“The lengths that presenters and orchestras will go to present a piece by Karlheinz Stockhausen,” wrote WQXR’s Brian Wise in his piece about Lincoln Center’s installment of a 700-pound door for the all-Stockhausen concert on Oct. 30 as part of the White Light Festival.
The door was designed and built to the composer’s specifications by D.J. Betsill, a luthier based in Georgia, and it will be transported from Georgia to Alice Tully Hall for the New York premiere performance of Heaven’s Door. The door designed by Betsill responds to Stockhausen’s conception that the instrument “resembles an old church door.” The door’s 12 hanging panels, custom-made of different types of wood, reflect a luthier’s touch, employing a method used to create a marimba.
