"That Lucky Old Sun," which was commissioned for a performance last year at the Royal Festival Hall in London, is a latter-day sequel to those two albums.
One of the works on the program tonight, "A New Beginning," was commissioned for a performance at the Millennium Dome in London during the final moments of 1999.
The conductor Christopher Moulds is also attuned to the difficulties of this staging, but acknowledges that performing in the round aids intimacy, bringing Orfeo closer to its original staging; Monteverdi was commissioned for a court performance, so it would have simply been performed in a large room.
Those most frequently played today include an overture to Ruy Blas, commissioned for a charity performance of Victor Hugo's drama, which Mendelssohn hated; Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt), inspired by a pair of poems by Goethe; and The Fair Melusine.
The most elaborate and fantastic decorations, possibly inspired by the Chinese, emerged in the Renaissance, when unusual brass instruments were commissioned for ostentatious dramatic performances intended for royalty and their guests.
LaBeouf and his collaborators from both these projects, the Finnish artist Nastja Säde Rönkkö and the UK artist Luke Turner, will be embracing their uber-modernist tendencies, performing "a new participatory performance artwork" commissioned for Bingefest over the course of the weekend.
Performances are commissioned for special occasions and usually can be interpreted in religious or mystical fashion.
Even though "Adamantine," from 2009, which was originally commissioned for Montclair State University's Peak Performances series, is an evening-length work, it seems a continuation of "Frame Dances".
MIT Media Lab composer Tod Machover, known for his innovativeness as a musician and as a creator of new technology for musical instruments, will present an evening performance of work commissioned for the Grammy Award-winning Ying Quartet.
