Exploring the orchestral works of Nico Muhly
15th July 2016
© Ana Cuba
Here are four recent works from Muhly's orchestral catalogue that we hope you'll consider for the 2017-2018 season and beyond.
Mixed Messages (11 minutes)
'Mixed Messages is an eclectic post-Romantic/minimalist fusion, ushered in by whizzing string figurations pitched somewhere between Sibelius and John Adams.'
— Tim Ashley, The Guardian
Commissioned and premiered by The Philadelphia Orchestra in May 2015, Mixed Messages will be featured in performance at two different festivals this summer:
– Grant Park Music Festival, with Edwin Outwater conducting (July 27, 2016)
– Orchestre Metropolitain, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting (August 7, 2016)
Mixed Messages | View Score | Trailer
Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra) (23 minutes)
'…its five movements…consider various dichotomies — background and foreground, micro and macro, past and present, time and space — in thought-provoking ways.'
— Catherine Reese Newton, The Salt Lake Tribune
Control was commissioned and premiered by the Utah Symphony in December 2015. Muhly observed, 'We can control the landscape, but it has a way of reminding us of its permanence.'
Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra) | View Score | Trailer
Viola Concerto (24 minutes)
Muhly’s dazzling Viola Concerto was commissioned for violist Nadia Sirota by Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Festival de Saint Denis and the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Alexander Shelley, Music Director Designate, and premiered in February 2015.
Viola Concerto | View Score | Trailer
Impossible Things for Tenor, Violin, and Strings (27 minutes)
'…a rich melange of Reich-like minimalist pulse and plangent string chants (plus at one point a Purcell-like slow repeating bass) with Padmore's tenor soaring above. A rich palette, that caught something of Cavafy's "voluptuous tranquility" as well as his anguished intensity.'
— Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph
Impossible Things was commissioned by Britten Sinfonia, Muziekcentrum Frits Philips, and Tapiola Sinfonietta and premiered in January 2010.
Impossible Things | View Score | Trailer
More:
– Meet the Composer podcast
– OnDemand scores
