Sō Percussion: Trilogy

Reich, Dessner, Lang

July 28

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

165 West 65th Street

“Through a mix of consummate skill and quirky charm, this mercurial quartet has helped to ignite an explosive new enthusiasm for percussion music old and new.”

—New York Times on Sō Percussion

“Bryce Dessner’s most adventurous work.”

—Pitchfork on Music for Wood and Strings

Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting

  • Steve Reich: Music for Pieces of Wood
  • Bryce Dessner: Music for Wood and Strings*
  • David Lang: The so-called laws of nature*

The “smart and dazzling” new-music quartet (Village Voice) kicks off their series with a stunning collection of music by three of today’s top living composers.

Shifting patterns rise and fall in hypnotic arcs in Steve Reich’s exuberant Music for Pieces of Wood (1973), performed entirely on pitched claves. A clear homage to Reich’s piece, Bryce Dessner’s atmospheric Music for Wood and Strings suspends similarly intricate patterns in clouds of reverb. The evening culminates in David Lang’s breakthrough percussion quartet, The so-called laws of nature, which reveals an entirely new realm of music through a whimsical orchestra of invented instruments, many constructed by the performers themselves.

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Add to Calendar 28-07-2016 08:00:00 pm 28-07-2016 10:00:00 pm 15 Reich, Dessner, Lang at Lincoln Center Festival The “smart and dazzling” new-music quartet (Village Voice) kicks off their series with a stunning collection of music by three of today’s top living composers. Shifting patterns rise and fall in hypnotic arcs in Steve Reich’s exuberant Music for Pieces of Wood (1973), performed entirely on pitched claves. A clear homage to Reich’s piece, Bryce Dessner’s atmospheric Music for Wood and Strings suspends similarly intricate patterns in clouds of reverb. The evening culminates in David Lang’s breakthrough percussion quartet, The so-called laws of nature, which reveals an entirely new realm of music through a whimsical orchestra of invented instruments, many constructed by the performers themselves. Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, 165 West 65th Street Lincoln Center Presents Lincoln Center Festival

Also in This Series

Xenakis, Ergun, Trueman

Cage, Lansky, Mackey

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Add to Calendar 30-07-2016 08:00:00 pm 30-07-2016 10:00:00 pm 15 Cage, Lansky, Mackey at Lincoln Center Festival Creatively used found objects, exotic artifacts, and traditional instruments expand the sound palette in pieces by three ingenious composers. The earliest piece planned for Sō Percussion’s trilogy of concerts, John Cage’s Third Construction from 1942, represents a landmark in composing for percussion. Here, instruments from around the world—including rattles, drums, tin cans, claves, cowbells, lion’s roar, cymbal, ratchet, teponaxtle, quijades, cricket caller, and conch shell—are arranged and re-arranged into various combinations to create an astonishing array of colors and rhythms. The second piece, Paul Lansky’s Threads, is one of the most popular works ever written for percussion ensemble. Structured like a Baroque cantata, it swings between moments of intense delicacy and ecstatic drumming. Finally, the four mini-concertos of Steve Mackey’s It Is Time marshal the virtuosity of the individual members of Sō Percussion to speed up, slow down, warp, celebrate, and mourn our perceptions of time. Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, 165 West 65th Street Lincoln Center Presents Lincoln Center Festival
Add to Calendar 29-07-2016 08:00:00 pm 29-07-2016 10:00:00 pm 15 Xenakis, Ergun, Trueman at Lincoln Center Festival Praised equally for their technical virtuosity and creative vision, Sō Percussion is renowned as one of the most exciting ensembles of its kind. Unsurpassed interpreters of the growing canon of chamber music for percussion, they also work with tireless verve and a highly collaborative spirit to bring the distinctively flexible techniques of percussion to new music of all genres. In Métaux, from Xenakis’s groundbreaking 1978 work Pleiades, ghostly overtones rise above the sharp pings of struck metal creating a truly otherworldly experience. Proximity, a contemplative 25-minute piece by the Turkish-born, Oakland-based composer and improviser Cenk Ergun, continues the sense that different combinations of metallic sounds—made here by bells, cymbals, vibes, glockenspiels, and tam tams—can unlock entirely “hypnotically meditative” new sonic realms (NewMusicBox). The crackle and fuzz of a needle dropping on vinyl opens Dan Trueman’s five-act story of man and machine in the digital age, which pulls in metronomes, drum machines, repurposed video game controllers, mics, amps, digital filters, and much more, all to dazzling effect. Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, 165 West 65th Street Lincoln Center Presents Lincoln Center Festival

* Commissioned by Sō Percussion

Venue Accessibility

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  • Assistive listening devices

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