Avant-garde

'River Spirits' by Susan Botti lives up to its dual billings as a 'theatrical motet' and a 'futuristic abstract fable.'

The language comes not from notes and rhythms but the physical parameters of how an instrument is played.

Exceptet's debut album explores the sonic possibilities of a lineup inspired by Stravinsky, with music by Katherine Balch, Paul Kerekes and Sarah Goldfeather.

In all these works, played magnificently by Jing Yang, Vigeland makes conscious and effective use of the piano's acoustical properties to create sound worlds that couldn't exist in the same way if played by orchestral instruments.

When is an improvisation more than an improvisation? When a spontaneous collaboration gels into something that's more the sum of its parts.

A classical-music supergroup? That's the Principal Brothers: four Black principal (first-chair) woodwind players, who joined forces for a chamber concert with music from Bach to new works written for them.

Victoria Bond's Cutting Edge Concerts series presented the Danish ensemble with music of Elena Firsova, Andrew Waggoner, Danish composer Poul Ruders, and Bond herself.

If we don't really have an atlas in the end, we have an idea for one – a set of maps drawn in the shifting sands of sound.

Even the most familiar of instruments harbors endless possibilities. Mining them is a task that never ends, and never should.

Throughout the concert the young musicians showed a high level of collective polish and individual skill to go with their infectious enthusiasm.