Reviews

• Who knew a symphony orchestra could sound so frighteningly realistic in depicting a horrific rat invasion? John Corigliano did, apparently, with his PIED PIPER FANTASY. Written at Galway's request and first performed in 1982, Corigliano's Pied Piper Fantasy is an inventive, light-hearted flute concerto based on the legend as relayed in the Robert Brown poem. As the rat sequences suggest, Corigliano's musical imagination is vivid and even cinematic. The writing is harmonically sophisticated. The composer used extended techniques in the strings and woodwinds to conjure the high-pitched squeaks and the sounds of incessant scurrying over dark sustained chords in the bass. But it still allows the soloist plenty of opportunities for display, ranging from elegantly contoured melodic lines to virtuoso outbursts.
  Jeremy Eichler, The New York Times