Flute Concerto (2015)

The Concerto was written for Marina Piccinini and among its co-commissioners were the Peabody Institute and Detroit Symphony Orchestra, of which Leonard Slatkin is Music Director Laureate. As the composer notes in the booklet, it is a work of light (the second and fourth movements) and dark (the first and third); there is a darker side to the ‘Taran-Tulla’ finale, too. If Nielsen (mostly) good-naturedly broke the mould for ‘pretty’ flute concertos, others have developed the form’s expressive depth since, John McCabe not least, and Kernis’s riveting work shares their double-edged quality.

This four-movement affair, drawing on forms such as pavane and tarantella, and dazzlingly orchestrated, was a virtuoso vehicle for the soloist Marina Piccinini, whose intent, glittering musicianship – she played, in a golden dress, a golden flute – made it even more streamlined.

Piccinini's solo part in particular was full of challenging leaps, passages that whizzed by at supersonic speed and, in the finale, strutting melodies where she was required to sing and play at the same time in the manner Jethro Tull's flutist Ian Anderson.