“Artists who are successful during their own lifetimes often have a moment: a period when they are widely feted. John Corigliano has had several moments,” writes Anne Midgette in Monday’s (4/23) Washington Post. “Winning Grammy Awards for his first symphony, the ‘AIDS symphony,’ was one…. The world premiere of his ‘Ghosts of Versailles’ in 1991 was another. Corigliano is now being feted for a different reason: He turned 80 in February.… [At] a birthday concert of his music at the Wolf Trap Barns on Sunday … one highlight was the radiant young cellist Sterling Elliott, an undergraduate at Juilliard [who let] go with animation in ‘Phantasmagoria,’ a piece based on themes from ‘The Ghosts of Versailles,’ while the pianist Martin Kennedy supported him darkly in the background. [Violinist Lara] St. John … was dynamic as ever in ‘STOMP,’ a piece … that actually requires the soloist to stamp on the floor, and the early sonata that the composer wrote in 1963 for his father, who was for many years the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic.” Also performed were Corigliano’s song cycle Mr. Tambourine Man: Poems of Bob Dylan and his 1995 string quartet, performed by the PUBLIQuartet.
Posted April 27, 2018
