Bagatelles Without Tonality Comes to Placido Domingo Hall

On Sunday evening February 10 pianist Max Lifchitz will perform Franz Liszt's Bagatelle Without Tonality as part of a recital with commentary featuring works by composers from throughout the Americas.

The event will be held at the Placido Domingo Hall of the National Opera Center (330 7th Ave - Floor 7) in Manhattan. It will start at 7 PM and will end around 8:30 PM. The Auditorium is ADA Accessible. Admission is free (no tickets needed).

The event is part of the 2019 Composers Now Festival taking place throughout New York City.

The program will explore the stylistic implications of Liszt's prophetic composition written in 1885. It will feature first hearings in New York of concise works by Canadians Allan Crossman and Leslie Opatril; Argentinean Alicia Terzián; Brazilian Gilberto Mendes; Mexican Manuel Enríquez; as well as Americans Ruth Crawford, Ssu-Yu Huang, Paul Konye, Robert Martin, John McGinn, Joseph Rivers and William Toutant. The program will also introduce a new composition written for the occasion by Mr. Lifchitz.

Franz Liszt wrote the Bagatelle Without Tonality - a work he considered to be his Mephisto Waltz No. 4 - a year before his passing. Widely considered to be the first piece in the history of western music not to follow the principle of tonal gravity, Liszt's enigmatic composition antedated the varied musical trends that emerged during the first half of the 20th century. The works by other composers on the program manifest a wide variety of approaches to the concepts Liszt explored in his prophetic composition. Crawford, Enríquez and Martin explore musical ideas that travel farther than the point where the romantic master adjourned. Others such as Terzián, Mendes, Opatril and Huang retain elements of traditional harmony while refashioning them in inventive and unexpected ways.

Active as pianist and composer, Max Lifchitz has appeared as soloist with among others, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Sheboygan Symphony, México's National Symphony Orchestra, Peru's National Symphony and the Neuchatel Orchestra in Switzerland. The San Francisco Chronicle described him as "a composer of brilliant imagination and a stunning, ultra-sensitive pianist" while the New York praised commented on his "clean, measured and sensitive performances." A graduate of The Juilliard School and Harvard University, Mr. Lifchitz is the founder and director of the New York City based North/South Chamber Orchestra now celebrating its 39th consecutive season. His numerous recordings are widely available through iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube and other commercial music streaming services.

The event is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; a grant from the Women's Philharmonic Advocacy and the support of many generous individual donors.