“Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s music conjures landscapes and ecosystems, often inspired by the wild power of nature in Iceland, her home country,” writes Joshua Barone in Thursday’s (4/5) New York Times. “But her latest work, ‘Metacosmos,’ takes aim at something even bigger: the might and mystery of celestial bodies. ‘The title refers to this thought of falling into a black hole, going beyond to this other side and arriving somewhere that you did not know and had no control over,’ Ms. Thorvaldsdottir said in a recent interview at David Geffen Hall, where the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, will give the premiere of ‘Metacosmos’ this week. Although the Philharmonic has programmed music by Ms. Thorvaldsdottir, 40, in the past, this is her first commission for the orchestra…. In the score, the struggle with the awesome power of a black hole … comes through in mounting tension among the strings, percussion and winds. Glissando slides butt up against precise runs and throbbing bass lines…. A heavenly B-flat chord … gives way to an ambiguously serene coda full of harmonic uncertainty.” Included is video of a rehearsal of Thorvaldsdottir’s favorite page of the Metacosmos score.
Posted April 5, 2018
