Concert Review: Famous When You're Dead

The Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia plays Mahler and Sciarrino.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Sir Antonio Pappano.
Photo © 2010 Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

What is "fame"? What is the "canon"? And what is the elusive quality that entitles a composer to enshrinement in that small group of music makers that have been venerated from one century to the next, their works resounding in concert halls around the world. Those thoughts apply to Saturday night's concert at Carnegie Hall, where the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Sir Antonio Pappano offered an evening in two parts: the New York premiere of a new work by Salvatore Sciarrino and Gustav Mahler's weighty Symphony No. 6.