Comments
from ACO's April 14, 2002
25th
Anniversary Concert
The final
concert of ACO's 2001-2002 season, and the second of two performances
celebrating the orchestra's 25th anniversary, featured two world
premieres—one by the a younger composer, Kevin Puts
and one by ACO's co-founder Francis Thorne, who
turns 80 this year—coupled with performances of two works by
distinctly different mid-century musical icons, Elliott
Carter and John Cage. The concert also
marked the final performance of Dennis Russell Davies, ACO's founding
music director. (Davies has become ACO's conductor laureate.)
One listener
summed up the force of the entire concert: "The seriousness and the heft of it all;
the physical energy of musicians and the
challenge of listening carefully to the unpredictability."
Several in the
audience found the pairing of two 50-year-old works with two brand
new ones interesting. A number were struck by the impact the older
works made: "Carter and Cage works from early 50's are more modern
than 21st century works by Puts and Thorne." "The staleness and pseudo-modernity
of the two new pieces—boring!" "Cage and Carter stand out because they are so individual."
Kevin
Puts: Falling Dream
Commissioned
by the BMI Foundation's Carlos Surinach Fund for ACO's anniversary, "Falling
Dream" was written by Kevin Puts, a young composer who is attracting
significant attention for his polished and evocative work. Puts responded
to the commission with a personal reflection on the horrors of September
11. That he handled his subject deftly and sensitively, was appreciated
and commented on by many:
"Remarkable; exquisite orchestral sound and coherent
emotional impact; not cold and academic." "Beautifully balanced orchestration; very colorful.
Outstanding pianissimos well befitting the mood
and the emotional content." "Exquisitely beautiful at times, or deeply,
strongly moving—always interesting and often original.
It gave me the emotional high I love to get from music." "Captured the feeling of September 11."
Even some
skeptics were won over: "I generally dislike program music, but this I found
both intellectually and emotionally very moving." "With so many academic awards, I hadn't expected something
so original. I don't think I've ever heard such a remarkable
sound from the orchestra as in the falling sequence,
about halfway through the work. To be able to take such
an emotionally charged theme and still achieve so much was
surprising and deeply satisfying. I'd like to have heard
it a second time."
Still, some
were less than fully convinced: "The first half was effective; the second half was
too commercial—'Sunday in the Park with George' sound." "The very end had more life;
the rest almost sounded like a movie score."
Francis
Thorne: Concerto for Orchestra
The other
world premiere on the program, was Francis Thorne's "Concerto
for Orchestra." Thorne is a co-founder of ACO, writing a work
that featured many of the principals of the orchestra, with whom he
has established long-term friendships. Thorne also has a unique
musical background, having preceeded his work as a composer, with a
lengthy stint as a jazz pianist. Thorne's jazz heritage was
immediately discernable by many: "A solemn introduction contrasting with a burst of
jazz—especially the bass fiddle—
the Third and Fourth movements were surprising." "I liked the way the jazzy scherzo movement cooked
along and then petered out." "an outstanding showpiece" "At times very evocative of a simpler time in human history."
John
Cage: Concerto for Prepared Piano
Cage's
Concerto for Prepared Piano with soloist Margaret Leng Tan definitely
made an impression—both positive and negative. More than fifty
years after this innovative and influential figure made his mark on
the musical landscape, his work work is still heard as provacative
and controversial: "Still so fresh and surprising." "No beginning and no end; no form that was discernable to me." "Boring and static. Experimenting with sounds is old hat.
Why spoil the sound of the piano?
This is dead music. Don't play it." "It sounds like the sounds in a foreign film." "Suggests a sense of mystery and intrigue;
appropriate for an Alfred Hitchcock film."
Elliott
Carter: Variations for Orchestra
Elliott
Carter's "Variations for Orchestra" is one of the Carter's
monumental accomplishments—one of the works that helped to
establish Carter's reputation as the "Dean" of American
composers. That Carter's music can be complex was something many
listeners seemed to know and expect, but rather than scaring-off
ACO's listeners, it seems to have invited them in: "I would like to hear it again, to seize his invention
even more in that beautiful complexity." "Possibly another hearing would allow me
to pick up or recognize a theme." "Thematic integrity and originality within the restrictions
the composer placed upon himself."
Despite Carter's reputation for complicated music, many were delighted by its: "Lush sound." "Occasional lyricism."
And one listener simply summed it up as: "A stunning work; a masterpiece!"
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