Thursday, December 11, 2008

If the AIDS quilt sang, it would sound like...

... John Corigliano's Symphony No. 1, "Of Rage and Remembrance," which will be performed by the Juilliard Orchestra under James DePriest at Carnegie Hall: Friday December 12 (tomorrow) at 8PM. Tickets are $10 and $25, half price for students.

Written in 1990 as a personal response to the AIDS crisis, and Cleve Jones's AIDS quilt in particular--Corigliano has said that he lost count of friends who had died after a hundred--the Symphony is a perfect illustration of what I want to talk about here: music that grapples with the world as we live it. It sings, but it also shrieks and cackles. I don't think I've ever heard scarier music.

Stay tuned after the concert for a proper write-up. It's truly a masterpiece, and I hope some of you get to see it.

2 comments:

Sebastian said...

Will the performance be recorded and available to the public?

Jeremy said...

Hi Sebastian,

It will be recorded for Juilliard's archives, but that won't be available to the public.

HOWEVER: if you want a recording of the piece, there is a KILLER recording of it by the National Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin. It's up on iTunes and totally worth having.