Ligeti, Berio, Ravel, Peck, Kurtag, Dowland, Mansurian, Oliveros, Ignaz, Biber, Crumb, Hersch, Lotti, Ustvolskaya and back to Ligeti. You get the idea – another day and evening of “mixtape” concertizing. The unifying theme of the afternoon concerts was director PatKop’s linking of Kafka’s works and their effects on the future: WWII and it’s aftermath up to the Space Age, ending with Kurtag’s “Kafka Fragments,” a series of brief songs he composed with the author’s “Metamorphosis” at his side. The first evening concert was introspective, eclectic and unified, punctuated by 3 of John Dowland’s 7 “Lachrimae,” a prologue to Ms. Kopatchinskaja’s staged concert conceptualization “Dies Irae.” This is a large work updating the venerable idea of making music about the end of the world and judgement day. There was a hand cranked siren, trombones in the audience, 7 double bassists with video projections and a huge wooden “coffin” beaten with hammers (an instrument invented by Utvolskaya). The stunning end involved all the members of the orchestra filling the aisles while holding wooden metronomes which kept chaotic time until they slowly ran down and came to stop, after which 2 children were handed an olive branch and a metronome, making peace with the future in the hope that time will continue for humankind.
