s e q u i t u r




		Cellos Add Wordless But Lyrical Voices by Allan Kozinn, New York Times 03/04/2008 Stylistic Wanderings and Flirtations With Multimedia And Jazz by Allan Kozinn, New York Times 04/18/2007 Earthy Cuban Sounds, Rendered With An Urban Complexity by Allan Kozinn, New York Times 01/10/2007 A Menu Of Familiar Signposts And A One-Woman Opera by Anne Midgette, New York Times 04/02/2005 American Piano of the 1940s by Jack Sullivan, American Record Guide 01/01/2005 Sequitur-Concertos BBC Music Magazine 04/01/2004 Sequitur-Concertos by Ian Quinn, American Record Guide 01/31/2004 Sequitur-Concertos by Ken Smith, Gramaphone Magazine 01/01/2004 Sequitur-Concertos by Steve Smith, Time Out New York 11/20/2003 Eclecticism and Humor in Works by Lewis Spratlan by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times 11/14/2003 Meditations on Power, Old and Freshly by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times 05/22/2003 Sequitur's new-music cabarets offer contemporary classics with theatrical flair by Brian WIse, Time Out New York 05/15/2003 Music In Review: Sequitur by Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times 05/24/2002 A High-Energy Romp Through The Raucous 1940's by Anne Midgette, New York Times 10/27/2001 Seasons of Squawks on the Crows' Calendar by Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times 03/01/2001 Two Flutists Explore the 20th-Century Repertory by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times 10/28/2000 Concert Connects New With Newer by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times 04/28/2000 Poetry as the Setting for Meditations on a Child's Death by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times 11/16/1999 The Sound of the City by Robert Hilferty, The Village Voice 01/26/1999 Music: Classical and New by Rose Martelli, newyork.citysearch.com 01/18/1999 New Songs Spring Forth In a Lively Mixture by Paul Griffiths, The New York Times 01/13/1999 A Cozy Cabaret Of Comical Sultriness by Justin Davidson, New York Newsday 01/12/1999 Sequitur: George Crumb Concert by Kenneth Goldsmith, New York Press 11/18/1998 Clash Of The Titans: Two Legendary Composers are Feted by Ken Smith, Time Out New York 10/22/1998 Sequitur: Kaye Playhouse Concert by Mark W. Greenfest, The New Music Connoisseur 05/18/1997 New Works Teeming With Fauna by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times 02/22/1997

		For the most recent articles and review archives click here


	Eclecticism and Humor in Works by Lewis Spratlan by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times 11/14/2003 Lewis Spratlan, a composer who lives in Amherst, Mass., won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for his opera, "Life Is a Dream" - actually, for a concert version of its second act. At the time his music was barely known in New York, and to this day there has not been a full staging of the opera. Still, if the Pulitzer has done Mr. Spratlan any good, it has been in creating a curiosity about his work. On Nov. 6 the new-music ensemble Sequitur played four of his pieces in a Composer Portrait concert at the Miller Theater. Mr. Spratlan's mastery of timbres and how to blend them was immediately apparent, but perhaps his most winning qualities are his quirky eclecticism and his sense of humor. In "Zoom" (2003), a chamber orchestra piece composed for this program, he begins by having the players alternate sharp, loud chordal bursts with all manner of breathy vocalizations, including sighs, heavy breathing, gasping and panting. Eventually the musical content sweeps away the sound effects, only to career between slidey modernist textures and fleeting hints of big-band jazz. A touch of what seems to be the influence of Frank Zappa streams through the last two movements as well, and from there it's a short step to cartoonish sound effects. That may sound like an odd assortment of moves, but "Zoom" holds the interest and never grows facile. Much the same can be said for the earliest score on the program, "When Crows Gather" (1986), a work in nine connected, briskly paced movements. The meat of the work is an almost continuous racing figure that runs through the strings, winds and piano line. As in "Zoom" there are allusions to other music as well, in this case ragtime and hymns. And toward the end Mr. Spratlan has the musicians imitate a flock of noisy crows that gathered outside his studio on the morning he composed the work. The two other works on the program, though less colorful, were compelling in other ways. "Of Time and the Seasons" (2001) is a setting of seven Finnish texts, ancient and modern, in English translation. The ensemble accompaniment is often spare, leaving the focus entirely on the vocal line, which Lucy Shelton sang affectingly. Mark Kaplan was the eloquent soloist in the Concertino for Violin and Chamber Ensemble (1995), a work that begins dryly but makes its way toward a playful, mock-Romantic (as opposed to neo-Romantic) finale.

	For the most recent articles click here