This weekend will be a chillier one than usual in New York, but there's plenty to do to for those with cabin fever. Tonight at Scandinavia House, Talea Ensemble will present Danish Counterpoints, with works by Bent Sørensen and the U.S. premiere of Hans Abrahamsen's Schnee (Snow). The latter piece requires "wax paper and lumber."
On Saturday night, pianists Roberto Hidalgo and Marc Peloquin (a.k.a. Split Second) give the second installment of Keyed Up Music Project, featuring four-hand and two-piano works by David Lang, Leo Smit, Errollyn Wallen and Pablo Ziegler. The American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) and singer Craig Wedren will perform music of Jefferson Friedman, part of the ongoing Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Concert Hall. And Joel Sachs and the New Juilliard Ensemble open this year's Focus! Festival at Alice Tully, kicking off a week called Polish Modern: New Directions in Polish Music Since 1945.
Sunday, composer Bunita Marcus discusses the work of Morton Feldman at Piano Magic in Tribeca (1:00 p.m.), and at 4:00 p.m. at the Roger Smith Hotel, Wet Ink Ensemble has an intriguing program called Broken Voices: Loss, Memory and Fragmentation, including Kurtág's S.K. Remembrance Noise. And at 7:30 p.m., the excellent group counter)induction presents Discourses, a program exploring the relationship between music and speech, part of transit circle, a series presented by Mannes College.
[Photo: Frozen Food Section of a Supermarket, Groton, Connecticut by Todd Gipstein]