"-ISMS": New York: "Horizons '83"

Abstract

-Isms. Distracting, defining, diminishing, detracting. Slapped upon musical works still warm from the womb. Those responsible for designing the New York Philharmonic's recent festival, Horizons '83, a showcase for orchestral works written since 1968, asserted a big one. A new Romanticism, it was claimed, afoot in the world of contemporary music, evidenced by the resurgence of accessible, evocative and even magical works, and this current wave of musical humanism was to be represented in its series of seven concerts (twenty-five works representing twenty-five composers) presented June 2 through June 15 at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. Featured conductors included Music Director Zubin Mehta, Assistant Conductor Larry Newland, Composer-in-Residence Jacob Druckman, along with guest artists Raymond Leppard, Gunther Schuller and Arthur Weisberg. In addition to the various soloists joining the Philharmonic, three ensembles who specialize in contemporary music performed: the New York New Music Ensemble, Group for Contemporary Music and Speculum Musicae. The various symposia, interspersed throughout the twoweek event, were geared toward composer/audience member interaction on the issues arising from the stated aesthetic context for the festival itself: Since 1968, A New Romanticism? Contexts, once ably established, are powerful things. Listening experiences are more than subtly shaped and guided. Critics are quick to accept the gratuitous angle and through journalistic reiteration, slogans and labels seem to take on a life of their own long after a successful box-office draw has occurred. But while it is considered usual to judge works by personal