HGO Composer-in-Residence Joel Thompson’s To See the Sky Just Made its World Premiere at the New York Philharmonic, and HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers Was There to Witness the Moment

Joel states this goal: “The movements outline a non-linear journey towards healing”, and he has achieved this in every possible way. The listener’s emotional journey of To See the Sky is more than simply satisfying; it is cathartic and self-realization. Quite an achievement. 

This is Joel’s longest orchestral work to date, and is a musical foretaste of his future music. With no hyperbole, To See the Sky is music of extraordinary beauty and deep content. To hear an orchestra of such dazzling quality as the New York Philharmonic bring Joel’s imagination to full life was a very moving thrill. 

Primary among his many gifts is an ability to juxtapose several musical styles simultaneously, forming a melodic and colorful musical narrative that anyone can understand but which also challenges virtuoso musicians like these. To See the Sky was 20 minutes in length, and the musical material could easily have been twice that. One wanted it to last longer. Large-scale structures like opera are clearly in his DNA, based on a work like this. 

The work’s igniting influence is a single line from the song “Thunderclouds” by Cécile McLorin Salvant: “Sometimes you have to look into a well to see the sky”. Another of Joel’s major gifts is writing non-vocal music that sounds like it has words, a trait he shares with Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, and many of the late-Romantic composers. Even Beethoven would set silent words. Once one knows that the finale of Beethoven 5 outlines the word “Liberte!”, one can’t hear it any other way. Joel’s music belongs in that company. His music feels so much like the distillation of poetry, yet when he expands and lets it soar, it overwhelms in the best way. This couldn’t be a more triumphant and satisfying work. Critics will probably dislike it; audiences will love it.  

The remainder of the program was the New York premiere of Tan Dun’s Trombone Concerto: Three Muses in Video Games, played by the NYP’s Principal Trombone, Joseph Alessi – a beautifully enjoyable and light-hearted work to follow Joel’s. After intermission was the “Scottish” Symphony of Mendelssohn. Maestro Jaap van Zweden, one of Joel’s most ardent admirers, conducted superb performances of all three, in a very renewing night.