Above: composer Gunther Schuller
Passing some of the time while sheltering in place by re-reading my twenty-volume opera diary, I came upon an entry dating from the Spring of 1997 detailing a concert by the Hartford Symphony. It seems that I was very taken that evening with a work by Gunther Schuller entitled Of Reminiscences And Reflections. I'd never heard this music again after that first encounter, but I got to wondering how I would feel about it now.
Of course, I found the music on YouTube: you can listen to it here.
Below is the program page from the Hartford performance:
And this is what I wrote in my diary:
"...the revelation here was Gunther Schuller's Of Reminiscences and Reflections, conducted by the composer. I kept hearing Salome, especially near the end of the 20-minute work. The textures are rich and varied, giving an impression in certain passages of dark clouds drifting across a night-time sky, sometimes allowing stars to shine thru. The percussionists had a real workout. Overall, it was quite thrilling, and the orchestra played very well."
Listening to it now, some twenty+ years on, I was again impressed. The piece was composed in 1992 as a response to the death of Mr. Schuller's wife; a feeling of the threat of engulfing tragedy suffuses much of the music.
~ Oberon