And then the movement ends. The second and third movements are large slow panoramas, the longest is the middle one at 12 minutes. As its string textures unfold we feel that Kernis is evoking the Mahlerian Adagio, the vast essay in aching sadness, climaxing at some mid-point of excruciating dissonance, only to achieve a kind of transcendent or mystical resignation. But Kernis propels the story elsewhere and the Mahlerian solution is eschewed completely. Indeed, we move to an excruciating mid-point, but from it, we are carried even more deeply into the near despair of the movement's initial mood.
Nothing is transcended, no higher grace is proffered.
The third movement initially seems to offer a respite, a slightly lighter texture, pace and instrumental configuration. It too, however, mounts towards a devastating moment of terror and like the longer second movement searches beyond its despair to find only the consolation of having endured. The entire work ends with a hushed and very unsettling dissipation of energy. In a concert hall, I personally, would find it very difficult to bring myself right away to applaud, for reflective silence seems to be demanded by the symphony's entire architecture. Musica Celestis for string orchestra is a 12 minute self-described meditation on the mystical harmonies of Hildegard von Bingen, the medieval Abbess, theologian, painter and composer.