Two 21st-century works for recorder and orchestra by Cornell faculty composers are included in a by New York City classical radio station WQXR.
The concertos, by the late Given Foundation Professor of Composition Emeritus Steven Stucky, and , the Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities, are featured among a selection of music written from 1728 (Vivaldi) to 2006.
鈥淲ho鈥檚 to say the recorder can鈥檛 be serious?鈥 writer Heather O鈥橠onovan asks. 鈥淚ts very existence in classrooms today is the result of a 700-year musical tradition that extends all the way back to the Middle Ages.鈥
鈥淪cales,鈥 the first movement of Stucky鈥檚 鈥淓tudes鈥 (2000), is featured alongside Sierra鈥檚 鈥淧erpetual Motion鈥 (2006), from 鈥淧relude, Habanera, and Perpetual Motion.鈥
O鈥橠onovan says that when Stucky was approached to write a piece for recorder, he thought the instrument was too limited in its dynamics, and declined the offer. The composer鈥檚 mind was changed by seeing recorder soloist Michala Petri in concert with the Buffalo Philharmonic. His series of etudes in 2000 succeeded in 鈥渄eveloping a riveting conversation between recorder and orchestra,鈥 she wrote.
Sierra鈥檚 piece was originally intended for flute or recorder and guitar; he later expanded and transformed it 鈥渋nto a concerto that maintains all the spice of the original,鈥 O鈥橠onovan wrote.
Sierra鈥檚 鈥淐oncierto Barroco鈥 also was featured by Chicago classical station WFMT in an for World Book Day, April 23. The guitar concerto was inspired by Cuban author Alejo Carpentier鈥檚 surrealist novel of the same name.
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