Symphony for a Broken Orchestra: What, exactly, did it sound like?

by David Patrick Stearns
December 3, 2017
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Even before its premiere on Sunday at the 23rd Street Armory, the Symphony for a Broken Orchestra had fulfilled its larger function in the musical ecosystem: By simply writing a major work for 400 broken school instruments, the much-awarded composer David Lang had called attention to the need for more functional musical instruments for the betterment of the educational system and the community at large. But musically? If you didn’t know Lang’s previous work, you might expect something like Professor Harold Hill’s suspicious “think method” in the Broadway show The Music Man.