NOSPR / Jackson / Ciepliński / At the singular garden of cosmic speculation - NOSPR

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In her Sinfonia for Orbiting Spheres for orchestra (2014), the American composer and pianist Missy Mazzoli offers spectacular sonic effects. The word „sinfonia” carries is widely associated with the times of Vivaldi and Bach – and rightly so, as there is no dearth of Baroque decoration, ornamentation and stylistic inspiration to be found here. The sonic cloak draped over those rich garments is, however, quite modern. Strings and harmonicas create stained-glass-like loops, the vibraphone lightens the sound, lending it a dancing tone. The orchestral sun rises fast and shines bright.

Aaron Copland’s Concerto for clarinet, string orchestra, harp and piano (1948) also glimmers with a blaze of colour. The master’s specific signum, which is bringing together superficially distant styles and techniques (neoclassicism, Mahler’s symphony, jazz and dodecaphony), found its full expression here, while the very first melody of the clarinet makes it clear that Copland is a lyrical poet of sound.

This eclecticism, so specific for his music, was transferred to further generations of American composers – and it was in such a convention that Michael Gandolfi designed The Garden of Cosmic Speculation (2004), orchestral piece inspired by the cosmological garden established in Scotland by the landscape architect Charles Jencks and his wife Maggie. Just like at the Jencks’, Gandolfi also offers a multi-coloured space and secrets of the universe coded in moving segments. “It seemed proper for music to participate in this magnificent joining of physics and architecture,” writes the composer about his spectacular opus.

Maria Wilczek-Krupa