THENEWYORKER, SEPTEMBER 16, 2019 9
ILLUSTRATION BY LEONARDO SANTAMARIA
Anticipating the countdown to opening night, the New York Philharmonic
makes its transition from summer to fall with two extremely enticing
offerings in its “Art of the Score” series. Each emphasizes a masterpiece
score, performed live alongside the blockbuster film it complements. First
up, Sept. 11-12 at David Geffen Hall, is “Close Encounters of the Third
Kind,” for which John Williams laid out a welcome mat for otherworldly
visitors with queasy avant-garde techniques, eerie choral moans, and one
of the most memorable, pithy themes since Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
The slashing cue that accompanies the notorious shower scene in Alfred
Hitchcock’s “Psycho” is equally indelible, but the film’s entire strings-only
score, by Bernard Herrmann, presented Sept. 13-14, is a master class
in evoking uncanny tension through economical means.—Steve Smith
ORCHESTRAS
1
CLASSICAL MUSIC
9/11 Memorial Concerts
Bargemusic
From its vantage point near the base of the
Brooklyn Bridge, Bargemusic once offered
breathtaking views of the Twin Towers; since
9/11, the venue has served as a space for commem-
oration and contemplative music on the tragedy’s
anniversary. The violinist Mark Peskanov, who
directs Bargemusic’s programming, leads two
free memorial concerts this year. Also playing:
On Friday, the elegant pianist Jeewon Park per-
forms works by Brahms and Schumann, and,
during the weekend, she plays piano trios by
Mozart and Dvořák with Peskanov and the cellist
Edward Arron.—Steve Smith (Sept. 11 at 7 and
8:30, Sept. 13 at 7, Sept. 14 at 6, and Sept. 15 at 4.)
“Ten Years of Innovation”
Trinity Church
Under the direction of the conductor Julian
Wachner, the Choir of Trinity Wall Street
has performed the world-première recordings
of three Pulitzer Prize-winning works in the
past five years, often with its sister chamber
ensemble, NOVUS NY. That impressive ré-
sumé provides a cornerstone for five concerts
over four days, all celebrating Trinity’s en-
terprising streak. The first evening, devoted
exclusively to contemporary music, features
excerpts from those prize-winning pieces—
Ellen Reid’s “prism,” Du Yun’s “Angel’s Bone,”
and Julia Wolfe’s “Anthracite Fields”—each
one devastating in its own way. Also playing:
The remaining entries in Trinity’s ten-year
retrospective (Sept. 12-15) touch on Baroque,
sacred, and organ music, where the company
likewise maintains a high standard.—Oussama
Zahr (Sept. 12 at 7.)
New Thread Quartet
Tenri Cultural Institute
The saxophone quartet will likely never be as
ubiquitous as its stringed counterpart, but,
thanks to the diligent work of the New Thread
Quartet and ensembles like it, the genre is
burgeoning, ripe with surprising sounds and
satisfying compositions. Here, the group adds
to a growing canon with a program featuring
world premières by Amy Beth Kirsten and Jude
Thomas alongside recent pieces by Len Tetta
and James Ilgenfritz.—S.S. (Sept. 12 at 8:30.)
Lara Downes
National Sawdust
The pianist Lara Downes honors Clara
Schumann’s legacy with a concert of works
by women that falls exactly on the legend-
ary virtuoso and composer’s two-hundredth
birthday. The dusky, bent lines of Schumann’s
Three Romances, Op. 11, open a recital that
features compositions by turn-of-the-twen-
tieth-century figures, including Amy Beach
and Florence Price. The heart of the program,
though, may be a dazzling sampler of works
by living composers, such as Jennifer Higdon’s
grand yet plucky “Notes of Gratitude,” Elena
Ruehr’s mercurial “Music Pink and Blue,”
and Meredith Monk’s two-piano piece “Ellis
Island,” which Downes performs with Simone
Dinnerstein.—O.Z. (Sept. 13 at 7.)
Body, Circuit des Yeux, and other enlightened
oddballs and obscurities.—J.R. (Sept. 13-15.)
Raveena
Music Hall of Williamsburg
On “Hypnosis,” the first song off Raveena’s
début album, “Lucid,” the singer quietly slides
her voice around celestial pianos and tinkling
chimes, as if she doesn’t want to reveal the full
power of her silky-smooth delivery. This is her
trick—she lures in her listeners and then exposes
her spellbinding abilities one lush recording
at a time. Soulful moments on such tracks as
“Stronger” and “Bloom,” which contain intimate
reflections on feminism and queer identity, are
among Raveena’s richest revelations.—Julyssa
Lopez (Sept. 15.)
duendita
Elsewhere
The Afro-Latina artist, singer, and poet duendita
has been mining the depths of her own interior-
ity for years. As she’s examined her connection
to brown and black communities, the legacy of
trauma she’s inherited, and her place within the
spectrum of human loneliness, she renders her
feelings in disarming R. & B. that is weighty
with history and emotion. On her piercing song
“blue hands,” she sings, “I wish you a long, long,
long black life / this is for the girls that vanish in
the night in blue hands.”—J.L. (Sept. 17.)
Ugly God
S. O. B. ’s
Virality can be bittersweet: the pressure to make
lightning strike twice is immense, and those
who do so run the risk of being caught in a web
of whatever shtick initially made them famous.
The rapper Ugly God’s breakout single, “Water,”
landed on the Internet in 2016—an absurdly
goofy but catchy song that has amassed nearly
three hundred million streams across YouTube,
Spotify, and SoundCloud to date. Irony and
humor have always been central to his brand,
but making magic with those qualities again
has proved challenging. For this appearance, in
the wake of his recently released début album,
“Bumps & Bruises,” he looks to turn his fifteen
minutes into permanence.—B.Y. (Sept. 17.)
