Review: San Francisco Symphony in the world premiere of Nico Muhly's baroque-influenced piano concerto

In the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra: composer Nico Muhly (left), pianist Alexandre Tharaud (center) and music director Esa-Pekka Salonen with musicians at the world premiere of Muhly's piano concerto. Photo by Kristen Loken.

On Monday (September 30th) Classic voice from San FranciscoRebecca Wishnia writes: “Before he became one of today's top classical music composers, Nico Muhly was a chorister studying Renaissance church music in Rhode Island. Somewhat newer pieces — music by the 18th-century French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau — inspired Muhly's new piano concerto, which he wrote for the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and French keyboardist Alexandre Tharaud, who premiered the piece this weekend . Ancient threads run through Muhly's score – here a gesture, there an embellishment – and culminate in a hypnotic passacaglia (a baroque lament) at the center of the work. Little by little, repeating chords in the piano merge into an orchestral veil; Some of the chords are colorfast, others just turn a dull brown. In the click-clack exterior parts, the concert finds its centuries-old groove, a language that suits Muhly and Tharaud, both fans of baroque music… The 43-year-old composer, who lives in New York City, wrote it while acting as one from eight collaboration partners that Salonen has recruited to create and curate new music.” The program also included new arrangements of JS Bach by Edward Elgar and Paul Hindemith as well as Hindemiths Mathis The Painter Symphony.