Celebrating the Piano in all its Forms
September 17–October 22, 2017
One Rivington NYC
To kickoff our eleventh season, Metropolis presents and hosts a series devoted to pianists at the vanguard of New York’s new music scene, curated in collaboration with pianist David Kaplan. The concerts feature five maverick New York-based pianists and long-time Metropolis collaborators, sharing the stage with invited artists making their Metropolis debuts.
Yamaha CF6 premium grand piano provided by Yamaha Artist Services New York.
Piano Philharmonic
September 17, 2017 (7pm)
One Rivington NYC
Tickets: $50 VIP / $30 General / $10 Student
Timo Andres, David Kaplan, Andrew Hsu and Mika Emily Sasaki pile onto the piano bench to perform music originally for orchestra. We begin in the opera house, with Benjamin Britten's Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, and Thomas Ades' Concert Paraphrase on Powder Her Face. Brahms' first Symphony completes the program. Wine reception to follow sponsored by Miro Cellars.
On the Program:
Benjamin Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
Thomas Ades: Concert Paraphrase on Powder Her Face
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 1
Piano Counterpoint
October 4, 2017 (7pm)
One Rivington NYC
Tickets: $35 Preferred / $20 General / $10 Student
Taka Kigawa performs excerpts from one of his signature pieces, Bach's Art of the Fugue, while Han Chen performs Steve Reich's Piano Counterpoint for piano and electronics. Hear two masterworks for many voices, taken from distant centuries and cultural contexts.
On the Program:
Johann Sebastien Bach: The Art of Fugue BWV 1080
Steve Reich: Piano Counterpoint
Piano Storytellers
October 9, 2017 (7pm)
One Rivington NYC
Tickets: $35 Preferred / $20 General / $10 Student
David Kaplan and Jeremy Jordan collaborate with actor Sherman Howard for an evening of piano and narrator. Improvisations and poetry are followed by Strauss' rarely performed masterwork, Enoch Arden, based on the epic poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
On the Program:
Jeremy Jordan: Improvisation I
Richard Strauss: Enorch Arden
Piano Off-Book
October 18, 2017 (7pm)
One Rivington NYC
Tickets: $35 Preferred / $20 General / $10 Student
Innovative pianists Erika Dohi and Guy Mintus create a program of improvisations and compositions inspired by the idea of dislocation. World premieres by Wadada Leo Smith and Iranian composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh, works by Anthony Davis and Andy Akiho, and extemporization by the performers will explore our common need to find our own place. Explore the complex theme of migration, journeying through myriad sound worlds and styles.
We are defined by our locations, whose cultural contexts blanket us in particular beliefs, rituals, and patterns of thought. What happens when we change location, or different locations visit us? This program explores our need to find our own place, and highlights the vulnerability of journeying beyond one’s home. Wadada Leo Smith escorts us to unexplored parts of the cosmos in his Piano Pieces (world premiere); Anthony Davis’s Middle Passage reflects a less voluntary journey; Iranian composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s HbeaRt searches inward, wishing to find individual purpose (a world premiere commissioned for this program will also be presented); Andy Akiho’s Transparency pays homage to a 20th century masterpiece by presenting it in an utterly different context.
This concert opens with Israel-born New Yorker Guy Mintus, a jazz pianist whose deeply personal music often addresses the struggle of those who migrate. Drawing on his own mixed heritage of Iraqi, Moroccan and Polish Jewish roots, as well as his exploration of Mediterranean musical styles, Guy will share his inner musical world with us, using a loop station and other special electronic effects to achieve his aesthetic.
On the Program:
Guy Mintus: Offlines
Guy Mintus: About A Home
Guy Mintus: Our Journey Together
Guy Mintus: Dalb
Rahbani Brothers: Assfour
Wadada Le Smith: Majestic from Piano Pieces
Anthony Davis: Middle Passage
Andy Akihi: Karakurenai
Andy Akihi: Transparency
Niloufar Nourbakhsh: HbeaRt
Niloufar Nourbakhsh: Fixed
Piano Soundscapes
October 22, 2017 (7pm)
One Rivington NYC
Tickets: $35 Preferred / $20 General / $10 Student
Conor Hanick and Imri Talgam craft an evening celebrating the piano as noise maker, extracting poetry from the most extreme sonic possibilities the instrument offers. Accompanied by a visual synthesizer (visuals by composers Elliot Cole and Ryan Francis), Morton Feldman's Triadic Memories is the evening's epic centerpiece, as a beguiling series of slowly-evolving images coordinate with the music in realtime. The concert opens with Stockhausen’s wild Klavierstück X.
A sanctuary of musical illusions, Triadic Memories not only reconfigures our sense of direction and scale, but with its mysterious, ephemeral soundscapes asks us to reconsider time, evolution, and stasis. This performance will be accompanied by a visual synthesizer, projecting a beguiling series of slowly-evolving images that coordinate with the music in realtime.
A masterpiece of 20th century avant-garde, Klavierstück X abandons all traditional categories of form and sound resources with the juxtaposition of wildly contrasting sound resources and densities. Using gloves, the pianist executes cluster glissandi that provide a range of finely-nuanced noises, turning the acoustic piano sound into an almost electronic soundscape. Alongside the virtuosity and complexity of the work, Klavierstück X explores the long processes of the decay of sound, requiring the listeners to constantly adapt their listening to the unforeseeable alternation between sound states.
This challenge to perception gives the work its monumental character, akin to a cathedral; one tries to grasp it as a totality and falls for the beauty of individual details. At the same time, the piece is not in a limbo of static alteration of these two modes, not merely a collection of highly individualized, poetic moments. As the piece progresses, there is a growing tendency towards clarification, articulation and organization of the different sound materials and characters in a more regular way. This movement from chaos to order, which illuminates the wealth of details, is the mythical core of the piece: a process of genesis.
On the Program:
Morton Feldman: Triadic Memories
Stockhausen: Klavierstuck X
Accolades
“The excellent and adventurous young pianist... played ... with command, elegance, and character.” —New York Times on David Kaplan
“Andres unearthed in this hymn a sense of mystic longing and wonder that suffused his whole piece and came together beautifully in the almost whispered chorale at the work’s conclusion.” —San Diego Story
“Mika Sasaki strikes a happy medium between sensitivity of phrasing and boldness of attack. Her tone is rich and full with a wide range of dynamics and a judicious use of pedal.” —The Art Music Lounge
“Channelling Horowitz right down to the brilliant-yet-delicate high-treble sonority.” —Philadelphia Inquirer on Andrew Hsu
“Unbelievably challenging program. Kigawa is an artist of stature.” —The New Yorker
“Han Chen displayed extraordinary strength, talent and flair.” —International Piano
“Dohi performed beautifully… her ability to tell each unique story as the composers intended made for a thought-provoking evening.” —Christian Kriegeskotte, I Care If You Listen
“Mintus was marvelous. Fluid and passionate, he brought wonderful colors and moods to the compositions.” —Dbdbd Music Magazine
“This was a riveting performance of Olivier Messiaen’s “Couleurs de la Cité Céleste, especially by the brilliant pianist Conor Hanick, who reminds me of a young Peter Serkin.” —The New York Times
“The finesse of Imri Talgam’s touch, a match to his virtuosity, does justice to the music.” —Diapason Magazine France