US composer wins court battle of work that orchestra stopped playing

In April 2004, at then-Avery Fisher Hall, the conductor took a bow in the middle of a long, new work by Nathan Currier and led the soloists off stage after a union representative signalled that the orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, were going into overtime.

The incident provoked litigation from the composer, in which he is now claiming victory. A settlement has been reached giving Currier the rights to a recording of his Gaian Variations.

‘I suspect many in my field are bemused as to why I bothered pursuing this so long,’ says Currier. ‘It certainly isn’t from litigiousness, vanity, anger or the like: it’s just what got me to write the piece in the first place, or to put in personal funds when the organizations involved didn’t raise the money, and that is that the material behind the work is beautiful, but also utterly obligatory, if you want your grandchildren to have lives on planet Earth.’

You may read more of his account here.