This podcast features American composer Jennifer Higdon in a wide-ranging conversation with Raymond Bisha, during which she describes the long swathe of influences on her composing career. The musical spotlights comprise extracts from her latest recording for Naxos of two powerfully engaging works: the Concerto for Orchestra, written in 2002 and demanding virtuosity from principal players, individual sections and the entire orchestra alike; and her pyrotechnic Duo Duel, a concerto for two percussionists written in 2020, that boasts a killer cadenza (during which you should hold on to your hat) and a diaphanous opening (for which you should hold your breath, and with which this podcast begins…)
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Catalogue No.: 8.559913
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Great interview. I don’t think I’d ever heard Jennifer Higdon’s VOICE before. Definitely in agreement with her about the incredible players and orchestras we have today — I remember a time when it was all the orchestra could do, faced with a new work, to get the notes right. Now the performers we have can seize new music and make it expressive as well as accurate.