This review was very short and after listening to the mentioned pieces, very hard to review. The main point of this review is not necessarily about the music but about the venue and the new ideas they have to attract listeners. The Miller Theater is located at 116^th street and Broadway in Manhattan. It is part of the Columbia University School of Arts and host a production titled “POP UP!” This theater is home to many artists that come in and out, but this article specifically mentioned the string quartet JACK. The quartet played Giacinto Scelsi’s String Quartet No.4 as a group followed by breaking up into individual performances. Ms. Radnofsky, a solo cellist performed Helmut Lachenmann’s “Pression,” Ari Streisfeld, played the six solo violin pieces in Salvatore Sciarrino’s “Caprices” and ended with Iannis Xenakis’s sextet “Ittidra.”

Anthony Tommasini, the author of the review, seemed to really like the performances. Tommasini made comments like “Mr. Streisfeld gave a dazzling performance of Salvatore Sciarrino’s Caprices…” and “Tuesday’s program began with the JACK Quartet…offering a gripping account of Giacinto Scelsi’s String Quartet No. 4 (1964).” However, I believe the main focus is on the venue. Melissa Smey, the director of the Miller Theater, offers free beer and drinks to all paying customers. She says it “brings audiences closer to the music.” She also lets people sit in one of the 90 chairs surrounding the performers on stage. Smey also added lanterns hanging overhead to give the stage the feeling of being inside of a salon. With the new ideas in mind, “Pop Up! offers a relaxing way to hear challenging modern music.”

I have some things I agree with and some things I disagree with in this review. First, I completely agree with the novel idea of free drinks and putting the crowd around the performers. There are two main things I agree about the free drinks; one being the fact that we are still in a recession and people always love free stuff especially booze, and second, it’s on a college campus. College kids will go see anything if they are handed free alcohol. I also think that allowing the audience to sit on stage creates a feeling of uniformity. One thing I disagree with is the feeling of awe of the performances. Not in the sense of talent but in the sense of music selection. I don’t know why these pieces were chosen but after listening to the ones I could find, no wonder they wanted people drunk for this. Lachenmann’s piece wasn’t at all what I was expecting when I think of a solo cello performance. The performer put it “to a catalog of ‘different pressures,’ used to make not ‘sound effects’ she said, but unconventional, deeply musical sounds.” That’s exactly what the piece was, just sounds. Weird, unpleasant, dissonant sounds that made little sense to an untrained ear. Initially I was hoping for a pretty typical quartet performance. Cello, viola and violins performing something with nice melodies and harmonies. I really love hearing the cello and was most excited to hear that. Instead, the performance sounded like the sound effects used in a horror film. Here is the link to hear for yourself. I couldn’t even find Scelsi’s String Quartet No.4. I guess that is why I am writing this for a class and not working for the New York Times as a music critic.