Though its language arises from Aaron Copland's pastoral works (the Clarinet Concerto), blue cathedral seems completely devoid of contrivance, even with novel percussion effects such as little Chinese balls jingling subtly in the final moments. Listeners don't need to know that blue cathedral was written as a memorial for Higdon's deceased brother: You're so enveloped by the grief, hope and intuitive musical invention welling up through the rich orchestration that you might not remember many specific details about the music from one hearing to the next. I've heard it a lot, and though it's hardly dense or difficult, every encounter feels like a new one. Normally, I have that experience only with the ultra-refined Renaissance-era masses of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.
Led by the orchestra's assistant conductor, Rossen Milanov, the performance began with deliberate pacing - puzzling at first, but knitting together the piece's episodes. Such pacing also established unstoppable momentum, appropriate for music inspired by life-changing inevitabilities. Tempos were increasingly flexible as the piece became more expansive, making the brass interlude in the final third that much more dramatically arresting.
The concert as a whole was a family-like gathering appropriate for Thanksgiving: Milanov is a community fixture (he's also music director of the Haddonfield Symphony Orchestra), the soloist for Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand was Curtis Institute director Gary Graffman, and the second half was dominated by the Symphony No. 4 of a certain honorary Philadelphian named Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
