In Friday’s (9/30) New York Daily News, Paul Pelkonen writes, “The New York Philharmonic is in John Corigliano’s blood. The composer’s father was the orchestra’s concertmaster for 23 years. And his new song cycle, ‘One Sweet Morning,’ commissioned to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11, will have its world premiere tomorrow night with the Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall. ‘One Sweet Morning’ is made up of four songs. ‘I couldn’t do an abstract orchestra piece because I would fall into the trap,’ Corigliano says. … Instead, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer wrote songs that span history, using poems to examine the effect that 9/11 had on the American psyche. … The first song sets ‘A Song on the End of the World,’ written by Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz in 1944. The poem creates a vista of serenity but hints at the possibilities of chaos. ‘It’s our Sept. 10,’ Corigliano says. … When New York Philharmonic music director Alan Gilbert asked him to write the piece, Corigliano says he knew it would end with a song he had already written. ‘The text was perfect for what I wanted to say about these days, that we must look forward to the day when the rose blooms, the sun comes out and the spring arrives,’ he says. ‘There is no more war and there is one sweet morning.’ ”
Posted September 30, 2011
