Last
time we looked at David Lang, a modern-day composer that Cincinnati audiences
may be familiar with due to his CSO commission in 2014. But what about Kevin
Puts? Does that name sound familiar? If you saw the Cincinnati Opera’s
performance of the new opera Silent Night
in 2014 then you know Kevin Puts, who just so happened to win the 2012
Pulitzer Prize for this work!
Kevin
Puts is known around the world as a talented composer. His operas, symphonies,
and concertos have been performed by leading ensembles including the New York
Philharmonic and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as top-tier soloists
including Yo-Yo Ma and Evelyn Glennie. He received his education from the
Eastman School of Music and Yale and currently teaches composition at the
Peabody Institute and holds the Director position at the Minnesota Orchestra’s
Composer’s Institute.
Today,
let’s look at a fun work Puts wrote out of his love for Mozart piano concertos.
Surprisingly, it’s not a piano concerto! It’s his Marimba Concerto, which is
written so that the soloist interacts with the orchestra in a similar manner as
what we find in Mozart’s piano concertos. Puts also used Mozart’s favored
three-movement structure. One interesting fact about this piece is that each
movement contains a subtitle that Puts took from his aunt’s poetry (Fleda
Brown).
