The capacity crowd at Jordan Hall Friday night knew they were gathered for an Event. For only the second time, and probably the last time in his lifetime, composer David Del Tredici heard his complete Child Alice, the hugest and most elaborate of his many settings from Lewis Carroll’s Alice books. Thanks to the generosity of the Recording Industry’s Music Performance Trust Fund, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s superb show with soprano Courtenay Budd under the direction of Gil Rose was free.Vance R. Koven, Boston Musical Intelligencer
Joy abounds in “Child Alice,” in its winsome melodies and reckless wit, and in the evident pleasure Del Tredici takes in exploiting an orchestra’s capacity for volume and sensation. But there is penetrating sadness in its psychological acuity — and sadness, too, that a work so singular should have waited so long to return. On that last count Del Tredici is fortunate, as are we listeners, to have an advocate so resourceful, skillful, and determined as Rose.Steve Smith, Boston Globe