In Monday’s (9/22) New York Times, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim profiles South Korean composer Unsuk Chin, who is “sought after by leading orchestras and soloists for her colorful, audacious, and often darkly humorous music. On Tuesday, Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic and the Finnish star clarinetist Kari Kriiku in the American premiere of Ms. Chin’s Clarinet Concerto at Avery Fisher Hall. … While her fresh, vivid, and uncompromisingly modern musical language is not exactly verboten in her adopted home city, Berlin, Ms. Chin notes that her music is still not played as much in Germany as it is outside it—though she has powerful champions at the Berlin Philharmonic. … The Clarinet Concerto is part of a series of instrumental concertos…. The concertos for piano and violin are both extravagantly difficult—not only for the soloists, but also for the orchestra. In a phone interview, Mr. Gilbert said that Ms. Chin’s writing is ‘unbelievably specific; there’s a kind of control of the craft that is highly developed.’ He said her music is distinct because ‘it’s her own hybrid of styles.’ ” The article notes that in February the Los Angeles Philharmonic will perform Chin’s opera Alice in Wonderland.
Posted September 24, 2014
