The Score | Sheep at the Armory

They’ve done it again. In March, another Park Avenue Armory spectacle had people talking with performances of De Materie (“Matter”), an almost unclassifiable four-part symphonic work by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. Subject matter spanned Marie Curie, 17th-century atomic theorist Gorlaeus, and painter Piet Mondrian; music ranged from Renaissance and Baroque to jazz and modern styles. Led by conductor Peter Rundel, performers included the International Contemporary Ensemble, the vocal ensemble ChorWerk Ruhr, more than 30 actors and dancers—and a flock of 100 sheep. Heiner Goebbels directed the staging, which premiered at Germany’s Ruhrtriennale in 2014. In 2012 at the Armory, the New York Philharmonic performed Stockhausen’s mammoth Gruppen, featuring three separate orchestras and three conductors; in 2015 pianist Hélène Grimaud performed a water-themed program in the flooded Drill Hall. What next?