New Music

JACK Quartet and Joshua Roman at (le) Poisson Rouge

Ancient and innovative can easily coexist. In music especially, composers and peroformers throughout history have looked back for guidence and inspirtaion as they move forward. Steve Reich has openly written about the debt his music owes to the 13th century French composer Pérotin and one of Felix Mendelssohn’s greatest achievements was his rediscovery of J.S Bach’s music with his mounting of the St. Matthews Passion.
On Sunday night, the JACK Quartet and guest cellist Joshua Roman continued this tradition of finding inspiration in history and programmed their findings next to the rule breakers of today. They presented three madrigals by the intensely expressive renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo, arranged for sting quintet by JACK violinist Ari Streisfeld, as well as works by Joshua Roman, Brian Ferneyhough and a new piece, premiered by the quintet just three weeks ago in Seattle, by Jefferson Friedman.

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Jennifer Koh and Ensemble LPR at (le) Poisson Rouge

Last night, trailblazing violinist Jennifer Koh was joined by Ensemble LPR at (le) Poisson Rouge. They came together for a night of music by John Zorn, Charles Wuorinen, and Ludwig van Beethoven as a part of the LPR X5 festival. All of the pieces, ‘Passagen’ by Zorn, ‘Spin-5 for Violin and 18 Musicians’ by Wuorinen, and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony brought a sense of wild abandon that perfectly complemented the youth and excitement of both Koh and Ensemble LPR.
Koh brought a fiery passion to John Zorn’s ‘Passagen’ for solo violin, which, like Wuorinen’s, was written for Ms. Koh. The piece is rife with rapid shifts from tight, intense tremolos and harsh pizzicato to tender ghostly harmonics. Sometimes, just sometimes, Koh coaxed out a single pure clean ethereal note or phrase that would sing out from the chaos before it was swallowed up again. The uneven rhythmic chords and pizzicato playing gave a distinctly Bartokian flavor, a flavor that was enhanced by Koh’s savage bowing.

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(le) Poisson Rouge and the Metropolitan Opera Preview Nico Muhly’s “Two Boys”

Nico Muhly remains one the most active young composers around. Last Tuesday night, fresh off of curating at and performing in his own festival, A Scream and An Outrage, he returned to New York for two shows at Le Poisson Rouge. The night consisted of a broad range of works based loosely based around a preview of his opera, Two Boys, premiering at the Met in October.
The opera premiered at the English National Opera in 2011. With a libretto by celebrated American playwright Craig Lucas, it examines issues associated with the darker corners of the Internet and online chat rooms. The opera is a part of Met general manager Peter Gelb’s larger effort to bring opera to a younger demographic, and the nature of the issues explored drags opera firmly into the 21st century.

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