Oliver Knussen has failed to deliver a new work to the Philadelphia Orchestra in time for a Carnegie Hall premiere next month. A slow worker, meticulous in his exactitude, Knussen has previously missed deadlines for the Cleveland Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic – so Philadelphia were not caught short. They had another composer waiting, score in hand, for the opportunity. Read all about it here.
photo © George Newson / Lebrecht Music & Arts
And the substitute is…
photo (c) Philadelphia Orchestra/Ryan Donnell.
Wall Street Journal is subscription only and I do not recognize the composer… So I, for one, am in the dark.
Is it Gabriela Lena Frank?
It is.
http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2013/2/22/0800/PM/The-Philadelphia-Orchestra/
Gabriela Lena Frank
Knussen’s in good company – Beethoven, Wagner, Berlioz…
extremely elevated company indeed, though the teenage 2nd Symphony did seem to herald a composer of some magnitude.
The difference is people want to listen to their music.
Knussen’s history of missed deadlines goes back over many decades.
His kids operas for Glyndebourne – Where the Wild Things Are, and HIgglety-Pigglety-Pop – both came in late. The latter was performed with a narrator covering over the passages OK hadn’t finished.
Sir:
I know many professional composers who have missed a deadline at some point in their careers; the trouble is that we tend to underestimate the amount of time required to write, typeset, and edit a piece. I would suggest that – just as composers are advised to have to hand a set of spare parts – orchestras should be advised to have to hand a spare composer! To economise, perhaps commissioning partnerships could be the way forward (e.g. have three orchestras cumulatively commission four new pieces).
Would it sound terribly sarcastic if I suggested that more composers should miss their deadlines?
a few missed deadlines from Malcolm Williamson significantly blighted his career.
Numerous missed deadlines from Knussen have been less of a drawback, though not sure what his reputation is outside the UK and US.
How terribly witty you are, Colin, no doubt? Perhaps you should try music without composers – the kind you like best, no doubt?
Please refrain from abusing other respondents.