When Frank Zappa was a teenager he was fascinated with the music of Edgard Varèse. He listened to an album with the works of the European composer over and over, even though he didn’t understand the technical aspects. “I didn’t know what timbre was,” he wrote in a 1971 magazine piece titled “The Idol of My Youth.” “I never heard of polyphony. I just liked the music because it sounded good to me. I would force anybody who came over to listen to it.” So come check out this wonderful concert on July 19th that inspired the likes of Frank Zappa!
Part I
Monday, July 19 at 8:00
Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
So Percussion
Part II
Tuesday, July 20 at 8:00
Avery Fisher Hall
New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert, conductor
“The performance was brilliant, an unabashed, heady assault on listeners.”
—The New York Times on the New York Philharmonic performing Amériques
Discover the fourth dimension of music by experiencing the entire repertoire of Edgard Varèse in two consecutive evenings. Varèse was a unique character in the progressive classical music scene and embodied the technical advancements that characterized the 20th century. He flourished among the urban sounds of New York, experimenting with unusual orchestrations, atonality, new uses of electronics and percussion, complex rhythms and meters, and other elements that came to define his compositional style of “organized sound.”
Performances feature the New York Philharmonic under its new music director Alan Gilbert, the dynamic International Contemporary Ensemble under the skilled direction of Steven Schick, the incredible rhythms of So Percussion, Musica Sacra led by Kent Tritle, Finnish soprano Anu Komsi, who gave a thrilling performance at Lincoln Center Festival 2007, and many more.
link
Part I
Monday, July 19 at 8:00
Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
So Percussion
Part II
Tuesday, July 20 at 8:00
Avery Fisher Hall
New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert, conductor
“The performance was brilliant, an unabashed, heady assault on listeners.”
—The New York Times on the New York Philharmonic performing Amériques
Discover the fourth dimension of music by experiencing the entire repertoire of Edgard Varèse in two consecutive evenings. Varèse was a unique character in the progressive classical music scene and embodied the technical advancements that characterized the 20th century. He flourished among the urban sounds of New York, experimenting with unusual orchestrations, atonality, new uses of electronics and percussion, complex rhythms and meters, and other elements that came to define his compositional style of “organized sound.”
Performances feature the New York Philharmonic under its new music director Alan Gilbert, the dynamic International Contemporary Ensemble under the skilled direction of Steven Schick, the incredible rhythms of So Percussion, Musica Sacra led by Kent Tritle, Finnish soprano Anu Komsi, who gave a thrilling performance at Lincoln Center Festival 2007, and many more.
link