Whitacre's Equus
Mar. 7th, 2016 06:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylAnother piece from the 2015 proms season in the form of Eric Whitacre's Equus in a version for full orchestra and chorus. There's something wonderful about the driving ostinato figures that push the piece forward, conjuring the horse of the title, with some really wonderful wind writing — the clarinets are particularly stellar — and really catchy syncopation.
I'm sometimes a bit ambivalent about Whitacre's music — listened to en masse the pieces tend to feel a little interchangeable — but I think this prom really worked: combining Whitacre's showier pieces like Equus and Cloudburst with Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Copland's beautifully meditative Quiet City to create a really effective program.
I'm sometimes a bit ambivalent about Whitacre's music — listened to en masse the pieces tend to feel a little interchangeable — but I think this prom really worked: combining Whitacre's showier pieces like Equus and Cloudburst with Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Copland's beautifully meditative Quiet City to create a really effective program.
