The Concerto for Orchestra is a composition for

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

by the American composer

Roger Sessions Roger Huntington Sessions (December 28, 1896March 16, 1985) was an American composer, teacher and musicologist. He had initially started his career writing in a neoclassical style, but gradually moved further towards more complex harmonies and ...

. The work was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and premiered October 23, 1981, with conductor Seiji Ozawa leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The concerto was Sessions's last orchestral composition and won him the 1982

Pulitzer Prize for Music The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted ...

. Sessions had previously won a special lifetime achievement Pulitzer Prize in 1974 "for his life's work as a distinguished American composer." The piece was honored with a performance at the closing of the 50th

Tanglewood Music Festival The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Stockbridge and Lenox in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts. The festival consists of a series of concerts, including symphonic music, c ...

in 2014.

Reception

Andrew Porter, writing in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', praised the work, saying, "One ascends it with animated tread, moves with slow wonder across its central reach, speeds again toward its close, and at the end pauses for a moment, quietly rapt, to consider both the journey made and the realms to which it may lead."

References

Sources

* Compositions by Roger Sessions 1981 compositions Sessions 20th-century classical music Pulitzer Prize for Music-winning works Music commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra {{concerto-stub