I was at a half-empty Zankel Hall on Monday for a concert by the Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, a pickup new music band put together in 1970 by Czech-American Petr Kotik. That makes them veterans on the New York new music scene, and indeed Kotik formed deep and rewarding relationships over the years with several prominent composers, resulting in numerous commissions and collaborations.
Kotik’s program on Monday consisted of works from the 40’s through the 90’s, and rested mostly in the avant garde. The experience was kind of like a trip to the Guggenheim: modern, often interesting, but a bit musty in places. Christian Wolpe’s Chamber Piece No. 1 was aggressively atonal, and frankly, tough to listen to: this is the kind of music that sends audiences screaming for the exits. More engaging was Earle Brown’s Available Forms I, a work based in Cageian chance techniques that requires the players to pay unusually close attention to the conductor, who indicates one of five possibilities for each page of music, which are played in no particular order. (The conductor’s score rested on two stands so that all six sheets could be visible at once.) Kotik obviously spent a great deal of time preparing the work, giving it a structure and form the belied it’s randomness.
The next piece, Richard Strauss’ late Romantic tone poem Metamorphosen, seemed on one level out of place with the rest of the thorny program. But Kotik had a good argument for it’s inclusion: the seemingly never-ending piece precursors minimalism in its repetition and phrasing, with themes passed back and forth between the 23 string players, none of which play together.
There was more minimalism after the intermission, with Somei Satoh’s "The Last Song", which was commissioned for the ensemble and baritone Thomas Buckner, who was there to perform it. Buckner’s voice was frail, but he sang with such conviction and sadness that it hardly mattered.
Stockhausen’s Zeitmasse precedes the selection from Klang I heard in Rome by over 50 years, and was an early experiment in the same sort of cyclical composing, written for five wind instruments. Rounding out the concert was Xenakis’ Palimpsest, which was dominated by a frightening, ritualistic drum and a piano part that sounded a bit like Messiaen. Those that remained till the end offered Kotik and the ensemble a warm ovation.
If you’re not heading out of town for the holiday weekend, there are no less than three events on Saturday, two of which are free: a matinee at Bargemusic at 1p, followed by the final concert of John Scott’s 10-recital survey of the complete organ works of Dietrich Buxtehude at St. Thomas Church. Wrapping up the day is the final Wordless Music Series concert of the season at the Good-Shepherd Faith church near Lincoln Center, featuring Steve Reich’s Different Trains, played by a quartet led by Caleb Burhans of Alarm Will Sound.
The free stuff continues on Sunday at Free For All at Town Hall, when Russian pianist Konstantin Lifschitz will be playing both books of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, a massive undertaking. And, of course, the NY Phil has it’s annual free Memorial Day concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which this year features Dvorak’s Carnival Overture and Brahms’ First Symphony. You can go to the beach next weekend.