Plenty of contemporary composers write clever, technically proficient works that prove captivating for a time.
But only a few create truly original, transcendent music. One of them is Osvaldo Golijov, who grew up in an Eastern European Jewish family in Argentina and now lives outside Boston.
He is, quite simply, one of the world’s great living composers. Any doubts were cast aside Friday evening in Boettcher Concert Hall when the Colorado Symphony presented a gripping performance of “The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind.”
Inspired by the 13th-century writings of Isaac the Blind, a cabalist rabbi, the work immerses the listener in Jewish history and spirituality. Written in 1994 for klezmer clarinet and string quartet, Golijov created a 2006 version for string orchestra.
“Isaac the Blind” manages to be both epic and intimate. It hits the listener in the heart, soul and gut. It is beautiful music but in unconventional, perhaps even uncomfortable ways.
Todd Palmer delivered a dazzling performance, playing five members of the clarinet family. His bass clarinet work in the first movement, which stayed oddly in the instrument’s upper register, is the most amazing anyone is ever likely to hear.
This was not just the classical clarinet, but it was also the clarinet of the synagogue, the wedding band and street performer – raw, immediate and deeply human. In deliberately exaggerated fashion, Palmer often made these instruments screech, squeal and squawk.
“Isaac the Blind” is enormously difficult on many technical and emotional levels, but Golijov adds another, not readily seen challenge – unconventional musical notation that requires the conductor to offer even more direction than usual.
In what might have been his finest outing to date, music director Jeffrey Kahane handled it all with supreme mastery. More than just a superb performance, this was a transformative experience.
The concert will be repeated at 2:30 p.m. today.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
