Newsday, January 2005

The 19th-century notion of "absolute music" is an historical aberration that still holds sway among critics. This viewpoint prizes "the music itself" and dismisses as tainted works that tell a story or paint a picture: operas, film scores, and instrumental pieces such as Berlioz's opium-fueled "Symphonie Fantastique" or Heinrich Biber's violin sonatas based on the mysteries of the rosary.

Composer Stephen Paulus chuckled when reminded of that view. "You do find in academic quarters a bit of snootiness, a concern with 'pure, abstract' music, but I mean, who cares?" The world premiere of the chamber version of Paulus' "Voices From the Gallery," a decisively non-absolute work, anchors a Sunday program by the Brooklyn Philharmonic exploring depictions of time in music and the visual arts.

An eleven-movement work for ensemble and narrator, with texts by Joan Vail Thorne, "Voices From the Gallery" examines iconic art ranging from the second century BCE statue of "Winged Victory" to Marcel Duchamp's painting "Nude Descending a Staircase." For Paulus, what these objects "say" in his music "may cause us to look at them again, and this time 'hear' the music of vision." The Minnesota-based composer's recent premieres include "Erotic Spirits," a song cycle written for soprano Deborah Voigt.

Conductor Ken Selden, who leads Sunday's concert at the Brooklyn Museum, weighed in with his view that "all the pieces on the program can stand alone as 'absolute music' and were chosen for their strength as musical works." He cited Brooklyn composer Ira Mowitz's "Shimmerings" (2004), which combines live instruments with electronic sounds. "It's about the spatial aspect of sound, and how sound influences the way we perceive time. There is a real visual aspect to the sound, but it's not a gimmick."

The program kicks off the third season of the Brooklyn Philharmonic's innovative "Music Off the Wall" series. Future offerings include a concert focusing on the Christian stations of the cross with music by Haydn and Gavin Bryars, and an "Uptown/Downtown" concert in conjunction with an exhibit of Jean-Michel Basquiat's works.

Theodore Wiprud, curator of education and community engagement for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, underscored the importance of such offerings for the continuing vitality of classical music. "Our research shows that the majority of people who attend concerts in libraries and museums are new to the Brooklyn Philharmonic."

He dismissed the idea that thematic concerts represented a dumbing-down of classical programming or a desperate move in the face of shrinking audiences. "Engaging with ideas isn't dumbing down - it's smartening up."

WHEN & WHERE "Image and Time:" Members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic perform works by Stephen Paulus, Ira Mowitz, Virgil Thomson and Dvorák at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway. Preceded by a gallery tour of the exhibition "About Time: 700 Years of European Painting." General admission $10 and $15. Call 718-488-5913.