"Ms. Wagner's piece practically leapt off the stage." So wrote New York Times critic Anne Midgette in her rave review of the new Trombone Concerto by Melinda Wagner '79, which was premiered on February 22, 2007, in Avery Fisher Hall, with trombonist Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel. Wagner, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for her Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion, was commissioned by the Philharmonic to write the new work--and she honored both the soloist and the orchestra by turning out a piece that, in Midgette's words, is "vital," "fresh," "smart," and "complex."
Midgette was especially taken by the way Wagner handles her large, percussion-drenched orchestral forces: "Ms. Wagner writes strikingly well for orchestra," she said; "this piece used the whole spectrum of colors available to her without ever becoming dense or cloying." At the same time, the concerto made the most of the wide-ranging talents of Alessi who, according to Wagner, not only draws the instrument's traditional "nobility and power," but also "coax[es] so much more out of the trombone: aching tenderness, sadness, lyricism, mirth." The Concerto will be broadcast nationally--and can also be heard online at the New York Philharmonic's site from March 15 to March 30.
-- by Professor Peter Rabinowitz
