Muhly premieres over coming months

On January 24, the Los Angeles Philharmonic perform the World Premiere of Muhly’s Concerto Grosso under the baton of conductor Eun Sun Kim. Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and Gustavo Dudamel, Music & Artistic Director, with generous support from the Esa-Pekka Salonen Commissions Fund, and the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Muhly writes of the new work:

The Concerto Grosso is organized in three parts, played without pause. The four soloists comprise an odd quartet: flute, trombone, percussion, and cello. I wanted to explore the different dynamics of this unexpected partnership, giving each player a chance to play athletically and lyrically on their own, as well as in conversation with their colleagues. I like the idea of complicated teamwork with unexpected alliances occasionally disrupted into little squabbles and reconciliations. The third movement, “Side by Each”, comprises four cadenzas. They are not unaccompanied, as would be traditional, but re-link the soloists with their colleagues in the orchestra.

Looking ahead to the March 6, the brilliant violinist Renaud Capucon will give the World Premiere performance of Muhly’s new Violin Concerto, with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Marin Alsop.

Each movement of the work obsesses over single musical gestures. The first movement, “Close Second”, is all to do with suspensions: two notes rubbing shoulders until one gives way. The second movement, “Of Two Minds”, attempts to be both slow and fast at the same time; there are drones but they are agitated, there are rapid harmonic shifts but they are veiled, there are very fast pulses tossed around the orchestra but the chords stay steady. After a short cadenza, the movement ends with a joyful expression of A-major before dissolving into the perpetual motion machine of the third movement, “Message Discipline”.

The Violin Concerto was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, and underwritten by Paul Sekhri.

Finally, on the March 14, Tine Thing Helseth joins the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Markus Poschner to perform the World Premiere of Muhly’s new work for trumpet and orchestra, Doom Painting. 

Doom Painting is a fantasia on the depiction of the trumpet in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. The first movement focusses on the trumpet as an instrument to promote gathering together. The second movement is almost an inverse of a traditional Doom (a medieval depiction of the Last Judgement) where the delicacy of the artist’s stroke to create the trumpet’s shape is the governing force. The piece ends with a very abstracted version of Psalm 150, the final one, which reads almost like an orchestration manual. I set the text of the psalm for the trumpet, and then erased the words from her part; the sound guides the ear.

In addition to these World Premieres, on February 28 the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra will perform the Finnish premiere of In Certain Circles with Katia and Marielle Labèque, and on the May 15 the Danish National Symphony Orchestra will give the Danish premiere of Muhly’s concerto for organ and orchestra, Register, with James McVinnie as soloist and Pekka Kuusisto conducting.