“Bleak” is the predominant adjective in writing about Michael Hersch’s music. “Dark,” “somber” and “anguished” are also omnipresent. Little wonder, given that his subjects have included the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Dante’s “Inferno,” the Holocaust and conditions found in a 1960s psychiatric ward.
But the quality the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja most associates with Mr. Hersch’s music? Necessity.
“The despair in the music makes it a necessary experience, to play and to listen to,” she said in a phone interview recently. “There is nothing you can compare it to.”
Ms. Kopatchinskaja is the music director of this year’s Ojai Music Festival in California, which runs from June 7 to 10 and gives pride of place to Mr. Hersch’s work, including a new piece of music theater, “I hope we get a chance to visit soon.” Ms. Kopatchinskaja, who has commissioned several works from him, could have asked for another for violin, but said she preferred to give him free rein.
Source : Nytimes
