Michael Hersch - Last Autumn (2015)

Completed in 2008, Michael Herschs two-hour work for horn and cello, Last Autumn, has been described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as a portrait of something too huge and indefinable, glorious and terrible, to be seen in anything more than glimpses. A work whose riches defy the harmonic limitations of the instruments. ... Together, they created wild portraits of alienated togetherness. Performed here by hornist Jamie Hersch and cellist Daniel Gaisford, for whom the piece was written, Last Autumn is the second in a series of evening-length works written by the composer over the past decade. The Philadelphia Inquirer continued, Some of the best music was solo soliloquies. Periodic lullabies lamented while giving comfort. However large, the piece never sprawls. ... Poem fragments by W. G. Sebald quoted in the score begin with bleak and wintry images, giving way to visions of fertility before lapsing back into darkness. Jamie Hersch, Michaels brother, is Associate Principal Horn with the Singaopre Symphony. This is Herschs third release on innova Recordings. [W]orks that are often startling in their complexity, beauty and demonic fury. -- The New York Times