Radiant Circles (2010)

She has been 'in residence,' too, with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and for them wrote the gritty and brassy, containedly turbulent piece we heard: Radiant Circles (2010), a compelling nine-minute orchestral study.

Thursday’s concert by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra was anything but business as usual. First came the premiere of an unapologetically modern work by the orchestra’s composer in residence, not an everyday occurrence in Woolsey Hall.

Augusta Read Thomas’ Radiant Circles is abstract music that, true to its title, seems to revolve about the stage, highlighting different instrumental groups. It explores orchestral colors in an apparently spontaneous, random way, without any repeated sequences that might help structure it for the listener.

Yet there is a suggested pattern in the growth from smaller to larger fragments, the progress from light to dark, and the rise in intensity — emphasized by the big timpani solos near the end. Music Director William Boughton, in introducing the piece, spoke of hints of sunrise, but the bright, dissonant woodwind chords evoked something more dramatic than rosy-fingered dawn.

The composer reportedly wrote Radiant Circles with this orchestra in mind, and the conductor and players returned the compliment with a performance that felt both poised and adventurous.