyn Philharmonic. When Bizet, Berlioz and Wagner were the creative voices of the generation in Europe, the Brooklyn Phil was right there with them, launching a classical music culture in the heart of Manhattan’s borough.

A happy few: that was how Gabriel Kahane referred to his cohorts on stage at the Galapagos Art Space. But there was more than met the eye to Sunday night’s performance.The curtain opened to reveal the stage at the Galapagos Art Space, and there sat the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, without a conductor. Truthfully, the effect was strange at first.