Varèse approaches

On Monday and Tuesday, the Lincoln Center Festival will unleash (R)evolution, a survey of the works of Edgard Varèse. First, the International Contemporary Ensemble, under the direction of Steven Schick, will present pieces for small groups of instruments and the Poème électronique. Then Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, fresh from their Ligeti triumph, will give the two big works for orchestra, Arcana and Amériques, together with Nocturnal, Octandre, and Ionisation.

In the...