It's crunch time for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Above, rehearsals for tomorrow night's 40th anniversary season opening at Carnegie Hall. Between Beethoven's 5th and Rossini's overture to L'italiana in Algeri is the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas' Earth Echoes with Nathan Gunn and mezzo Sasha Cooke. The piece, just under a half hour, is an operatic song cycle commissioned by Orpheus and The Koussevitzky Music Foundations that sources texts from Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and assorted poems. Ain't no party like a song cycle party 'cause a song cycle party don't stop.
