Contemporary reflections inspired by Emily Dickinson

Moe made that remark about “She Goes Her Spacious Way,’’ which he set for soprano and piano in 2006; a version for chamber ensemble had its first performance on Saturday. The music is steeped in the pungent late Romanticism of Alban Berg - full of winding chromatic melodies and suffused with a drama not immediately apparent in the poetry. It was more involving than André Previn’s “Three Dickinson Songs’’ for soprano and piano, which opened the program. These were solid, well-constructed settings that nevertheless seemed square and predictable. Everything, though, was beautifully sung by soprano Ilana Davidson, who had a sleek, agile voice that seemed perfect for both works. Randall Hodgkinson was the attentive pianist in the Previn.

Also premiering on Saturday’s program were dances by choreographer Cherylyn Lavagnino for two instrumental chamber works by Toru Takemitsu - “And Then I Knew ‘twas Wind’’ and “A Bird Came Down the Walk.’’ Takemitsu’s works eschew representation, offering abstract yet rich reflections on Dickinson’s texts. Lavagnino’s choreography - vividly danced by Selina Chau and Joshua Palmer - wisely did the same. One might have expected long, sweeping gestures in “Wind’’; instead there were mostly discrete, hermetic movements. “A Bird’’ dispensed with both human and aviary characters and laid out a mysterious game of attraction and repulsion. Both made for wonderfully atmospheric accompaniments to Takemitsu’s alluring music.

Closing the program was Melinda Wagner’s “Four Settings.’’ Wagner mentioned from the stage the importance of space and silence in Dickinson’s poetry, yet her piece succeeded in large part because of the dense, multilayered textures she drew from a small chamber ensemble. A sense of disquiet pervaded the first three entries - Robert Desnos’s “Last Poem,’’ Denise Levertov’s “The Wings,’’ and Dickinson’s “Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers.’’ Dickinson’s “Wild Nights - Wild Nights!’’ unfolded in a more straightforward way, with frenetic energy. Yet it, too, ended in uncertainty rather than ecstasy, and was all the more effective for it. Davidson was once again superb, as was the entire ensemble.

David Weininger can be reached at globeclassicalnotes@gmail.com.