In Thursday’s (6/28) New York Times, Allan Kozinn writes, “Last year the [New York Philharmonic] established the Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music, a $200,000 award for a composer selected every two years by a committee of musicians. And if you award a prize, you might as well perform the recipient’s work. … To honor the first recipient of the Kravis Prize, Henri Dutilleux, [Alan] Gilbert presided over a program devoted fully to Mr. Dutilleux’s music on Tuesday evening at Avery Fisher Hall. Actually the orchestra only played two of the program’s three works: the transitional ‘Métaboles’ (1964) and ‘Tout un monde lointain…’ (‘A whole distant world…’; 1970, revised 1988), a luminous cello concerto with Yo-Yo Ma as the soloist. Between those pieces, the Miró Quartet gave a focused, precise performance of the atmospheric ‘Ainsi la nuit’ (‘Thus the Night’; 1976). … This is music built of morphing textures, subtle coloration, straightforward but involving rhythmic underpinnings and rich currents of melody, all cloaked in a harmonic language that embraces dissonance without making it the point. … Mr. Gilbert drew a suave, finely concentrated sound from the orchestra.”
Posted June 28, 2012
