New York Times lauds Valerie Coleman’s “Seven O’Clock Shout” performed at Carnegie’s Opening Night

Valerie Coleman’s “Seven O’Clock Shout” reviews a rave review from the New York Times (Photo credit: Chris Lee)

Review: Carnegie Hall Reopens With a Blaze From Philadelphia
By Anthony Tommasini
The New York Times
October 7, 2021

After being closed for 572 days because of the pandemic, Carnegie Hall, the country’s pre-eminent concert space, opened its season on Wednesday. It took only a simple greeting from the stage — “welcome back,” spoken by Clive Gillinson, the hall’s executive and artistic director — for the audience to burst into sustained cheers.

On paper, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s program — including favorites like Bernstein’s joyous overture to “Candide” and staples like Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony — seemed tilted toward an opening night’s traditional purpose as a crowd-pleasing fund-raising gala. Yet both the choice of works and the vibrant music-making went deeper into questions of classical music’s relevance and renewal than I had expected.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the orchestra’s music director, began by leading a performance of Valerie Coleman’s “Seven O’Clock Shout,” a work that the Philadelphians premiered online in May. This five-minute score has become the orchestra’s unofficial anthem for this difficult period. Inspired by the 7 p.m. cheers for frontline workers during the pandemic, the piece offers a hard-won vision of a more beautiful place.

It opens with cautious trumpet fanfares that activate tremulous strings. The music goes through passages of jittery riffs, burnished string chords, elegiac quietude and eruptive restlessness — complete with actual shouts and claps from the players. The piece at times has a Copland-esque glow, but Coleman adds tart harmonic tweaks and assertive syncopations that continually surprise.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin led the Philadelphia Orchestra in works by Valerie Coleman, Bernstein, and Iman Habibi on Wednesday at Carnegie Hall (Photo credit: Julieta Cervantes / The New York Times)

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