Callithumpian Consort: Esmail, Ives, Carter

NEC: Williams Hall | Directions

290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA
United States

NEC faculty Stephen Drury created the Callithumpian Consort in the belief that new music should be an exciting adventure shared by performers and listeners alike, and that the brand new masterpieces of our day are beautiful, sensuous, challenging, delightful, provocative, and a unique joy.

Callithumpian’s repertoire is the new and unusual, encompassing a huge stylistic spectrum from the classics of the last 100 years to works of the avant-garde and experimental jazz and rock. It is grounded in the musical discoveries of John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Zorn, Giacinto Scelsi, Morton Feldman, and Iannis Xenakis.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Boston Cultural Council and administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture.

This is an in-person event with a private stream available to the NEC community here: https://necmusic.edu/live

  1. Reena Esmail | from Darshan, for solo violin

    I. Bihag
    III. Charukeshi

    Artists
    • Lilit Hartunian, violin

  2. Charles Ives | Largo, for violin, clarinet and piano

    Artists
    • Lilit Hartunian, violin
    • Christopher Bush, clarinet
    • Stephen Drury, piano

  3. Elliott Carter | Figment for solo cello (1994)

    Program note

    The idea of composing a solo cello piece had been in the back of my mind for many years, especially since so many cellists had been urging me to do so. When Thomas Demenga asked me for such a work, at my 1994 85th birthday concert in Basel, to be premiered at a concert he was giving in New York City sponsored by the Naumburg Foundation, I promptly set to work. Figment for solo cello presents a variety of contrasting, dramatic moments using material derived from a single musical idea.
    - Elliott Carter

     
    Artists
    • David Russell, cello

  4. Elliott Carter | Figment No. 2: Remembering Mr. Ives (2001)

    Program note

    Figment No. 2was composed in the spring of 2001 as a present for the wonderful American cellist Fred Sherry, who with his outstanding instrumental and organizational abilities and his boundless enthusiasms has done so much for music. This short Figment for solo cello recalls fragmentarily bits of the Thoreau movement of the Concord Sonata and Hallowe'en by my late friend Charles Ives, whose music I have known since 1924 and have loved these works in particular.          
    - Elliott Carter

     
    Artists
    • David Russell, cello

  5. Charles Ives | Three Page Sonata

    Artists

  6. INTERMISSION

  7. Charles Ives | Trio for Violin, Violoncello, and Piano

    Moderato
    TSIAJ (This Scherzo Is A Joke)
    Moderato con moto

    Artists
    • Lilit Hartunian, violin
    • David Russell, cello
    • Stephen Drury, piano
Tags
New MusicCollege