In Thursday’s (10/20) Times-Union (Albany, New York), Joseph Dalton writes, “It may not always sound like it, but contemporary composers never work in a vacuum. Somehow, they’re always mindful of the long tradition of music that came before. … For the piece by Aaron Kernis that’s to be performed by the [Albany Symphony Orchestra] on Saturday evening at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall and Sunday afternoon at Zankel Music Center in Saratoga Springs, listeners will be able to hear the classic work that inspired the new one. Kernis’ ‘Concerto with Echoes’ will be preceded on the program by one of the most beloved works of J.S. Bach, the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6. It’s actually the first time that the two pieces have been performed together, although that’s how the composer originally envisioned it. The Kernis piece was commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the conductorless New York City-based group, as part of a project called The New Brandenburgs. … ASO audiences will be seeing and hearing a lot of Kernis, since his music also appears on concerts this coming February and May. As the orchestra’s composer-in-residence, he follows after John Harbison and John Corigliano.”
Posted October 21, 2011
