A piece for today — Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and featuring David Shifrin: “Like everyone else, composers were badly shaken by 9/11 … (This work) would surely have turned out to be quite a different piece had not the fatal date arrived just as she was about to start work on the second movement. That inevitably became an elegy, and the subsequent two movements grew from there. Astonishingly … the entire piece shows no sign of sudden gear-shifting. The instrumentally brilliant opening is brash, hectic, and streetwise, the perfect picture of a city going about its business until stopped in its tracks. After the scream-punctuated lament, the rest of the work struggles to pick up the pieces and restore a semblance of normality, ending on a note of cautious optimism. It’s all done with the most skillful application and development of its musical materials.” —Peter G. Davis, New York Magazine
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 16:00:00 +0000
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