The NY Phil – or, at least, those who weren't stuck at Avery Fisher - traveled 30 blocks north from their usual home to Symphony Space Friday night for the second (and final) CONTACT program of the season. In remarks beforehand, Music Director Alan Gilbert gushed enthusiasm for the Phil's new new music series, while at the same time admitting to the difficulty of performing works by living composers. "It's much easier to perform works by composers who don't talk back to you," Gilbert joked.
Also present Friday night was NY Phil composer-in-residence Magnus Lindberg, who in conversation reminded me how impressive these individual musicians are. "When you ask for more, they give you more," he exhorted. "And then, they give you even more." Nevertheless, he also admitted that playing this unfamiliar music was a difficult transition for many of them.
As with last December's CONTACT, each of the three works on the program was a world premiere, written by a trio of young caucasian male composers. (Way to mix things up, Phil.) Sean Shepherd's These Particular Circumstances was sharp and fierce, aggregating a hodgepodge of styles and even quotations (including a snippet of "Mercury" from The Planets.) Nico's Detailed Instructions was softer and more cinematic, painting the edges with a hint of menace (aided by his doubling of the violas and cellos.) Matthias Pintscher's songs from Solomon's garden was full of dense and detailed writing for orchestra and voice, the latter of which was provided by baritone Thomas Hampson, this season's artist-in-residence. (BTW – there are sponsors to all these resident people, which you can find on the Phil's website, assuming you care about such things.)From where I sat right up close in Symphony Space's shoebox theater, it was hard not to be impressed by the superior standard of playing – especially considering the players couldn't hide behind the Phil's usual complement of 120-plus players. Even if some of them appeared to be less-than-engaged, none gave short shrift to the music placed in front of them, perhaps realizing that any orchestra worth its salt these days plays a healthy dose of contemporary music.
CONTACT returns next season, though with decidedly less new music: only three world premieres and one composer (Gerard Grisey) who shuffled off this mortal coil twelve years ago. Must be tough times around the nonprofit world these days… (More pics over at the FoM Flickr page.)