Program Note Archive
2017-18
Jolley | Spielzeug Straßenbahn
When asked to re-imagine a Brandenburg concerto, I was thrilled: this gave me the excuse to write for a Baroque ensemble.
When thinking about this project, I noticed that trains have a constant musical energy about them (similar to Brandenburg concertos), and I was instantly reminded of this upon viewing the jolly Neighborhood Trolley from the iconic educational television program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. This toy trolley merrily converses with characters and easily traverses both Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
With this in mind, I make my musical offering in the form of a toy trolley, one that will bridge the gap between my twenty-first century contribution and Bach’s eighteenth-century one, taking us to an imagined time and place that I have never traveled.
When asked to re-imagine a Brandenburg concerto, I was thrilled: this gave me the excuse to write for a Baroque ensemble.
When thinking about this project, I noticed that trains have a constant musical energy about them (similar to Brandenburg concertos), and I was instantly reminded of this upon viewing the jolly Neighborhood Trolley from the iconic educational television program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. This toy trolley merrily converses with characters and easily traverses both Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
With this in mind, I make my musical offering in the form of a toy trolley, one that will bridge the gap between my twenty-first century contribution and Bach’s eighteenth-century one, taking us to an imagined time and place that I have never traveled.
2016-17
William Grant Still | Mother and Child
Originally a movement from his 1943 Suite for Violin and Piano, Still expanded Mother and Child for string orchestra shortly after. The composer wrote the suite during an immensely fruitful period after he completed his grand opera Troubled Island in 1939, but before its 1949 premiere at New York City Opera. However, 1943 was not an easy year for Still and his family. Still had moved to Los Angeles in 1934, hoping to continue his work with the film industry. He successfully established himself arranging music for movies starring the likes of Bing Crosby. But in 1943, Still walked away from the highest paying film commission he had ever received (Stormy Weather) as he felt the film’s content presented African Americans unfavorably. Racism certainly played an integral part in Still’s life, and these struggles are apparent in his compositions as an expression of his humanity.
Still reflected in 1955, “It has been equally a pleasure and a challenge to be colored and to be composing serious music in the United States: a pleasure, because it is exciting to be competing in a new field; a challenge, because there are always problems to be met and conquered.”
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges | Violin Concerto in G Major, Op. 2, No. 1
This violin concerto was the first of 14 virtuosic works for solo violin and orchestra, in addition to six operas, eight symphonie concertantes, several symphonies (six of which were commissioned by Haydn), and countless vocal and chamber works by Joseph Boulogne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges.
The Chevalier was a socially and artistically revolutionary force in the city of Paris, a guest at the court of Marie Antoinette, a rebel celebrated in antislavery circles in London, and a founding member of the abolitionist organization Société des Amis des Noirs (Society of the Friends of Blacks). A Virtuoso violinist, composer, conductor and athlete, but always, too, a Mulatto.
As many composer-performers of the time, the Chevalier wrote to his own abilities on his primary instrument. A first rate violinist, the opening movement is centered around an arch theme, and is full of quick runs that demonstrate his mastery of new techniques made possible by the groundbreaking practices of French bow-maker François Tourte.
The slow second movement is free in an unprecedented way. The orchestration is bare, leaving room for the solo voice to travel freely. As was typical, the movement builds to a cadenza (an unaccompanied passage for the soloist). As this work is not standard western classical repertory, there is no typical cadenza in place. In principle, this is undeniably egregious; in practice, it exists as an opportunity. I felt the need to create a statement of respect to the legacy the Chevalier deserved, and in so doing, pay homage to the musical titans of sister genres and generations that I hold in equal esteem. Early on, I decided to name the cadenza Nanon, after Anne Nanon, the Chevalier’s mother and freed Senegalese slave who lived on the island of Guadeloupe at the time of his conception. In this vein, I aspire to include musical statements from personally iconic female figures who spoke, sang, and testified more effectively than I ever could. I quote Nina Simone's recording of “Black Is the Color” alongside extensions of themes found throughout the concerto and self-composed phrases that act in a manner reflective of my own experience straddling several worlds without feeling the consistent, grounding acceptance of one. Nanon also seeks to recreate improvisational elements of my father's work as a jazz percussionist, through which I have a profound appreciation for titans like Fela Kuti and Clyde Stubblefield.
I see Nanon as the work’s peak. It is representative of Anne’s inurement as a woman taken from her native Senegal and the maternal sacrifices she made in order to protect the reputation of her gifted son in a Europe that extended its Enlightenment privileges to everyone except people of color. Finally, the cadenza stands as acknowledgment and appreciation of the caged freedom that the Chevalier experienced in Paris at the court of Marie-Antoinette; he was accepted to a point, but due to his African heritage, he was not included within the ranks of French nobility. My intention is to reflect the all too common sacrifices made by people of color at the altar of White comfort, a disturbing practice with a reach that spans centuries, both into the Chevalier’s period of Western history, and in every element of contemporary culture. Meterless rogue chords in the middle of the cadenza signify the frustration and powerlessness the Chevalier felt after removing himself from consideration for the position of director of the Paris Opera, a decision he made in order to avoid upsetting three operatic soloists who declaimed against being subordinate to a person of color and possibly unsettling a precarious relationship with the queen.
The third movement, marked Rondo, is like a coda to the first two movements. The principal theme is brief but repeated and embellished. This theme then expands to include a short minor section and concludes by restating the opening, adding a series of virtuosic expansions on this idea, and quoting it one final time at the conclusion of the work.
It is only at this point that we hear a resolution in the harmonic tensions of the second movement and a conservatism that also exists as a subtly edged-out hint at the Chevalier's future multidimensional compositions for solo violin, none of which are included in the existing body of commonly performed Western classical music.
Written by Jessica McJunkins
Handel | Dixit Dominus
Dixit Dominus, a cantata setting of Psalm 110, was written by a plucky 22-year-old Handel, who had just arrived in Italy. The work commences with a massive first movement, emphasizing the promise of the Lord (Dixit!, often heard in groups of three, echoing the trinity). Handel frequently calls on a cantus firmus to ground movements structurally. Following the imposing opening, there is a duet for Alto and continuo (Virgam virtutis…) and a sarabande featuring Soprano soloist (Tecum principium…). The chorus roars back about what the Lord has promised (Juravit Dominus) in a style and structure that anticipates his sinfonia-overture to Messiah written some 34 years later. The simultaneously meditative and chatty fifth movement partners slow-moving cantus firmus lines against animated text from the other voice parts. Next, the wrath text, introduced by soprano soloists, appears in an almost pining, lilting meter. Judgement is swift and virtuosic (Judicare), and it’s difficult to miss Handel’s text painting of the Lord crushing the skulls of his enemies. The seventh movement is peaceable, evoking the gentle ebb and flow of water. The final movement, a setting of the “Lesser Doxology,” starts in a stately fashion before the quicksilver et in saecula saeculorum. Amen (and forever, Amen) concludes the work.
Dvořák | Symphony 9 “From the New World”
The Czech-born composer Antonín Dvořák was actually a New Yorker from 1892–1895. He was lured to the States by Jeanette Thurber to head the nascent National Conservatory of Music and took up residence on East 17th Street. He brought immediate European cachet to the American compositional scene, but he also brought a foreigner’s perspective.
Dvořák, unlike so many, recognized the importance of African American musics—especially the spiritual—and Native American musics. In an interview with the New York Herald from May 21, 1893, Dvořák shared, “I am now satisfied that the future music of this country must be founded upon what are called the negro melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition to be developed in the United States. When I first came here last year I was impressed with this idea and it has developed into a settled conviction.These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are American.”
Yet he was more of a casual observer of these traditions than a researcher. Dvořák did not transcribe or directly incorporate any American folk music into his works. While some of his “New World” melodies may seem folk-based, such as the “Going Home” theme from the second movement, they are entirely of Dvořák’s creation.
Still | Poem for Orchestra
William Grant Still is known for his gorgeous melodies, lush orchestration, and dynamic storytelling, but Poem for Orchestra begins in a vicious, rushed, aggressive state. No doubt World War II weighed heavily on Still, and he called on some of the dissonant chord structures and jarring orchestration techniques he learned from his mentor, the avant-garde composer Edgard Varèse. But ultimately the piece softens, blossoming into one of the most serene and aspirational melodies of Still’s entire compositional output. While not explicitly programmatic, the work is based on the poem printed below by Verna Arvey, Still’s wife and collaborator. Poem for Orchestra was commissioned for the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra by the Fynette H. Kulas American Composer’s Fund and was first performed on December 7, 1944.
Soul-sick and weary,
Man stands on the rim of a desolate world.
Then from the embers of a dying past
Springs an immortal hope.
Resolutely evil is uprooted and thrust aside;
A shining temple stands
Where once greed and lust for power flourished.
Earth is young again, and on the wings of its re-birth
Man draws closer to God.
Warp Trio | Triple Concerto for Piano Trio
Warp Trio’s self-composed Triple Concerto is much like their stated mission: It is NOT your traditional piano trio. The three-movement work (I and II by Joshua Henderson, III by Mikael Darmanie) bucks trends about concerto form, tempo, and instrumentation. In fact, eclecticism and virtuosity are really the binding characteristics of this work. At one moment you might hear grand piano chords reminiscent of a Rachmaninoff concerto and only moments later drift away on an island tune or fling into a bossa nova.
Movement I begins with a slow introduction and moves into a terse but expansive trio jam typical of much of their homegrown style. It is seemingly the most conventionally structured of the movements before the return of the opening material is sabotaged by full orchestral improvisation and an entirely new, unsquare dance.
Movement II starts as if it might be Radiohead, before drifting into something more Lennon and McCartney, beautifully influenced by Chopin. With a love for tritones.
Movement III is initiated not by the orchestra or the trio, but by the drum kit, hitting sticks together as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band might jump into a tune. But it also has a classical relative in John Adams’s landmark 1986 piece, Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Unlike Adams, Darmanie only uses the metronome-like sticks for a few bars before leaping into a cadenza-like trio groove. Darmanie sees the work in three sections: House music, HipHop/RnB, and a Jazz–EDM fusion.
Ethel Smyth | Three Moods of the Sea
Though the work’s complete title is “Three Moods of the Sea for Orchestra and Mezzo Soprano,” it has been more than a century since anyone has heard the “orchestra” portion of the title. Smyth’s full orchestration was remains in manuscript in London, but Artistic Director Thomas Cunningham has arranged the piano-vocal score for string orchestra. Smyth selected and reordered the poems from Arthur Symons’s 1892 collection “Silhouettes.”
Smyth uses many of the same techniques from her 1906 opera The Wreckers, which is about Cornish villagers who darkened the lighthouse on stormy nights, luring ships onto the rocky coast to plunder their cargo. Swirling chromatic lines and rocking rhythmic cells dot the work, suggesting the sea in various states. Yet Smyth is also prone to simplicity, as seen in the first movement’s opening section and the third movement.
Smyth plays on the sea’s unpredictability, as in the first movement where gentle undulations become a raucous storm, only to resolve into restless rocking again. The second movement melds a dance-like quality to the precarious nature of the sea. The squalls--sudden and violent gusts of wind often accompanied by rain--are again relentlessly unpredictable. Agitated, temperamental lines are partnered with a heroic vocal line. The third movement is a respite: Elegant and steady, it looks to the ‘moment after,’ and the aftermath’s beauty.
Dobrinka Tabakova | Concerto for Cello and Strings
“Although there are three movements in the concerto, I prefer to think of it as one seamless form- a journey. Continuing a personal exploration of block structures, the first movement presents a dialogue between very turbulent and angular material and a more still, folk-reminiscent theme decorated with expressive grace notes, this eventually reaches a conclusion with a chorale-like idea, rooted in the slower theme of this opening. The second movement begins with a theme based on a pentatonic mode in the solo cello, which slowly becomes more embellished and is transformed into a series of rich chord progressions. The initial theme remains interweaved throughout the movement, though less obviously towards the end. The semiquaver theme of the first movement is the trigger for the main theme in the finale. This new idea takes the angular character of the opening theme and transforms it into a more joyful version, over which the solo line glides and leads towards the final resolution.
“This concerto, written for Kristine Blaumane and Amsterdam Sinfonietta, has been commissioned by the Amsterdamse Cello Biënnale and was made possible with the generous support from the Eduard van Beinum Stichting.”
Tonight’s performance of Dobrinka Tabakova’s concerto is generously underwritten by the Elizabeth and Michael Sorel Organization. This is the US premiere of her Concerto for Cello and Strings. Program notes courtesy of the composer’s website.
Doreen Carwithen | Concerto for Piano and Strings
Unlike concertos of earlier eras, Carwithen’s requires no lengthy introduction for the soloist, instead jumping into the fray without hesitation (or in medias res). The technical and virtuosic demands of the first movement are oft reminiscent of Liszt’s love of octaves and rollicking about the keyboard, yet we are clearly in a British worldview of tonality, with Carwithen proving herself a worthy heir to Vaughan Williams and Finzi.
For all the virtuosic demands on the soloist in the first movement, the second requires a completely different skill set. The piano becomes an accompanist, inviting the concertmaster to an extensive solo. A gentle, pulsing syncopation pervades throughout.
The third movement is exuberant and playful. An extensive cadenza calls for flourishes and speed from the soloist, but also geniality and repose. A brief moment of reflection and beauty from the strings precedes the work’s conclusion with powerful chords from the soloist and orchestra. This is the US premiere of Carwithen’s “Concerto for Piano and Strings.” Tonight’s performance is generously underwritten by the William Alwyn Foundation.
Originally a movement from his 1943 Suite for Violin and Piano, Still expanded Mother and Child for string orchestra shortly after. The composer wrote the suite during an immensely fruitful period after he completed his grand opera Troubled Island in 1939, but before its 1949 premiere at New York City Opera. However, 1943 was not an easy year for Still and his family. Still had moved to Los Angeles in 1934, hoping to continue his work with the film industry. He successfully established himself arranging music for movies starring the likes of Bing Crosby. But in 1943, Still walked away from the highest paying film commission he had ever received (Stormy Weather) as he felt the film’s content presented African Americans unfavorably. Racism certainly played an integral part in Still’s life, and these struggles are apparent in his compositions as an expression of his humanity.
Still reflected in 1955, “It has been equally a pleasure and a challenge to be colored and to be composing serious music in the United States: a pleasure, because it is exciting to be competing in a new field; a challenge, because there are always problems to be met and conquered.”
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges | Violin Concerto in G Major, Op. 2, No. 1
This violin concerto was the first of 14 virtuosic works for solo violin and orchestra, in addition to six operas, eight symphonie concertantes, several symphonies (six of which were commissioned by Haydn), and countless vocal and chamber works by Joseph Boulogne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges.
The Chevalier was a socially and artistically revolutionary force in the city of Paris, a guest at the court of Marie Antoinette, a rebel celebrated in antislavery circles in London, and a founding member of the abolitionist organization Société des Amis des Noirs (Society of the Friends of Blacks). A Virtuoso violinist, composer, conductor and athlete, but always, too, a Mulatto.
As many composer-performers of the time, the Chevalier wrote to his own abilities on his primary instrument. A first rate violinist, the opening movement is centered around an arch theme, and is full of quick runs that demonstrate his mastery of new techniques made possible by the groundbreaking practices of French bow-maker François Tourte.
The slow second movement is free in an unprecedented way. The orchestration is bare, leaving room for the solo voice to travel freely. As was typical, the movement builds to a cadenza (an unaccompanied passage for the soloist). As this work is not standard western classical repertory, there is no typical cadenza in place. In principle, this is undeniably egregious; in practice, it exists as an opportunity. I felt the need to create a statement of respect to the legacy the Chevalier deserved, and in so doing, pay homage to the musical titans of sister genres and generations that I hold in equal esteem. Early on, I decided to name the cadenza Nanon, after Anne Nanon, the Chevalier’s mother and freed Senegalese slave who lived on the island of Guadeloupe at the time of his conception. In this vein, I aspire to include musical statements from personally iconic female figures who spoke, sang, and testified more effectively than I ever could. I quote Nina Simone's recording of “Black Is the Color” alongside extensions of themes found throughout the concerto and self-composed phrases that act in a manner reflective of my own experience straddling several worlds without feeling the consistent, grounding acceptance of one. Nanon also seeks to recreate improvisational elements of my father's work as a jazz percussionist, through which I have a profound appreciation for titans like Fela Kuti and Clyde Stubblefield.
I see Nanon as the work’s peak. It is representative of Anne’s inurement as a woman taken from her native Senegal and the maternal sacrifices she made in order to protect the reputation of her gifted son in a Europe that extended its Enlightenment privileges to everyone except people of color. Finally, the cadenza stands as acknowledgment and appreciation of the caged freedom that the Chevalier experienced in Paris at the court of Marie-Antoinette; he was accepted to a point, but due to his African heritage, he was not included within the ranks of French nobility. My intention is to reflect the all too common sacrifices made by people of color at the altar of White comfort, a disturbing practice with a reach that spans centuries, both into the Chevalier’s period of Western history, and in every element of contemporary culture. Meterless rogue chords in the middle of the cadenza signify the frustration and powerlessness the Chevalier felt after removing himself from consideration for the position of director of the Paris Opera, a decision he made in order to avoid upsetting three operatic soloists who declaimed against being subordinate to a person of color and possibly unsettling a precarious relationship with the queen.
The third movement, marked Rondo, is like a coda to the first two movements. The principal theme is brief but repeated and embellished. This theme then expands to include a short minor section and concludes by restating the opening, adding a series of virtuosic expansions on this idea, and quoting it one final time at the conclusion of the work.
It is only at this point that we hear a resolution in the harmonic tensions of the second movement and a conservatism that also exists as a subtly edged-out hint at the Chevalier's future multidimensional compositions for solo violin, none of which are included in the existing body of commonly performed Western classical music.
Written by Jessica McJunkins
Handel | Dixit Dominus
Dixit Dominus, a cantata setting of Psalm 110, was written by a plucky 22-year-old Handel, who had just arrived in Italy. The work commences with a massive first movement, emphasizing the promise of the Lord (Dixit!, often heard in groups of three, echoing the trinity). Handel frequently calls on a cantus firmus to ground movements structurally. Following the imposing opening, there is a duet for Alto and continuo (Virgam virtutis…) and a sarabande featuring Soprano soloist (Tecum principium…). The chorus roars back about what the Lord has promised (Juravit Dominus) in a style and structure that anticipates his sinfonia-overture to Messiah written some 34 years later. The simultaneously meditative and chatty fifth movement partners slow-moving cantus firmus lines against animated text from the other voice parts. Next, the wrath text, introduced by soprano soloists, appears in an almost pining, lilting meter. Judgement is swift and virtuosic (Judicare), and it’s difficult to miss Handel’s text painting of the Lord crushing the skulls of his enemies. The seventh movement is peaceable, evoking the gentle ebb and flow of water. The final movement, a setting of the “Lesser Doxology,” starts in a stately fashion before the quicksilver et in saecula saeculorum. Amen (and forever, Amen) concludes the work.
Dvořák | Symphony 9 “From the New World”
The Czech-born composer Antonín Dvořák was actually a New Yorker from 1892–1895. He was lured to the States by Jeanette Thurber to head the nascent National Conservatory of Music and took up residence on East 17th Street. He brought immediate European cachet to the American compositional scene, but he also brought a foreigner’s perspective.
Dvořák, unlike so many, recognized the importance of African American musics—especially the spiritual—and Native American musics. In an interview with the New York Herald from May 21, 1893, Dvořák shared, “I am now satisfied that the future music of this country must be founded upon what are called the negro melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition to be developed in the United States. When I first came here last year I was impressed with this idea and it has developed into a settled conviction.These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are American.”
Yet he was more of a casual observer of these traditions than a researcher. Dvořák did not transcribe or directly incorporate any American folk music into his works. While some of his “New World” melodies may seem folk-based, such as the “Going Home” theme from the second movement, they are entirely of Dvořák’s creation.
Still | Poem for Orchestra
William Grant Still is known for his gorgeous melodies, lush orchestration, and dynamic storytelling, but Poem for Orchestra begins in a vicious, rushed, aggressive state. No doubt World War II weighed heavily on Still, and he called on some of the dissonant chord structures and jarring orchestration techniques he learned from his mentor, the avant-garde composer Edgard Varèse. But ultimately the piece softens, blossoming into one of the most serene and aspirational melodies of Still’s entire compositional output. While not explicitly programmatic, the work is based on the poem printed below by Verna Arvey, Still’s wife and collaborator. Poem for Orchestra was commissioned for the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra by the Fynette H. Kulas American Composer’s Fund and was first performed on December 7, 1944.
Soul-sick and weary,
Man stands on the rim of a desolate world.
Then from the embers of a dying past
Springs an immortal hope.
Resolutely evil is uprooted and thrust aside;
A shining temple stands
Where once greed and lust for power flourished.
Earth is young again, and on the wings of its re-birth
Man draws closer to God.
Warp Trio | Triple Concerto for Piano Trio
Warp Trio’s self-composed Triple Concerto is much like their stated mission: It is NOT your traditional piano trio. The three-movement work (I and II by Joshua Henderson, III by Mikael Darmanie) bucks trends about concerto form, tempo, and instrumentation. In fact, eclecticism and virtuosity are really the binding characteristics of this work. At one moment you might hear grand piano chords reminiscent of a Rachmaninoff concerto and only moments later drift away on an island tune or fling into a bossa nova.
Movement I begins with a slow introduction and moves into a terse but expansive trio jam typical of much of their homegrown style. It is seemingly the most conventionally structured of the movements before the return of the opening material is sabotaged by full orchestral improvisation and an entirely new, unsquare dance.
Movement II starts as if it might be Radiohead, before drifting into something more Lennon and McCartney, beautifully influenced by Chopin. With a love for tritones.
Movement III is initiated not by the orchestra or the trio, but by the drum kit, hitting sticks together as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band might jump into a tune. But it also has a classical relative in John Adams’s landmark 1986 piece, Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Unlike Adams, Darmanie only uses the metronome-like sticks for a few bars before leaping into a cadenza-like trio groove. Darmanie sees the work in three sections: House music, HipHop/RnB, and a Jazz–EDM fusion.
Ethel Smyth | Three Moods of the Sea
Though the work’s complete title is “Three Moods of the Sea for Orchestra and Mezzo Soprano,” it has been more than a century since anyone has heard the “orchestra” portion of the title. Smyth’s full orchestration was remains in manuscript in London, but Artistic Director Thomas Cunningham has arranged the piano-vocal score for string orchestra. Smyth selected and reordered the poems from Arthur Symons’s 1892 collection “Silhouettes.”
Smyth uses many of the same techniques from her 1906 opera The Wreckers, which is about Cornish villagers who darkened the lighthouse on stormy nights, luring ships onto the rocky coast to plunder their cargo. Swirling chromatic lines and rocking rhythmic cells dot the work, suggesting the sea in various states. Yet Smyth is also prone to simplicity, as seen in the first movement’s opening section and the third movement.
Smyth plays on the sea’s unpredictability, as in the first movement where gentle undulations become a raucous storm, only to resolve into restless rocking again. The second movement melds a dance-like quality to the precarious nature of the sea. The squalls--sudden and violent gusts of wind often accompanied by rain--are again relentlessly unpredictable. Agitated, temperamental lines are partnered with a heroic vocal line. The third movement is a respite: Elegant and steady, it looks to the ‘moment after,’ and the aftermath’s beauty.
Dobrinka Tabakova | Concerto for Cello and Strings
“Although there are three movements in the concerto, I prefer to think of it as one seamless form- a journey. Continuing a personal exploration of block structures, the first movement presents a dialogue between very turbulent and angular material and a more still, folk-reminiscent theme decorated with expressive grace notes, this eventually reaches a conclusion with a chorale-like idea, rooted in the slower theme of this opening. The second movement begins with a theme based on a pentatonic mode in the solo cello, which slowly becomes more embellished and is transformed into a series of rich chord progressions. The initial theme remains interweaved throughout the movement, though less obviously towards the end. The semiquaver theme of the first movement is the trigger for the main theme in the finale. This new idea takes the angular character of the opening theme and transforms it into a more joyful version, over which the solo line glides and leads towards the final resolution.
“This concerto, written for Kristine Blaumane and Amsterdam Sinfonietta, has been commissioned by the Amsterdamse Cello Biënnale and was made possible with the generous support from the Eduard van Beinum Stichting.”
Tonight’s performance of Dobrinka Tabakova’s concerto is generously underwritten by the Elizabeth and Michael Sorel Organization. This is the US premiere of her Concerto for Cello and Strings. Program notes courtesy of the composer’s website.
Doreen Carwithen | Concerto for Piano and Strings
Unlike concertos of earlier eras, Carwithen’s requires no lengthy introduction for the soloist, instead jumping into the fray without hesitation (or in medias res). The technical and virtuosic demands of the first movement are oft reminiscent of Liszt’s love of octaves and rollicking about the keyboard, yet we are clearly in a British worldview of tonality, with Carwithen proving herself a worthy heir to Vaughan Williams and Finzi.
For all the virtuosic demands on the soloist in the first movement, the second requires a completely different skill set. The piano becomes an accompanist, inviting the concertmaster to an extensive solo. A gentle, pulsing syncopation pervades throughout.
The third movement is exuberant and playful. An extensive cadenza calls for flourishes and speed from the soloist, but also geniality and repose. A brief moment of reflection and beauty from the strings precedes the work’s conclusion with powerful chords from the soloist and orchestra. This is the US premiere of Carwithen’s “Concerto for Piano and Strings.” Tonight’s performance is generously underwritten by the William Alwyn Foundation.
2015-16
Sibelius | Pélleas och Mélisande
There are more than a handful of well-known and highly regarded musical accounts based on Maurice Maeterlinck’s symbolist play Pélleas et Mélisande. Sibelius’s iteration, like that of Gabriel Fauré, was first created as incidental music to accompany performances of the play. Sibelius later revised the work into its better-known suite form that eliminated the mezzo-soprano and second to last movement. Tonight’s performance of the complete work is its US premiere.
Coleridge-Taylor | Romance in G Major for Violin and Orchestra
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was an African-English composer and boyhood hero of William Grant Still. His Romance for Violin and Orchestra puts on display all the qualities that earned him the (at the time flattering) nicknames of "African Mahler," and "coloured Dvorak." Coleridge-Taylor's Romance is at once idyllic and regretful. Written in one continuous movement, it eschews technical displays in favor of lush harmonic and melodic beauty.
Coleridge-Taylor | Keep Me From Sinking Down
Coleridge-Taylor had a strong connection to both Native American stories and Negro spirituals. Perhaps his greatest composition was based on Longfellow’s Hiawatha, and many of his works incorporated Negro melodies, including his Violin Concerto. Coleridge-Taylor first heard the melody of Keep Me From Sinking Down while at the Norfolk Music Festival in Connecticut. Very coincidentally, Sibelius would visit the Festival three years later and stay in the same bedroom Coleridge-Taylor had at the Stoeckel-Battell Estate.
Still | Troubled Island Suite
William Grant Still had already achieved numerous milestones by the time Troubled Island premiered at New York City Opera in 1949 to 22 curtain calls on opening night. Often referred to as “the Dean of African American composers,” Still broke ground as the first African American to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra, as well as the first to conduct a major orchestra. Troubled Island was the first grand opera by an African American to be produced at a major US opera house.
Set in Haiti in 1791, Troubled Island depicts the rise and fall of Jean Jacques Dessalines (1758-1806). Born into slavery, Dessalines led a successful revolt and declared himself Emperor, only to be assassinated by his opponents. Langston Hughes wrote the libretto, with additional text by pianist and poet Verna Arvey, Still’s wife.
The Suite traces material from Acts I and II, with featured solos for concertmaster and principal violist, assuming the roles of Claire and Celeste.
George Walker | Lyric for Strings
George T. Walker (b. 1922) was the first African-American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music (Lilacs, 1996). Urban Playground will present his lush and moving Lyric for Strings (1946), paired with his kaleidoscopic and pulsating Antifonys (1968). Walker was a student at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia when Lyric was premiered by their student orchestra and broadcast on the radio. It carries the dedication "To my grandmother," and remains one of his most popular works to this day.
George Walker | Antifonys
Antifonys illustrates Walker's later style. Sentimentality is replaced by a new dramatic voice, oscillating tension and release.
Maciej Balenkowski | Sinfonietta: Time is Ticking
20-year-old Maciej Bałenkowski's Sinfonietta was winner of the 2015 National Composition Contest in Kraków, Poland. It emanates a respect for tradition (echoes of Rite of Spring), while creating a unique sound world. Bałenkowski's piece was the genesis of tonight’s program and the ensemble size fits the exact specifications of his piece.
Julia Seeholzer | Yours
Julia Seeholzer's Yours is a touching reflection on missed connections in the 21st century, featuring solos from the principal violinist, violist and cellist. Julia wrote Yours "after [reconnecting] with an old friend for the first time in 3-4 years. We're rarely in the same geographic location, so seeing him was bittersweet, especially after having some great talks and exchanging music with one another. Yours came out of my longing for some more face-to-face time with him, and also acted as an expression of pining after the "what-ifs" that come with relationships that never quite sync up, for whatever reason.
There are more than a handful of well-known and highly regarded musical accounts based on Maurice Maeterlinck’s symbolist play Pélleas et Mélisande. Sibelius’s iteration, like that of Gabriel Fauré, was first created as incidental music to accompany performances of the play. Sibelius later revised the work into its better-known suite form that eliminated the mezzo-soprano and second to last movement. Tonight’s performance of the complete work is its US premiere.
Coleridge-Taylor | Romance in G Major for Violin and Orchestra
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was an African-English composer and boyhood hero of William Grant Still. His Romance for Violin and Orchestra puts on display all the qualities that earned him the (at the time flattering) nicknames of "African Mahler," and "coloured Dvorak." Coleridge-Taylor's Romance is at once idyllic and regretful. Written in one continuous movement, it eschews technical displays in favor of lush harmonic and melodic beauty.
Coleridge-Taylor | Keep Me From Sinking Down
Coleridge-Taylor had a strong connection to both Native American stories and Negro spirituals. Perhaps his greatest composition was based on Longfellow’s Hiawatha, and many of his works incorporated Negro melodies, including his Violin Concerto. Coleridge-Taylor first heard the melody of Keep Me From Sinking Down while at the Norfolk Music Festival in Connecticut. Very coincidentally, Sibelius would visit the Festival three years later and stay in the same bedroom Coleridge-Taylor had at the Stoeckel-Battell Estate.
Still | Troubled Island Suite
William Grant Still had already achieved numerous milestones by the time Troubled Island premiered at New York City Opera in 1949 to 22 curtain calls on opening night. Often referred to as “the Dean of African American composers,” Still broke ground as the first African American to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra, as well as the first to conduct a major orchestra. Troubled Island was the first grand opera by an African American to be produced at a major US opera house.
Set in Haiti in 1791, Troubled Island depicts the rise and fall of Jean Jacques Dessalines (1758-1806). Born into slavery, Dessalines led a successful revolt and declared himself Emperor, only to be assassinated by his opponents. Langston Hughes wrote the libretto, with additional text by pianist and poet Verna Arvey, Still’s wife.
The Suite traces material from Acts I and II, with featured solos for concertmaster and principal violist, assuming the roles of Claire and Celeste.
George Walker | Lyric for Strings
George T. Walker (b. 1922) was the first African-American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music (Lilacs, 1996). Urban Playground will present his lush and moving Lyric for Strings (1946), paired with his kaleidoscopic and pulsating Antifonys (1968). Walker was a student at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia when Lyric was premiered by their student orchestra and broadcast on the radio. It carries the dedication "To my grandmother," and remains one of his most popular works to this day.
George Walker | Antifonys
Antifonys illustrates Walker's later style. Sentimentality is replaced by a new dramatic voice, oscillating tension and release.
Maciej Balenkowski | Sinfonietta: Time is Ticking
20-year-old Maciej Bałenkowski's Sinfonietta was winner of the 2015 National Composition Contest in Kraków, Poland. It emanates a respect for tradition (echoes of Rite of Spring), while creating a unique sound world. Bałenkowski's piece was the genesis of tonight’s program and the ensemble size fits the exact specifications of his piece.
Julia Seeholzer | Yours
Julia Seeholzer's Yours is a touching reflection on missed connections in the 21st century, featuring solos from the principal violinist, violist and cellist. Julia wrote Yours "after [reconnecting] with an old friend for the first time in 3-4 years. We're rarely in the same geographic location, so seeing him was bittersweet, especially after having some great talks and exchanging music with one another. Yours came out of my longing for some more face-to-face time with him, and also acted as an expression of pining after the "what-ifs" that come with relationships that never quite sync up, for whatever reason.