“Pekka, Esa-Pekka & the Philharmonic,” by M. P. Kennedy

“Pekka, Esa-Pekka & the Philharmonic,” by M. P. Kennedy

When musical minimalism appeared in the mid-1960s, it was about process. It laid bare the grammar of music. Its repetitions allowed the audience to hear subtle changes over time, making it a more demotic style than the high modernism that preceded it. These repetitions could be maddening and their expression limited, but minimalism did grant a new form to American music. When the Los Angeles Philharmonic performed Bryce Dessner’s Violin Concerto…