Georg Friedrich Haas composed in vain in reaction to political events in his native Austria. The piece is well known for making use of clashing tuning systems and darkness in the concert hall. These two facets of Haas’s writing have been much discussed and written about. The political dimension of...
Perhaps better suited for the mosh pit than the orchestra pit, David Lang’s 1991 tour-de-force for solo bass clarinet, Press Release, is a minimalist marvel. Comprised of seven “groove sections” that evolve in seemingly unpredictable ways, Lang cleverly employs monophony to tell a robust story of motivic and harmonic development....