It was a film commission that allowed the composer to express his deepest feelings in his Violin Concerto
IF YOU ever wonder why leading classical composers usually avoid writing film scores, a very plausible explanation is offered by John Corigliano, one of America’s front-line figures, who won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2001 with his Second Symphony for Strings.
“I like to work in architecture,” he says. “Film music is about short cues.” He’s a composer who likes to communicate openly, but he also likes building big: as well as symphonies, his catalogue includes numerous concertos, a 40-minute string quartet and a full-length opera (the admired The Ghost of Versailles). Why should this man spend time