Commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck, Music Director, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson´s Silent Spring. Because the book is almost all science, Stucky says, he instead chose four books by Carson (including Silent Spring) as the base for his contemplative composition. The entire work seized the thrust of Carson´s mid-century warning about chemical pollutants, but was arresting in a more general way for me. Mr. Stucky´s appropriate pessimism here didn´t discourage as much as it engendered a cathartic response to a subject that often numbs the soul. A brilliant, if unsettling, work. (Andrew Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) Dur.: c.18'