Stars from Heaven

For decades, the Ives Ensemble has been the dedicated guardian of 20th-century modernism and its contemporary offshoots. In the Thursday Evening Series, they present surprising music by unconventional composers. This season the ensemble will be performing premieres by Piet-Jan van Rossum and resident composer Richard Rijnvos. He based his new Riflesso on vocal cycles by Ravel and Stravinsky. The versatile soprano Keren Motseri will perform both this premiere of Rijnvos’ piece and the works that inspired it.

In Riflesso sull’aria, echoes of the past shimmer like stars across a musical sky. Beneath the surface, the reflection of music that Stravinsky and Ravel composed after they heard Arnold Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire shimmers. Altough Rijnvos’s echo of an echo contains not a single note by Ravel, Stravinsky or Schönberg, their presence is unmistakable. In Piet-Jan van Rossum’s music, too, the past glimmers and sparkles. He brings forgotten sounds back to life, polishing them with a new radiance.