Review: Anna Clyne’s “This Moment” Gets World Premiere by Philadelphia Orchestra at Bravo! Vail Music Festival

In Thursday’s (7/20) I Care If You Listen, Esteban Meneses writes, “From July 12 to 14, I attended the last three concerts of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 16th Bravo! [Vail Music Festival] residency … I gravitated toward the contemporary offerings … the highlight of which was the world premiere of Anna Clyne’s ‘This Moment.’… ‘This Moment’ was commissioned by a multi-orchestra consortium led by the League of American Orchestras, and created to celebrate women composers. Five orchestras will perform the piece during the 2023–24 season…. It quotes themes from [Mozart’s] Requiem … and also takes inspiration from a line by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh … ‘When you meditate on death, you love life more, you cherish life more.’… ‘This Moment’ emerges from glacial strings, with a lightly brushed ominous gong and a bowed vibraphone. A long, anguished theme starts taking shape in the strings, with languid responses from the woodwinds. Suddenly, the music gets much louder, with tuba and trombones blasting sustained tones; when the theme for strings returns, it is transmogrified … shaken up by loud gong crashes…. The music ends in quiet weightiness, suggesting not resignation but acceptance…. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted with expressive attentiveness.” Learn more about the League of American Orchestras’ Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program.