A few works in the repertoire have a formal contour so simple that it can be recalled in toto after a single hearing. Some, like Borodin’s Steppes of Central Asia, Debussy’s Sunken Cathedral or the first of Berg’s Three Orchestral Pieces, approach from the distance, reach an apogee and then recede. Others merely build inexorably from virtual silence to a cataclysm—Grieg’s ...