Ballad(e) out of the Blues - Superstar Etude #3 (2008)

The center of interest was the world premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis' Ballad(e) Out of the Blues: Superstar Etude No. 3, commissioned for the occasion. Invoking Gershwin in its opening moments, the piece, which honors the memory of Kernis' late father, is one of his characteristically complex negotiations with the musical past -- a continuously absorbing "battle with history," as the composer put it in a pre-concert talk. Allusions to classic jazz, gospel and ballad singing mingle in the fluid musical texture. Far from outrunning its materials, the 10-minute piece could easily have been longer.