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Article: `Apocalypse': NSO's Uncommon Fanfare
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- December 9, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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When the National Symphony Orchestra is good, it is very, very
good -- and even when the group has an off night, as it did on
Thursday, there is usually something on the program to stimulate the
imagination and reward the audience.
Quite a bit of this has to do with the series of fanfares the NSO
has commissioned for the 25th anniversary of the Kennedy Center. This
week the offering was a short, dramatic "Slow Apocalypse: Fanfare for
Orchestra Manque" by Michelle Ezikian.
This is an odd and arresting piece. Taken by themselves, many of
Ezikian's gestures (the harmonies, the thick sonic textures and so
on) seem familiar, but the composer's narrative sense -- her method
of order -- is ...