The Undersung
Our critics on great artists who mightve been lost to the canon.
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This story was originally published in April 2019.
Were republishing it now as part of our new series The Undersung.
Its never quite worked out that way.
Its time to stop hedging.
Those were the two emotional poles of her life.
For the family, the prize was a thing of reverence and rivalry.
The process was grueling.
The result wasFaust et Helene, a piece of such unsettling originality that it made her instantly famous.
Then a harps upswept chord ushers us toward a sun-suffused landscape where Faust sleeps on a pillow of moss.
Eventually, those wayward dissonances converge on austere clanging fifths.
Gardiners recording also includes herPsalm 130.In the opening, a soft moan emerges above a deep tectonic rumble.
Double basses strain upward and release a quiet exhalation in violins and violas.
Sigh follows sigh, breaking apart into a contrapuntal shimmer of suffering.
We are in the presence of a virtuoso of transcendent pain.
Even a hypertalented composer is just getting started at 24, and evolves by listening.
