“There are many moderns for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project,” writes Keith Powers on Thursday (10/26) at Boston radio station WBUR. “BMOP opens its 22nd season this Sunday, Oct. 29, at Jordan Hall with ‘Generations’—works by … composers William Schuman (born 1910), John Harbison (1938), David Sanford (1963) and Matthew Aucoin (1990). Soloists Matt Haimovitz, performing Sanford’s ‘Scherzo Grosso’ for cello and orchestra, and Conor Hanick, soloing in Aucoin’s ‘Concerto for Piano and Orchestra,’ will join conductor Gil Rose and the ensemble. Harbison’s ‘Diotima,’ composed in 1976, and Schuman’s ‘Judith, Choreographic Poem’—written for Martha Graham—round out the program. Schuman’s ‘Judith’ … [was] first performed, with Graham, in 1950.… [Harbison’s] work is sometimes thorny, angular and rhythmically dense; other times, sweet as the sun. ‘Diotima’ veers toward the latter mood…. The youngest of this set of contemporary composers, Aucoin, has already had a great impact on contemporary music [and is] artist-in-residence now at the Los Angeles Opera…. The piano concerto on this program was commissioned by the Alabama Symphony, and premiered by that orchestra and Conor Hanick in October of last year. The concerto has three movements, which Aucoin calls … ‘chaos, a warm bath, and then an escape.’ ”
Posted October 26, 2017
