The New England Philharmonic, conducted by their Music Director Richard Pittman, will present a concert including Assistant Teaching Professor Brian Robison’s piece In search of the miraculous on Saturday, February 27, 2016, at 8 pm in Boston University’s Tsai Performance Center.
The title comes from Peter D. Ouspensky’s 1949 book on the teachings of the Russian mystic George I. Gurdjieff, and the work mimics a journey around an enneagram, a geometric figure that appears in the book. Nine different kinds of music come and go, mutate, and recombine, in a constantly shifting sonic kaleidoscope. Prof. Robison’s work was commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, who gave its first performance under the direction of Steven Sloane at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2003.
Critics have praised the piece as “magnificent” with “silky harmonious washes of beautiful sound that give way to frenetic rising paths … moving to high harmonics” (Howard Moscovits, ElectroMusic.com), attractive in “its changeability: the writing ranged from frenetic and circuslike to gently lyrical” (Allan Kozinn, New York Times), and as “a strikingly fresh, multifaceted offering from an intelligent composer … wonderful, smartly made stuff” (Daniel Felsenfeld, New York Newsday).
The New England Philharmonic concert will also feature music by Roy Harris, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Bernard Hoffer. Tickets are available through the New England Philharmonic’s website: http://nephilharmonic.org/