Paul Jacobs • Christoph Bull • Frederick Swann • Craig Williams FEB
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AMERICAN COMPOSERS FESTIVAL 2016 ORGAN SPLENDOR Paul Jacobs • Christoph Bull • Frederick Swann • Craig Williams FEB. 4-6 classical series SEGERSTROM CENTER FOR THE ARTS RENÉE AND HENRY SEGERSTROM CONCERT HALL presents 2015-16 HAL & JEANETTE SEGERSTROM FAMILY FOUNDATION CLASSICAL SERIES Performance begins at 8 p.m. Preview talk with Alan Chapman begins at 7 p.m. CARL ST.CLAIR • CONDUCTOR | PAUL JACOBS • FESTIVAL CURATOR AND ORGAN CHRISTOPH BULL • ORGAN | PACIFIC CHORALE — JOHN ALEXANDER • ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AMERICAN COMPOSERS FESTIVAL 2016 Organ Splendor Wayne Oquin (b. 1977) Resilience for Organ and Orchestra (WORLD PREMIERE) Paul Jacobs Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943) Lux Aeterna Introitus In Te, Domine, Speravi O Nata Lux Veni, Sancte Spiritus Agnus Dei Christoph Bull Pacific Chorale INTERMISSION William Bolcom (b. 1938) Humoresk for Organ and Orchestra Christoph Bull Stephen Paulus (1949–2014) Pilgrims’ Hymn Pacific Chorale Concerto No. 4 for Organ and Orchestra I. Robust II. Soaring III. Whirling; with Agitation Paul Jacobs The 2016 American Composers Festival is supported by PACIFIC SYMPHONY PROUDLY RECOGNIZES ITS OFFICIAL PARTNERS Official Hotel Official Television Station ACF Media Sponsor Official Classical Radio Station The Saturday, Feb. 5, performance is being recorded for broadcast on Sunday, March 13, at 7 p.m. on Classical KUSC. 2 • Pacific Symphony NOTES by michael clive What to Listen For Critics praise Oquin for his spiritually intense musical expression, which connects listeners with inner emotions while reaching outward for the eternal. The San Francisco Examiner, in a review of Oquin’s Reverie, noted that “The dreamlike spirit of the title was established by the composer through tones and chords sustained for considerable duration. Above these sustained sounds the score then wove melodic fragments of increasing complexity, allowing this work to emerge as another reflection on the past. This time, however, the past was far more distant, drawing upon the melismatic organa of the 12th century for models…” Oquin’s compositions frequently engage the grave issues and events of our times in ways that enable listeners to find personal and spiritual meaning, as in his A Time to Break Silence, which reflects on the life and words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In reviewing A Time to Break Silence, the magazine Opera Britannia called the work “strikingly beautiful,” and described the passage I See the Promised Land as “heart-stopping in its unaffected simplicity.” In a review of the same work, Classical Source noted that “Wayne Oquin’s setting of lines from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech stripped away the familiar accompaniment of black and white images, pressing supporters and crowd noises, leaving only WAYNE OQUIN (b. 1977) the words, after a long introduction of bare note clusters from the piano. The singer created an overwhelming sense of King’s vision and Resilience for Organ and Orchestra the inspiration which resulted from it in this fine setting.” WAYNE OQUIN (b . 1977) Instrumentation: 3 flutes (third doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, english horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass Lux Aeterna trombone, tuba, timpani, 3 percussion, harp, celeste, strings, organ MORTEN LAURIDSEN (b . 1943) Performance time: 12 minutes Instrumentation: strings, organ, chorus Performance time: 28 minutes y age 15, I knew I wanted to be a composer. As a young musician I wrote, played, studied and listened to music day Background and night. Among countless recordings, one that I wore B visit to the website of American composer Morten Johannes out was a CD of Pacific Symphony with contemporary American composers, John Corigliano and Frank Ticheli. Never had I heard Lauridsen transports the viewer to a realm of serene new music interpreted with such passion and zeal. Little did I A timelessness and natural beauty. Its images of the sea, sky know that one day I would be asked by this very conductor, Carl and water-washed rocks are at one with Lauridsen’s music; many St.Clair, to write a celebratory work for this splendid orchestra were captured from the 2012 documentary film Shining Night: A featuring such a preeminent organist as Paul Jacobs. Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen and were photographed at the composer’s Waldron Island retreat in San Juan County, Wash. I began composing in June 2015. Though I had written for orchestra and had even collaborated with Paul on a previous A native of the Pacific Northwest, Lauridsen was born in 1943. He piece for solo organ, I had never combined these two immense worked as a Forest Service firefighter and lookout (on an isolated forces. At the outset, I knew this would be a challenge. tower near Mount St. Helens), and attended Whitman College before traveling south to study composition at the University of Southern The work would become a 12-minute exploration of two California with Ingolf Dahl, Halsey Stevens, Robert Linn and Harold seemingly limitless spheres: organ and orchestra. From the Owen. He began teaching at USC in 1967 and has been on the faculty first note, the organ asserts its place of strength. The orchestra ever since. answers immediately. This use of call and response is the basis of the piece. With each subsequent statement, the organ elicits In 2006, Lauridsen was named an “American Choral Master” by the a new orchestral response. These replies—sometimes short, National Endowment for the Arts and received the National Medal but frequently more extended, often exuberant, but at times of Arts in 2007. In the White House ceremony bestowing the award, reflective—are as wide-ranging as the organ itself. Lauridsen’s presidential citation noted “his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth While composing, I was always mindful that this music that have thrilled audiences worldwide.” He was composer-in- would be interpreted by a conductor whose commitment to residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1994 to 2001, and new music is unlimited and by an organist whose breadth of has been a professor of composition at the University of Southern expression, as with the King of Instruments, knows no bounds. California Thornton School of Music for more than 40 years. Resilience, meant to convey what is among the very best qualities of the human spirit, is dedicated with admiration to A recipient of numerous grants, prizes and commissions, Lauridsen Paul Jacobs and Carl St.Clair. —Wayne Oquin chaired the composition department at the USC Thornton School of Music from 1990–2002 and founded the school’s advanced studies Pacific Symphony • 3 NOTES Background he American composer and scholar William Bolcom is expert in more different aspects of music than any one person has T a right to be. Many listeners first gained familiarity with Bolcom through his hugely popular recital tours with his wife, lyric mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, whom he accompanied in programs of 19th-century American songs. But Bolcom has proved equally adept in vocal and orchestral composition, and has written some of America’s most important operas, including A View from the Bridge and McTeague. Named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America, and honored with multiple Grammy Awards for his setting of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Bolcom has also earned acclaim for his cabaret songs, concertos, sonatas and symphonies. He was awarded the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Twelve New Etudes for piano. Bolcom began his studies in composition at age 11 under the tutelage of John Verrall, an important composer and teacher on the faculty of the University of Washington. After receiving his bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington, Bolcom studied at Mills College with the French composer Darius Milhaud, who took him to (b. 1943) MORTEN LAURIDSEN Paris, where he also worked with Olivier Messiaen. Still in his early 20s, Bolcom returned to the U.S. and studied with Leland Smith program in film scoring. He has held residencies as guest composer/ at Stanford, earning his doctorate in composition there in 1964. lecturer at over 70 universities and has received honorary doctorates His award-winning early composition Dynamite Tonite shows the from Whitman College, Oklahoma State University, Westminster influence of Milhaud and the Parisian cabarets. Choir College and King’s College, University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Lauridsen now divides his time between Los Angeles and his summer What to Listen For residence off the northern coast of Washington state. Bolcom has credited another innovative American composer, Charles What to Listen For Ives, as his greatest influence, but his work is exceptionally wide- ranging in style and avoids categories of compositional style, whether Lauridsen’s musical approaches are very diverse, ranging from direct European or American. Bolcom’s pieces are frequently inspired by to abstract in response to various characteristics (subject matter, sources in American culture and literature, incorporating idioms language, style, structure, historical era, etc.) of the texts he sets. such as ragtime and jazz. His pieces show a sense of humor that His Latin sacred settings, such as the Lux Aeterna and motets, often has been called “trenchant” for their ability to amuse and provoke reference Gregorian chant plus Medieval and Renaissance procedures simultaneously. while blending them within a freshly contemporary sound, while other works such as the Madrigali and Cuatro Canciones are highly Throughout their stylistic range, Bolcom’s works display a singing line chromatic or atonal. His music has an overall lyricism and is tightly that is especially fitting for the voice and for organ—a reflection of his constructed around melodic and harmonic motives. lifetime’s work with some of the greatest vocal artists of our times. His commissions include works for Plácido Domingo, Marilyn Horne Referring to Lauridsen’s sacred music, the musicologist and and Catherine Malfitano.