I would like to think that a lot of that time was spent, consciously or not, reconciling the Brooklyn of his youth with someone else’s culture. Music in the last century has had its own Middle East crisis, rife with foreign occupations and local revolts. Mr. Musto’s elegant, fluent music is happily postcolonial.
Its three movements continue, rather than reject, the sweep and momentum of Romantic concertos; the smoothly handled orchestrations form a natural progression from past practices to present ones; and Mr. Musto, especially in his elaborate first movement has a sense of formal tightness of the kind the old sonata form always gives, with its recurring themes (pairs of winds in imitation, for example), an arc of development punctuated by a long cadenza and in general the experience of a round trip undertaken and completed.
Briefer and more reticent, the slow movement sounds closer to his heart. Ambling ragtime music penetrates a kind of musical scrim, seductive but elusive. One thinks of Ravel dressing up American jazz in French clothes and even more of Charles Ives straining for something just out of reach.
The “sounds like” game is unfair to composers, but so many elements mix here that it is hard to avoid. So add Scriabin to the list as well, though a healthier Scriabin, without the neuroses and delusions. The Romantic tradition is carried forward in Mr. Musto’s piece, but the colors have been sharpened and the textures made more transparent.
His harmonic language behaves like tonal music, even if the combinations of notes rarely conform to it. Tradition is not his enemy. He accommodates, negotiates and gives the past something of his own.
Mr. Musto is also a good pianist, although the light, racing finale could have used more clearly articulated virtuosity. Big, bright urban bangs end the piece in distinctly American style.
The rest of the evening, with the excellent St. Luke’s players valiantly penetrating Caramoor’s customary outdoor humidity, was standard repertory done with enthusiasm and skill. Mr. Barrett had particular success with Beethoven’s “Leonore” Overture No. 3. Schumann’s “Spring” Symphony — all muscle and energy — sent a well-heeled audience home happy.
