"Catamorphosis" is The Music of Catastrophe

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Tuesday, 24 January 2023 14:53

Written by Jack Angstreich

Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts New York Philharmoinc performing US Premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottir's "Catamorphosis" and also with violinist Nemanja Radulović. Photo by Chris Lee

At Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, on the evening of Friday, January 14th, I had the enormous privilege to attend an outstanding concert—continuing an exceptionally strong season—presented by the New York Philharmonic, under the superb direction of the brilliant Finnish conductor, Santtu-Matias Rouvali.

The program opened marvelously with a stunning performance of the U.S. premiere of celebrated Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s avant-garde, mysterious, and haunting Catamorphosis, co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic—as part of Project 19—with the Berlin Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Thorvaldsdottir—who was present and entered the stage to receive the audience’s acclaim—provided the following note on the work:

The core inspiration behind Catamorphosis is the fragile relationship we have to our planet. The aura of the piece is characterized by the orbiting vortex of emotions and the intensity that comes with the fact that if things do not change it is going to be too late, risking utter destruction — catastrophe. The core of the work revolves around a distinct sense of urgency, driven by the shift and pull between various polar forces — power and fragility, hope and despair, preservation and destruction.

The relationship between inspiration and the pure musical feeling and methods, for me, tends to shift at a certain point in the creative process of every work. The core inspiration provides the initial energy and structural elements to a piece and then the music starts to breathe on its own and expand. InCatamorphosisthis point in the process became more apparent and tangible as it aligned with an event that has had such dramatic impact on our lives and reality. The notion of emergency was already integrated into the music and, to counterbalance that, a sense of hope and belief. The meditative state of being needed to gain focus, in order to sustain and maintain the globally important elements in life, also became increasingly important and provided another layer to the inspiration.

Catamorphosis is quite a dramatic piece, but it is also full of hope — perhaps somewhere between the natural and the unnatural, between utopia and dystopia, we can gain perspective and find balance within and with the world around us.

The amazing, Serbian-French soloist, Nemanja Radulović, then joined the musicians for a sterling account of Sergei Prokofiev’s extraordinary Violin Concerto No. 2, which begins with a solemn theme that recurs throughout the initial Allegro moderato,with lyrical passages alternating with more playful ones. The glorious second movement starts in a neoclassical mode, eventually increasing in tempo, and then recapitulates the music at its outset. The concluding Allegro ben marcato is the most animated of the three movements and ends excitingly. An enthusiastic ovation was rewarded by Radulović with a delightful and dazzling encore: Niccolò Paganini’s famous Caprice No. 24 for solo violin.

The second half of the event was even more splendid: an unusually memorable reading—all the more remarkable since it is one of the most frequently played works in the orchestral repertory—of Igor Stravinsky’s magnificent ballet score,The Rite of Spring.

The next set of subscription concerts, which take place from January 20th through the 22nd, feature the beautiful Symphony No. 2 of Jean Sibelius and the wonderful Violin Concerto of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, performed by the astonishing Lisa Batiashvili.

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