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Anna Thorvaldsdottir wrote Metacosmos in 2017, and it was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen in April 2018. Like so many of her works, it sounds… huge, as it grows from nothing into a vast orchestral tapestry. Yet, at several moments, it’s also unexpectedly melodic.

In her words, the piece “is constructed around the natural balance between beauty and chaos – how elements can come together in (seemingly) utter chaos to create a unified, structured whole.” I spoke to Anna about how she put it all together.

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Linda Catlin Smith wrote Among the Tarnished Stars in 1998 for Canadian ensemble The Burdocks. A 22-minute piece for piano, clarinet, violin and cello, it was first recorded on an album of her work, Memory Forms, in 2001. A recent second recording by Apartment House on the Another Timbre label pairs the work with Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1940–41) – a classic work for the same group of instruments. I talked to Linda about the two recordings, the work itself, and the difficult question of “mood”.