New York Philharmonic Continues 'Contact' Series with Esa-Pekka Salonen at National Sawdust

The next installation of Contact, a series produced by and featuring musicians from the New York Philharmonic, hits Brooklyn's National Sawdust tonight at 7:30 p.m. Having run through January, the reiteration for Feb. 1's engagement will include Esa-Pekka Salonen's own Floof, plus music by Salonen's mentors Donatoni and Castiglioni as well as Lutoslawski.

National Sawdust is Brooklyn's new, multi-purpose event space that has provided a stage for many classical, neo-Classical and avant-garde acts. Last year, Classicalite attended the heralded vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth's concert at the venue, which perhaps has some of the best acoustics in New York among small venues.

However, the program for tonight's performance is slightly more varied. Salonen's Floof (Songs from Homeostatic Homer) requires a bit more instrumentation than a vocal group would have. Written for coloratura soprano and at least six players, the work derives from Stanislaw Lem's humorous short stories The Cyberiad.

The piece was written with former Philharmonic Composer-in-Residence Magnus Lindbergh.

Speaking on behalf of his new composition, Salonen said:

"The Homeostatic Homer is learning to be a poet; onomatopoeia becomes poetry. At the same time, the musical language evolves from primitive gestures towards more complex expression. The ultimate product of the electro-troubadour, a love poem within the realm of tensor algebra, is set to a dodecaphonic rap music."

Also a part of the evening is Lutoslawski's String Quartet, Donatoni's Hot written for solo sopranino/tenor sax and a sex-member ensemble as well as Castiglioni's Dulce refrigerum, a collection of six songs for piano.

Joshua Gersen joins the group as conductor with Esa-Pekka Salonen the host and curator of the evening.

Also to premiere this week is the New York Philharmonic's stunning interpretation of Mozart and Pines of Rome with the renowned pianist Yuja Wang as the soloist of the evening.

The Wang, Mozart and 'Pines of Rome' gala begins Wednesday, Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m.

Unforunately, tickets for the NY Phil's Contact! series for tonight are sold out. Your appearnace, then, may be ready next for Wednesday's engagement. For now, though, here is Esa-Pekka Salonen performing Beethoven with a different Philharmonic from across the pond below.