Marin Alsop, one of the most talented stick wavers of her generation, led adifficult program with tremendous flair and no-nonsense technique. ![]() The music wouldhave been better served by a soloist with a warmer, more expansive approach.Wendy Warner, who once sat in the cello section of this student orchestra, has an astonishing technical facility, but especially in the slow movement, her phrasing was rhythmically and dynamically constrained. The work is full of lovely moments, but its charms are episodic, and the length of the music is not supported by enough substance. It is a concerto that falls somewhere in betweenthe tough energy of the Piano Concerto and the soaring lyricism of the ViolinConcerto. Conductor Marin Alsop could not resist noting the irony that thisperformance of his Cello Concerto was a Philadelphia premiere, although it is especially fitting that this orchestra, from the school where he taught for somany years, had the honors. Philadelphia can claim Samuel Barber as a native son, although he lived inWest Chester. Much of the melody line is expressed in the brass, a fitting tributeto the fabled brazenness of the city. The work is expertly constructed, relying on syncopated rhythms (strongechoes of Bernstein) and bright colors to express the endearing vigor ofGotham. The composer (who was also present) called it a postcard to thecity. Toward the Splendid City, by Richard Danielpour, speaks with a moretraditional, happier nostalgia, a native son's musical valentine to the cityof New York. Amidst a murky bridge consisting ofthe moans of bassoons, tubas and timpani, instability returns, and themovement ends with another scorching, explosive finale, a fateful dance inwhich death triumphs. ![]() The dance becomes demonic, lurching fromhorrific, schizophrenic episodes to brief respites of sanity that are lacedwith the soothing strumming of mandolins. Corigliano's rendition is a memorial to afriend who developed AIDS dementia. Tarantella is Italian for Tarantula, and it was believed that by dancing frantically to the Tarantella, a spider bite victim could sweat out the poison. Ultimately, Corigliano's Symphony develops a unique voice, never more so than in the haunting Tarantella movement. In the gigantic, furious climaxes, there isan even stronger kindred spirit to the music of another fine Americancomposer, Christopher Rouse. In remarks before the performance, thecomposer spoke of Mahler, and there is plenty of the grandiose, ultra-romanticposturing of the neurotic genius. It is, indeed, the very directness, the sheer honesty of the music that constitutes its strength. An off-stage piano sings out a sweet, nostalgic melody, recalling morecare free times. Death knells resound on gongs and tubular bells. The sound of a heartbeat grows rapid in excitement early in thepiece, fades to death at the end. There is some quality of resolution in this music, and certainlyterror, but above all, there is rageblistering, screeching, primal, out ofcontrol rage, in some of the most powerful musical outbursts ever written.Ĭorigliano employs a huge orchestra, and is unabashed in his use of musicalclichés. Corigliano wrote hisSymphony as a response to the deaths of so many of his friends and colleagues to AIDS. Both expressed terror, rage and a struggle with emotional resolution. Mozart was facing his own mortality, andVerdi was memorializing an Italian writer that he revered. 1 is not a Requiem in a formal sense, but as a highly personal artistic confrontation with death, his work stands comparison to the Requiems of Mozart and Verdi. The Symphony Orchestra of The Curtis Institute of Music,Marin Alsop conductor. ![]() There is some quality of resolution in this music, and certainlyterror, but above all, there is rage.
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