The first performance of the New York Philharmonic’s new Nightcap series “took place late Friday night, with an inventive, hourlong program organized by the 24-year-old composer Conrad Tao following a performance of his ‘Everything Must Go,’ which had its premiere on Thursday,” writes Anthony Tommasini in Tuesday’s 10/2) New York Times. “Both Nightcap and another contemporary music series, Sound On … take the place of Contact, the [Philharmonic’s] new-music series…. These new ventures are meant to be more informal…. On Friday, Jaap van Zweden, the Philharmonic’s new music director, introduced Mr. Tao, whom he first got to know as a prodigious 16-year-old pianist…. The Nightcap program, hosted by the violist and new-music specialist Nadia Sirota, demonstrated the breadth of Mr. Tao’s skills and curiosity…. He began with his arrangement of [Bruckner’s] ‘Ave Maria’ choral motet, utilizing Vocaloid, a synthesizer choir.… He then introduced … the dancer and choreographer Caleb Teicher, who joined him for an arrangement of another Bruckner motet, ‘Christus Factus Est.’ … Later, joined by the experimental vocalist Charmaine Lee, they performed a freewheeling improvisation…. For the final piece, Mr. Tao and Ms. Lee performed a structured improvisation that segued into ‘Heavy Rain,’ a song he wrote last year.”
Posted October 3, 2018
