Composer David del Tredici achieved fame for his Alice in Wonderland fixation, which resulted in a number of large orchestral works in the late 1960s and 1970s from Pop-Pourri to Child Alice, revolting against academic serialism, with a lushly orchestrated, highly dramatic style that incorporated some rock and folk music instrumentation and style.
What’s left out of that picture is that del Tredici is also an accomplished miniaturist and, in his 75th birthday year, that’s what he’s sharing with San Francisco (after the S.F. Symphony took his birthday year, that’s what he’s sharing with San Francisco (after the S.F. Symphony took his Syzygy on tour in March.) At Old First Concerts he and duo pianist comrade Marc Peloquin offer the composer’s own Gymnopedies, Mandango, and Carioca Boy. They also play a four-hand arrangement (by del Tredici) of a Roger Sessions piece, who was del Tredici’s composition teacher at UC Berkeley.