Pinturas de Tamayo (Paintings of Tamayo), for orchestra
Second Concerto for Orchestra
American composer Steven Stucky has done better than almost any of his peers at bridging the gulf between academic composition and the everyday requirements of orchestras with paying audiences. His music is rigorously orchestrated, representational, and evocative without being obvious about it, and presented in easily digestible chunks. It is atonal, but the focus is on the instrumental writing rather than on tonality. Sweden's audiophile BIS label has done a better job with new American music than companies in America ...
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American composer Steven Stucky has done better than almost any of his peers at bridging the gulf between academic composition and the everyday requirements of orchestras with paying audiences. His music is rigorously orchestrated, representational, and evocative without being obvious about it, and presented in easily digestible chunks. It is atonal, but the focus is on the instrumental writing rather than on tonality. Sweden's audiophile BIS label has done a better job with new American music than companies in America itself, and this group of three orchestral pieces makes a good fit for the label and its new Asian showpiece ensemble, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. The most exciting work is the opening Spirit Voices for percussion and orchestra, composed for the forces heard on this recording. It is indeed good to hear Scots percussionist Evelyn Glennie in a recording with music and engineering commensurate with her talents. The seven movements of Stucky's piece correspond to seven spirits from...
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