L'Après-midi d'un Faune

Like “Secret Things,” the work is lighted with painterly beauty by Clifton Taylor, and offers a cascade of dance imagery, from limpid Cunningham-esque balances to Nijinsky’s “L’Après-midi d’un Faune.”

The second featured a half-hour premiere by Caroline Shaw and was anchored by a rediscovered symphony by Florence Price; in an inversion of the usual format, the opener was the standard — Debussy’s “Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un Faune” — rather than a new piece.

But the Philharmonic’s second subscription program — led on Thursday by its music director, Jaap van Zweden — was mellower and more strings focused, featuring Debussy’s silky “Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un Faune”; an American premiere by Caroline Shaw, featuring her vocal octet Roomful of Teeth; and Florence Price’s hearty, recently rediscovered Fourth Symphony.

The evening’s other pieces — Debussy’s “Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un Faune” and “La Mer,” and Wagner’s “Prelude and “Liebestod” from “Tristan und Isolde” — beautifully contextualized Muhly’s concerto, even if their sensuality eluded van Zweden at the podium.

And for all of its contemporary queerness, the work feels a bit stodgy; its choreographic conservativeness made me desire the sort of radical swerve that Nijinsky took, in the years right after “Narcisse,” with “L’Apres-midi d’un Faune” and “The Rite of Spring.”