The CD titled “An Exaltation of Larks” is about an excellent string quartet performing music by a very experienced composer.
The title work reflects the composer’s intent to describe a group of birds, and the music does just that. It swoops and spins, the four instruments coming together and moving apart, just like flocking birds. Motifs twitter and trill like bird – calls do. “An Exultation of Larks” is an appealing work, even if you don’t know the program behind it.
In “Scenes from the Poet’s Dreams” the piano takes a prominent part in the unfolding of this highly contrasted work, which carries several unusually descriptive titles:
- Racing Through Stars
- Summer Shimmers Across the Glass of Green Ponds etc.
The work was commissioned by the Lark Quartet and by Gary Graffman, who lost the use of his right hand. The piano part is for left hand only, and Ms. Higdon uses the restriction as a resource. The piano becomes a fifth single-line instrument, completely integrated into the ensemble.
“Light Refracted” is a musical meditation on light, scored for string quartet, clarinet and piano. The composer describes a first movement that reflects on our inner light, and how we take that light in; and a second movement that is the opposite: our own projection of light out to the world.
Here is an excerpt from Jennifer Higdon’s “An Exaltation of Larks”:
I will end with another work by Jennifer Higdon: Her violin concerto, as performed by Hilary Hahn:
Tags: Jennifer Higdon, Gary Graffman, Exaltation of Larks, Scenes from the Poet’s Dreams, Light Refracted