A Fine Centennial

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project celebrated Irving Fine’s centennial at Jordan Hall Friday with performances of three of his works alongside pieces by Harold Shapero and Arthur Berger—two of Fine’s mid-20th-century “Third Boston School” colleagues. The event was part concert, part a collegiate bash for Brandeis University, and part family reunion. Eric Chasalow, the current Irving G. Fine Professor of Music at Brandeis, made some remarks and read a letter from the university’s president, Frederick Lawrence.

In his short creative life Irving Fine secured a reputation for both populist and serious music. His chamber and choral works remain in the standard repertoire, but his little-played orchestral music is remarkable and memorable for its personal charm and lyricism even when the composer employed the most dissonant of material.