Oliver Knussen is a large, burly man with twinkling eyes that confirm the fun he had writing music. The program he has chosen for his second appearance with the National Symphony Orchestra is bright, modern, contemplative and one to be savored. Knussen and Nigel Boon, the Kennedy Center’s Director of Artistic Planning, have been friends for 20 years since Boon was producer of some of the many albums Knussen recorded for Deutsche Grammophon.
“Oliver is definitely one of the foremost conductor/composers in England,” Boon said. “He first came to the Kennedy Center in 2009 with the CrossCurrents series of contemporary music that he curated with Joseph Kalichstein.”
| ONSTAGE |
| The National Symphony Orchestra |
| » Where: Kennedy Center Concert Hall |
| » When: Thursday, Friday and Saturday |
| » Info: $20 to $85; 202-467-4600, 800-444-1324; kennedy-center.org |
Except for Stravinsky’s vibrant “Firebird Suite” to close the evening, the three other works on the program are making their Washington debut. Pianist Peter Serkin will perform Messiaen’s “Le R?veil des oiseaux” composed in 1953. Messiaen was so entranced by ornithology that he studied bird songs throughout the world and built much of his music around them.
Serkin will also perform “Duet” by George Benjamin, a British composer, conductor and pianist who studied with Messiaen. It was commissioned for the 2008 Lucerne Festival while Benjamin was Composer-in-Residence and first performed there by the Cleveland Orchestra. “Duet” had its New York premiere last year, again with the Cleveland Orchestra. The work, which Benjamin calls his “anti-piano concerto,” lasts about 15 minutes. It utilizes the harp in place of violins, includes the celesta and emphasizes the percussion.
The fourth work on the program is “Wanderlust” by Sean Shepherd, a native of Reno, Nevada, who has been capturing prize after prize since his student years at Indiana University and Juilliard. Along with the International Lutoslawski Prize and the Charles Ives Scholarship, he was the Wallace-Readers Digest Composition Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Deutsche Bank Berlin Prize Fellow.
Shepherd has written music for important young soloists and chamber ensembles. Wanderlust” is ethereal and explorative, as are some of his other works. This, the second time he has been on a National Symphony Orchestra program, will not be the last.
Boon and Oliver Knussen will share the stage for the popular free discussion that always follows the Thursday performance.
