s e q u i t u r




		Brion; 2 Songs from Silas Marner; Sindbad; Exiles by Robert Carl, Fanfare Magazine 03/01/2011 Brion; 2 Songs from Silas Marner; Sindbad; Exiles by Carson Cooman, Fanfare Magazine 03/01/2011 CD review: Harold Meltzer, "Brion, Sindbad, Exiles" by Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle 10/31/2010 Sounds Heard: Harold Meltzer—Brion; Sindbad; Exiles by Frank J. Oteri, New Music Box 10/26/2010 Concertos II by Kilpatrick, American Record Guide 07/30/2010 The concertos for cello, solo bass clarinet and oboe makes this disc an inviting experiment in the contemporary concerto by Robert Moon, Audiophile Audition 04/15/2010 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 (Albany) by Christian Carey, splendidzine.com 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

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	Cellos Add Wordless But Lyrical Voices by Allan Kozinn, New York Times 03/04/2008 Sequitur usually performs in the expanding and contracting configuration that has become the standard for new-music ensembles. But on Monday evening it turned over the stage of Merkin Concert Hall to its cellist, Greg Hesselink, for an unusual program of works for cello and voice. That might not seem an obvious combination: composers (and singers too) generally prefer accompaniments by polyphonic instruments — a keyboard or a guitar — that support the voice and fill out the harmonic picture as well. A cellist can produce chords as well as single lines, and a few works called on Mr. Hesselink to do so. But mostly, the cello was used for its inherent lyricism. It was, in effect, a wordless second voice. Even so, the program began at the more angular end of the spectrum, with Harrison Birtwistle’s “Nine Settings of Lorine Niedecker” (2000). These aphoristic pieces touch on a variety of cello techniques: the cycle’s first sounds are pianissimo plucking, and before it ends, the cello moves through pointillistic passages, lightly sliding figures, vigorous chromaticism and, occasionally, rich, songlike figures. The voice darts through the effects catalog as well, but mostly reflects the quirky naturalism of the poetry. Elizabeth Farnum sang the Birtwistle deftly, but she was heard to better effect at the end of the program, in Harold Meltzer’s attractive, Neo-Classical setting of excerpts from George Eliot’s “Silas Marner.” Here the cello writing is more picturesque: a rocking figure is meant to suggest the rhythms of weaving on a loom; chordal passages evoke a fog, from which the soprano line rises with an inexorable emotional power. Mary Nessinger, a mezzo-soprano, gave a lovely account of Bernard Rands’s “Walcott Songs” (2004), inventive settings of three Derek Walcott poems. In the most striking, “Midsummer, Tobago,” Mr. Rands begins by setting fragments of the poem, then recombines them to create new phrases before presenting the Walcott text straight. Lively pizzicato cello scoring supports this, and the unabashedly melodic vocal writing has an immediate and lasting appeal. Warren Benson’s “Moon Rain and Memory Jane” (1980), based on Robert Hayden’s “Mourning for the Queen of Sunday,” about a murdered gospel singer, has many of the same strengths as the Rands. Its soprano line, performed movingly here by Judith Kellock, mirrors the simplicity and directness of the text. It is supported by tandem cellos, with Mr. Hesselink joined here by Ted Mook. Ms. Kellock also gave a strong account of Arlene Zallman’s spiky, dramatic “Per Organa di Barberia” (2000). Few composers could make dissonance sound as gentle and inviting as Morton Feldman, who was represented here by “Voices and Cello” (1973), a soft-edged, eerily wordless trio, performed with the right measure of soft-edged gracefulness by Ms. Farnum, Ms. Nessinger and Mr. Hesselink. Read it here.

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