Kevin Puts: Concerto for Orchestra, Silent Night Elegy, Virelai
Delos

American composer Kevin Puts (b. 1972) has enjoyed many triumphs in his career, including the rapturous reception his fourth opera, The Hours, received when it was presented at the Metropolitan Opera in 2022 and then again in 2024. But it's merely one of the works for which he's been lauded: considered his breakthrough, Puts' earlier opera Silent Night brought him the 2012 Pulitzer Prize. That piece, an adaptation of the 2005 film, Joyeux Noël, and based on the story of the ceasefires that occurred along the Western Front on the first Christmas eve of WWI, appears in an instrumental form on this collection of Puts material as Silent Night Elegy. It's one of three world premiere recordings delivered by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Stéphane Denève, with Virelai, commissioned for the opening concert of Denève's tenure, and Concerto for Orchestra, Puts' creative response to the Uvalde, Texas school shooting in May 2022, the others.

It's a special release for Puts for another reason. As a native of St. Louis, it's especially meaningful for him to have his work performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and his admiration for the company and its Music Director is shown by the fact that the concerto grew out of his friendship with Denève and is dedicated to both him and the musicians. Founded in 1880, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is the second-oldest in the United States, and Denève has had the honour of serving as its Music Director since 2019.

Clearly unintimidated by the same-titled concertos created by Bartok, Lutoslawski, Kancheli, Higdon, and many others, Puts' Concerto for Orchestra finds the composer at the peak of his powers as both writer and orchestrator, with six parts that grant the ensemble incredible material with which to work. The opening movement, “Hymn for the Hurting,” captivates instantly with elegiac music written in response to Amanda Gorman's same-titled poem; that the orchestra amplifies its beauty with an intensely heartfelt expression makes the movement all the more affecting. All but one of the work's parts are brief, however, which means the first segues into the second quickly. Its title alluding to a fourteenth-century musical form having to do with the hunt or chase, “Caccia No. 1” is an energy-charged showcase for the ensemble's woodwinds, horns, and percussionists and at times exudes an Adams-like animation. Shifting gears dramatically, the tone changes to the dream-like splendour of “Music Box with Arietta” and its graceful blend of harp, celesta, and woodwinds. Following that brief excursion, the action heats up again for the rapid-fire bluster and dazzle of “Toccata” before reverting to expressions of lyrical poignancy with the piano-led “Sicilienne.” At nearly ten minutes, the movement marks the first time the concerto remains in place for any significant duration, and Puts uses the time well in allowing the music to blossom gradually and in using the full palette of the orchestra to paint the lustrous scene. The concerto ends on a triumphant note with “Ecco la Marcia? (Caccia No. 2),” a wild, Adams-like ride in Puts' own fast machine with a few moments of Mozartian flair packed in for good measure.

After Silent Night premiered in 2011, Puts was repeatedly asked about creating a purely orchestral version based on the opera's music and, inspired somewhat by the example of Britten's Four Sea Interludes and Peter Grimes, decided to answer the call. While Silent Night Elegy follows the narrative sequence of the opera, its five sections appear without pause and as a single-movement ‘essay' (his term). After opening solemnly with unaccompanied horn and then solo cello, lively battle songs by the three armies are woven into the compositional fabric before a violent battle scene erupts with all the turmoil and ferocity one would expect. The fighting temporarily over, a flute-and-harp passage sets the scene for the ceasefire to which the parties agreed so that the bodies strewn about could be buried. Intense fighting thereafter resumes, however, to add to the body count, and the music's suitably agitated to reflect the fighting. In contrast to the high-energy fireworks of the opening work's closing, Puts ushers Silent Night Elegy to a prayerful close, the gesture intended to suggest the armies' soldiers drifting off to sleep after the great battle.

Capping the release on an effervescent note, Virelai draws for inspiration from a lively melody Puts first heard as a student by fourteenth-century French composer Guillaume de Machaut, “Dame, a vous sans retollir.” He also used Ravel's Boléro as a creative touchstone in the way Virelai builds incrementally in volume and intensity, though more compactly and with a brief interruption in the rhythmic flow during the final third. Among other things, the release is valuable for highlighting Puts' gifts as a composer of instrumental works. Anyone who's been exposed to his operas will already be aware of his abilities in that area, but hearing an entire album of vocal-free works invites an enhanced appreciation of that side of his artistry. The composer is certainly well-served by the engaged treatments the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Denève bring to the pieces, while they in turn are indebted to him for giving them such richly expressive material to perform.

October 2025