Tully Scope Festival Opening Night: For Morton Feldman, with Webern, Xenakis, and Cage…and a prelude by Nathan Davis, by Michael Miller
Tully Scope Festival Opening Night
For Morton Feldman: Chance Encounters
Tuesday, February 22 at 7:30 pm
International Contemporary Ensemble
Steven Schick, conductor and percussion
Feldman: The King of Denmark, for solo percussion
Webern: Concerto for nine instruments
Xenakis: Jalons, for 15 instruments
Cage: Imaginary Landscape No. 4, for 12 radios
Feldman: For Samuel Beckett
I've been thinking quite a bit lately about how habits...maybe it’s better to say methods of listening change over time. Perhaps it's because of my anticipation of Tully Scope, or perhaps the Sibelius festival at Bard, music festivals in general, or perhaps Markand Thaker's intriguing and important book, Looking for the "Harp" Quartet, an Investigation into Musical Beauty, which I'm currently reading...In any case, the unique sound of the new Alice Tully Hall, the character of the opening, and the plan of the festival as a whole drove home to me that we are in a simmering period of change, right now, as new work comes into the repertoire and new environments for listening to music appear on the scene. "Methods of listening" may all boil down to our direct experience of music, sitting quietly, maybe not so passively in our seats, but it involves a lot else besides: the architecture and atmosphere of the hall, who we go with or see there, how we behave at the concert, and before and after — that is, how we engage socially and respect our fellow participants’ enjoyment. An event like Tully Scope opening night reminds us that we are all participants, even the most visibly passive of us. Nathan Davis' Bells — without seeming precious or gimmicky at all — established a participatory precedent, which we shall most likely take with us when we come back for Schubert, Liszt, Tyondai Braxton, and all the rest.

