Roger Sessions and ‘Montezuma’

As Roger Sessions reaches his 81st year, he deserves as much recognition as we can give, certainly more than he has had. Yet his enterprise, however misunderstood or isolated, is no cause for lament; his achievement is cause for rejoicing, and he is still going. It seems like he is and always has been fifty, a middle-life sort of person, who had an uncanny foreknowledge of his life span and paced himself accordingly (as many artists have). He also has the artist's toughness, blindness, paitience, and ability to forge weaknesses into strengths. Much is written about his craftsmanship and solidity, but I hear more the abundance and sublime willfulness, Dionysian qualities, as characterizing his music and the development of his style. His music at its best is ecstatic, able to take flight. He has always proceeded in purely musical terms, and even his teaching has been antiacademic at its core.