No, YOU Are Out of Order

Actually, this post is out of order—it’s from Tuesday evening and I still want to post about a Sunday afternoon concert. But this will be relatively brief.

I was at the Austrian Cultural Foundation of New York, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary (of the new building) this year. The concert was performed by the redundantly named ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble) Ensemble. Avant-garde classical music.* We were asked to hold our applause until the end of the first half.

Program:
praeludium I, for solo piano; origami, for flute, cello and accordion (New York premiere); praeludium II, for solo piano; weiße aepfel, for violin, viola, cello; praeludium III, for solo piano.

My take. praeludium I – a, very slow, scale, from the, lowest, keys, to the, upper-most, keys; origami – repeating intervals (mostly major seconds), sometimes moving up or down in pitch, repeated and repeated and repeated; praeludium II – a, very slow, scale, from the, lowest, keys, to the, upper-most, keys (with a few seemingly random right-hand notes thrown in for good measure); weiße aepfel – white sound (I did not know that was possible with bowed string instruments) giving way to a “scree” sound with pitches going somewhere, though I don’t know where that somewhere was; praeludium III – (ready for this?) a, very slow, scale, from the, lowest, keys, to the, upper-most, keys with, some, large interval, pitches, the other, way, from, top to bottom.

At the end of praeludium III, somebody had to start the applause, so I did. Then I left.

It is possible that I missed a lively, well-balanced second half of the concert, but I, don’t, think, so.

ConcertMeister
*Composer and instrumentalists’ names upon request.