Music for Cello and Orchestra
Music for Cello and Orchestra is a composition for cello and orchestra by the American composer Leon Kirchner. The work was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra for the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The work was first performed by Yo-Yo Ma and the Philadelphia Orchestra under the conductor David Zinman in Philadelphia on October 16, 1992. The piece was a finalist for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Music.{{cite web |last=Kirchner |first=Leon |authorlink=Leon Kirchner |year=1992 |title=Music for Cello and Orchestra |publisher=G. Schirmer Inc. |url=http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/work/29644 |accessdate=December 3, 2017}}{{cite journal |title=Leon Kirchner |journal=The Daily Telegraph |date=September 28, 2009 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/music-obituaries/6240719/Leon-Kirchner.html |accessdate=December 3, 2017}}
Composition
The commission was made possible by a donation from the philanthropists Lillian and Maurice Barbash to commemorate their 40th wedding anniversary.{{cite web |last=Midgette |first=Anne |authorlink=Anne Midgette |title=Regular folks find joy in music commissions |work=Chicago Tribune |date=January 23, 2005 |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2005/01/23/regular-folks-find-joy-in-music-commissions/ |access-date=December 3, 2017}} The music is cast in a single movement and has a duration of roughly 18 minutes.
=Instrumentation=
Reception
Reviewing a 1997 recording of the work, Gramophone wrote, "Leon Kirchner (b.1919), Ma's sometime teacher at Harvard, is a survivor from an older school, placing greater stress on internal logic and intellectual consistency even if he has moved away from the world of Arnold Schoenberg (his own teacher) to forge a personal style of 'euphonious dissonance'. There is here a rich, loving, almost Korngoldian lyricism, at first suppressed, at length permitted to flower."{{cite web |title=Premiers for Cello and Orchestra |work=Gramophone |date=March 1997 |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/premiers-for-cello-and-orchestra |accessdate=December 3, 2017}}
References
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{{PulitzerPrize Music Finalists 1991–2000}}
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Category:Compositions by Leon Kirchner