DOCSLIB.ORG

Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Robert Spano, Music Director Lukas Foss, Conductor Laureate Craig G. Matthews, President 47th Season 2000-2001 Friday Evening, April 6, 2001, at 8:00 Sunday Afternoon, April 8, 2001, at 3:00 BAM Howard Gilman Opera House ROBERT SPANO, Conductor PURCELL March from Funeral Music for Queen Mary (1694) (there will be no pause between these works) BERIO Requies (1983-85) WAGNER Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde (1856- 59) Intermission HERSCH Umbra (World Premiere: Brooklyn Philharmonic Commission) (2000) Largo Adagio Grave Largo Molto Adagio Adagio Allegro SCRIABIN Le Poeme de l'extase, Op. 54 (1905-08) Major support for this concert has been provided by KeySpan Foundation. Umbra by Michael Hersch was commissioned by the Brooklyn Philharmonic with support provided by The Geraldine C. and Emory M. Ford Foundation, Heathcote Art Foundation, and The O'Grady Family Foundation. Baldwin is the official piano of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra. The Brooklyn Philhannonic Orchestra gratefully acknowledges Mr. and Mrs. Stanley H. Kaplan, whose generous support made possible the Stanley H. Kaplan Education Center Acoustical Shell. As a courtesy to others, please turn off watches, phones, and other electronic devices. 25 BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Notes on the Program by David Wright March from Funeral Music and minor harmonies in what must then for Queen Mary have seemed a strange, uncanny sound, HENRY PURCELL stirring together emotions of nostalgia, ten­ Born 1659, probably in London derness, grief, and hope-and all in music Died November 21, 1695, in London of the utmost dignity and royal formality. Through all the political upheavals in Requies England during the 1680s-most notably LUCIANO BERlO the "Glorious Revolution" in which Born October 24, 1925, in Oneglia, William and Mary of the house of Orange Imperia, Italy ousted James II, the last Stuart king­ Henry Purcell continued as organist of Composed between 1983--85 Requies derives the Chapel Royal, supplying music for its title from the Latin word for "rest." Mr. court occasions. He was also a prolific Berio dedicated this work "to the memory composer of operas, music for plays, and of Cathy Berberian," the extraordinary bawdy drinking songs. When Queen vocalist (1925-1983) who excelled in the Mary died in 1694, Purcell followed the avant-garde soundscapes of Cage, Henze, practice of most Baroque composers, and Berio himself, to whom she was mar­ adapting some previously composed ried from 1950 to 1966. In the context of the music (and adding two new movements) present program it is worth noting that Ms. to provide a solemn march, brass can­ Berberian's three-octave vocal range once zona, and choral anthems for her funeral. inspired an awestruck critic to write that she As often happens with J.5. Bach, this "could sing both Tristan and Isolde." adapted music seems so suited to the new At the outset, a single note shimmers occasion that it is hard to imagine its hav­ and changes tone color as different instru­ ing been composed for anything else. All ments take it up-a signal that, in this piece, the music became known as the Funeral Mr. Berio will compose as much with Music for Queen Mary, even though some of changing colors as with changing pitches in it, including the noble March, had been a melody. During much of the piece, the composed in 1692 for a production of instruments play mainly in the soprano Thomas Shadwell's play The Libertine. Just range, as if we were hearing Ms. Berberian's a year later Purcell himself died, and this voice from afar, and the mood is muted and music was performed at his funeral in tender. At the end, however, the music Westminster Abbey on November 26, 1695. becomes more agitated and forceful, as if This mournful March and the Canzona the composer were contradicting his own of the Funeral Music are the only surviving title, and protesting against letting his loved music known to have been composed for one "go gentle into that good night." the "flat trumpet," an English type of slide For the first recording of Requies in trumpet, so named because it was capable 1988, Mr. Berio supplied the following of playing in the "flat keys," i.e., minor keys. description of it: By moving a loop of tubing near his chin, A chamber orchestra plays a the player could fill in the missing notes of melody. More specifically it the instrument's natural scale, and thus describes a melody, but only in the play in C minor instead of C major. In this sense that a shadow describes an March, Purcell's imaginative genius made object or an echo describes a sound. the most of this capability, mingling major The melody constantly unfolds, 26 BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA albeit in a discontinuous manner, Romantic youth became, in Wagner's later through repeats and digressions operas, a prophecy of human love broken around a changeable, distant, and on the rack of war, politics, and the indus­ perhaps indescribable center. trial age. The musical metaphor for this vision was the dismantling of the centuries­ Prelude and Liebestod from old system of tonal harmony, which was Tristan und Isolde already under way in 1865, when Wagner made it the hallmark of his opera Tristan RICHARD WAGNER und Isolde. TItis story of doomed love, set Born May 22, 1813, in Leipzig (like so many Romantic operas) in medieval Died February 13, 1883, in Venice times, was set to rootless yet passionate Richard Wagner was a man of the theater music that expressed unfulfilled yearning through and through; his life was dedi­ as nothing has before or since. Tristan cated to the blending of poetry, music, became the rallying cry for exponents of drama, and spectacle into the Gesamtkunst­ the "Music of the Future," and Wagner werk, the unified work of art. In his music became the rock star of his generation. dramas he avoided arias, overtures, and For longtime concertgoers or record col­ the other traditional operatic elements that lectors, the phrase "Prelude and Liebestod" could be easily excerpted for performance rolls easily off the tongue, as the orchestral in a concert. He also composed almost no passages most often excerpted from Tristan. music that was intended for the concert In fact one might as well refer to "Page 1 hall. And yet the influence of his musical and Page 883" of some great novel, since ideas was so potent that not even the com­ what we are hearing is Wagner's brief posers of symphonies and chamber music musical preparation for the drama to come, could avoid them. Except for Brahms and coupled with (several hours later in the his neoclassical disciples-and maybe not opera) the drama's tremendous conclusion, even them-i t seemed as though all the joining of Isolde with her lover Tristan European composers of the late 19th cen­ in death. The Prelude is a bundle of yearn­ tury were measured by how their compo­ ing chromatic modulations that, quiet as sitions measured up to those of the master, they seem to be, have kept many harmonic or by how effectively they were able to analysts (and maybe also psychoanalysts) thumb their nose at the great musical awake at night. And even in the orchestral emperor. Despite the difficulty of snipping version without the soprano's incandes­ music out of Wagner's lengthy works for cent solo, the opera's concluding pages, the concert performance, conductors did so Liebestod or "love-death" of Isolde, are an anyway because they believed this music overwhelming expression of the consum­ had to be heard, even by people who didn't mation of unconsummated love. attend the opera. TItis custom continued robustly until well past the midpoint of the Umbra 20th century. MICHAEL HERSCH How did Wagner become the pivotal Born June 25, 1971 in Washington, D.C. musical figure of his era, as Beethoven had Now living in Rome, Italy 60 years before? By drawing together the elements of Romanticism-the fairy-tale By now the story of the young man named operas of Weber, the tragic passion of Michael Hersch, growing up in a Virginia Goethe's Werther, the harmonic innova­ suburb of Washington, D.C., who at age 19 tions of Chopin and Liszt, to name a few­ saw a videotape of Sir Georg Solti con­ and giving them a mighty shove toward ducting Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and the 20th century. The fashionable despair of decided on the spot that he wanted to be a 27 BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA musician, and who in the subsequent ten say sounds less long than it really is, like a years has earned the highest praise from good jazz solo. American composers and conductors for Most unusually for an American com­ his piano playing and his compositions, is poser, Mr. Hersch seems irresistibly drawn familiar to many readers. to what George Rochberg called "the dark For those who haven't yet heard of Mr. places of the human heart and soul." Titles Hersch, here is a brief summary: It was his like .. .and I am plunged into darkness and On younger brother, now a professional hom Sorrow, Anger, and Reflection do not promise player, who noted his artistic inclinations much jollity, and yet these orchestral pieces and prodigious memory, and turned him have won Mr. Hersch warm applause for on to music with that Selti tape. After just their sincerity, energy, and skillful use of two years of lessons and courses, Mr. the orchestra. Hersch was admitted to Peabody Conser­ Umbra, which receives its world pre­ vatory of Music in Baltimore, where the miere at these concerts, is quite literally late John Henry Carton, the venerable named for a dark place.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Áé( Áfý%¯Ð¨Ý Ñ˛
    559281bk Hersch 1/8/06 5:27 pm Page 8 AMERICAN CLASSICS MICHAEL HERSCH Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 Fracta Arraché Michael Hersch would like to thank the Argosy Foundation, Fran Richard, the staff and musicians of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Walton, Bournemouth Symphony Ignat Solzhenitsyn, George and Gene Rochberg, Jamie Hersch, Christopher Middleton, Orchestra Jessica Lustig, Michael Lutz, Glenn Petry, Albert Imperato, Louise Barder, and his wife Karen and daughter Abigail Hersch. Marin Alsop 8.559281 8 559281bk Hersch 1/8/06 5:27 pm Page 2 Michael Hersch (b.1971): Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 • Fracta • Arraché ierten Wiederholung der Anfangslinien überleitet. Eine choralartige, dunkel gefärbte Figur in Fagotten und Klari- Reihe sich steigernder Codas führt zum Augenblick der netten. Ist das vielleicht ein Gebet um Kraft gegen das Intensity and passion always increasing… conductor consistently programmed Hersch’s music Wahrheit: Tatsächlich endet die Symphonie mit einem Böse, das gleich ausgestrahlt werden wird? Auf jeden Fall This marking found in Michael Hersch’s Symphony No. 1 and helped to instill confidence that his voice was a Unisono-C der Glocken. Mag das Leben auch noch so wird der Hörer tatsächlich von dieser sorgenvollen Re- best sums up the American composer’s music. His worthy one. That relationship has continued to this day, düster sein, die Ausdauer wird doch belohnt. flexion durch ein kantiges, hüpfendes Thema „weggeris- output abounds with extreme shifts in dynamics and leading to the present disc of definitive recordings with Arraché, das jüngste Werk auf dieser CD, zeigt deut- sen“, das zu einem dichten, stachligen Allegro führt.
    [Show full text]
  • Music: the Quintessential American Sound
    Music: The Quintessential American Sound By Tim Smith The early years of the 21st century have yet to provide a clear-cut sense of where music in America is heading, but through the mixed signals, it's possible to draw some promising conclusions. Despite premature reports of its demise, the classical genre is still very much alive and kicking. American composers continue to create rewarding experiences for performers and listeners alike; most orchestras sound better than ever; most opera companies are enjoying increasingly sizable audiences, with particularly strong growth in the desirable 18- to-24-year-old category. Singer Norah Jones and her album "Come The pop music field -- from the cutting- Away With Me" captured eight Grammy Awards in 2003. edge to the mainstream to the retro -- is (Robert Mora, © 2002 Getty Images) still spreading its stylistic influences around a world that has never lost its appetite for the latest American sounds and stars. The Advent of Cyber Technology Technological advances continue to influence the whole spectrum of America's music in mostly positive ways. Composer Tod Machover has pioneered computer-generated "hyperinstruments" that electronically augment the properties of conventional instruments and expand a performer's options of controlling pitch, tempo, and all the other elements of music-making. Listeners are downloading not just the latest hit recordings, but also live classical concerts and opera performances via the Internet. Music organizations have been quick to add Web sites, giving regular and prospective patrons new opportunities to learn about works being performed and even to take music courses, not just buy tickets.
    [Show full text]
  • NY PHIL BIENNIAL AT-A-GLANCE COMPOSERS Daniel ACOSTA
    NY PHIL BIENNIAL AT-A-GLANCE (as of April 10, 2014) COMPOSERS Daniel ACOSTA † Toshio HOSOKAWA John ADAMS HUANG Ruo Mark ANDRÉ Vijay IYER George BENJAMIN Michael JARRELL Luciano BERIO Chris KAPICA Oscar BETTISON György KURTÁG Pierre BOULEZ György LIGETI Ryan BROWN Franz LISZT André CAPLET Steven MACKEY Richard CARRICK Philippe MANOURY Elliott CARTER Bruno MANTOVANI Friedrich CERHA Colin MATTHEWS Elli CHOI † Eric NATHAN Nick CHOMOWICZ † Olga NEUWIRTH Ethan COHN † Jake O’BRIEN † Marc-André DALBAVIE Gérard PESSON Samantha DARRIS † Matthias PINTSCHER Zachary DETRICK § Milo PONIEWOZIK † Peter EÖTVÖS Eric PORETSKY † Morton FELDMAN Paola PRESTINI Daniel FELSENFELD Wolfgang RIHM Dai FUJIKURA Christopher ROUSE Julian GALESI §† Jay SCHWARTZ Helen GRIME Nina ŠENK HK GRUBER Johannes Maria STAUD Jack GULIELMETTI † Farah TASLIMA † Graydon HANSON † Galina USTVOLSKAYA Will HEALY † David WALLACE Michael HERSCH Julia WOLFE Heinz HOLLIGER Ryan WIGGLESWORTH Vito ZURAJ † denotes Very Young Composer of the New York Philharmonic § denotes Kaufman Music Center Special Music School High School student 2 Additional composers selected through the assistance of the EarShot National Orchestral Composition Discovery Network and from the American Composers Orchestra’s Underwood New Music Readings COMPOSERS’ COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN Austria Romania China Russia France Slovenia Germany Switzerland Hungary United Kingdom Italy United States Japan Venezuela WORLD PREMIERES Oscar BETTISON Threaded Madrigals (New York Philharmonic Commission) Zachary DETRICK (SMSHS student) Beyond There Julian GALESI (SMSHS student) Vote for Sheriff HUANG Ruo Chamber Concerto No. 2, The Lost Garden (World Premiere of chamber orchestra version) Michael HERSCH Of Sorrow Born: Seven Elegies (New York Philharmonic Commission) Chris KAPICA Fandanglish (New York Philharmonic Commission) Eric NATHAN As Above, So Below (New York Philharmonic Commission) Paola PRESTINI Eight Takes (New York Philharmonic Commission) Christopher ROUSE Symphony No.
    [Show full text]
  • Access Provided by Your Local Institution at 04/11/11 12:25AM GMT the Composer Michael Hersch in 2007 Susan Forscher Weiss
    Access Provided by your local institution at 04/11/11 12:25AM GMT The Composer Michael Hersch in 2007 Susan Forscher Weiss On the Life Of a twenty-first Century COmpOser: miChaeL hersCh hree years after his solo-piano work The Vanishing Pavilions appeared, Michael Hersch unveiled Last Autumn, Part II of his massive trilogy, in October 2009 at St. Mark’s Church in TPhiladelphia. The unusual instrumentation, for French horn and cello, was written for cellist Daniel Gaisford and the composer’s hornist brother, Jamie (co-principal of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra). The music critic of The Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns, a long-time follower of Hersch’s music, in an article published before the premier, prepared his readers for hearing a work lacking “typical points of reference” that leave “listeners further unmoored from what they know.” He added, “Music with such ambiguous destinations can be frightening.” The piece premiered on a rainy autumn evening in a church filled with musicians and music lovers eager for this major new work by a composer many of them knew personally. In the program notes, Aaron Grad provided some background to the composition, remarking that Hersch entrusted the score to two of the very few musicians in the world who could rise to its ferocious challenges. The forty-one move- ments, more than half in Book I and the remainder in Book II, were performed with a single intermission between the two. Unlike books of preludes written by Chopin or Debussy, where there may be little or no perceived connection between pieces (enabling performances of single preludes), the movements of Hersch’s composition seem to connect in ways that require a hearing of the whole.
    [Show full text]
  • Music in the Making” (Formerly “Composer Conversation Series”)
    For Immediate Release Contact: Stephen Sokolouski 651.292.4318 | [email protected] The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Classical Minnesota Public Radio, and American Composers Forum announce new season of “Music in the Making” (formerly “Composer Conversation Series”) 2015.16 Music in the Making conversations feature Michael Hersch, Derek Bermel, Meredith Monk, Steven Mackey and special guests at MPR’s UBS Forum, Amsterdam Bar & Hall, Walker Art Center’s William and Nadine McGuire Theater and Guthrie Theater SAINT PAUL, MN, September 22, 2015 — The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO), Classical Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), and American Composers Forum (ACF) are pleased to announce the fourth season of Music in the Making. Formerly known as “Composer Conversation Series,” the new name “Music in the Making” emphasizes the series’ shift from a focus on composition to a broader, more collaborative conversation between composers and artists about music-making as a whole. Intended for music lovers of all stripes, this season’s events allows audiences to engage directly with the most original, prominent and prestigious voices in composition. The 2015.16 season will feature live interviews with distinctive creators Michael Hersch (with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja), Derek Bermel, Meredith Monk and Steven Mackey (with composer/percussionist Jason Treuting & director Mark DeChiazza). The events will take place at venues across the Twin Cities and feature time devoted for audience Q&A and informal post-show receptions. This season welcomes two new hosts: Classical MPR’s Steve Seel and the Walker Arts Center’s Director and Senior Curator of Performing Arts Philip Bither. Previous seasons featured live interviews with distinguished guests such as Kevin Puts, Bryce Dessner, Caroline Shaw, Richard Reed Parry, Fred Lerdahl, Missy Mazzoli, John Luther Adams, Vivian Fung, John Harbison, Timo Andres, Gabriel Kahane, Shawn Jaeger, Dawn Upshaw, Laurie Anderson and Sufjan Stevens among others.
    [Show full text]
  • Ny Phil Biennial At-A-Glance Composers
    NY PHIL BIENNIAL AT-A-GLANCE (as of April 24, 2014) COMPOSERS WANG A-Mao + Toshio HOSOKAWA Daniel ACOSTA † HUANG Ruo John ADAMS Vijay IYER Julia ADOLPHE + Michael JARRELL Andy AKIHO + Jesse JONES + Mark ANDRÉ Chris KAPICA George BENJAMIN György KURTÁG Luciano BERIO György LIGETI Oscar BETTISON Franz LISZT Pierre BOULEZ WANG Lu + Ryan BROWN Steven MACKEY André CAPLET Philippe MANOURY Richard CARRICK Bruno MANTOVANI Elliott CARTER Colin MATTHEWS Friedrich CERHA Andrew McMANUS + Elli CHOI † Jared MILLER + Nick CHOMOWICZ † Eric NATHAN Ethan COHN † Olga NEUWIRTH Marc-André DALBAVIE Jake O’BRIEN † Samantha DARRIS † Gérard PESSON Zachary DETRICK § Matthias PINTSCHER William DOUGHERTY + Milo PONIEWOZIK † Melody EÖTVÖS + Eric PORETSKY † Peter EÖTVÖS Paola PRESTINI Morton FELDMAN Wolfgang RIHM Daniel FELSENFELD Kyle ROTOLO + Dai FUJIKURA Christopher ROUSE Julian GALESI §† Jay SCHWARTZ Max GRAFE + Nina ŠENK Helen GRIME Harry STAFYLAKIS + HK GRUBER Johannes Maria STAUD Jack GULIELMETTI † Farah TASLIMA † Graydon HANSON † Galina USTVOLSKAYA Will HEALY † David WALLACE Michael HERSCH Julia WOLFE Heinz HOLLIGER Ryan WIGGLESWORTH Robert HONSTEIN + Vito ZURAJ † denotes Very Young Composer of the New York Philharmonic § denotes Kaufman Music Center Special Music School High School student + denotes composers selected through the assistance of the EarShot National Orchestral Composition Discovery Network and from the American Composers Orchestra’s Underwood New Music Readings 2 COMPOSERS’ COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN Australia Japan Austria Romania Canada Russia China Slovenia France Switzerland Germany United Kingdom Hungary United States Italy Venezuela WORLD PREMIERES Julia ADOLPH Dark Sand, Sifting Light Andy AKIHO Tarnished Mirrors Oscar BETTISON Threaded Madrigals * Zachary DETRICK (SMSHS student) Beyond There Melody EÖTVÖS Beetles, Dragons, and Dreamers Julian GALESI (SMSHS student) Vote for Sheriff Max GRAFE Bismuth: Variations for Orchestra HUANG Ruo Chamber Concerto No.
    [Show full text]
  • Biography 2021
    Michael Hersch A composer of “uncompromising brilliance” (The Washington Post) whose work has been described by The New York Times as “viscerally gripping and emotionally transformative music ... claustrophobic and exhilarating at once, with moments of sublime beauty nestled inside thickets of dark virtuosity,” Michael Hersch is widely considered among the most gifted composers of his generation. The Philadelphia In- quirer has written “Hersch’s language never hesitates to leap into the abyss - and in ways that, for some listeners, go straight to parts of the soul that few living composers touch.” Composer Georg Friedrich Haas has called Hersch “… an astonishing musician. He is one of those rare artists who personally is to- tally melded together with their art.” Recent events and premieres include his Violin Concerto at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland and the Avanti Festival in Helsinki; new productions of his monodrama, On the Threshold of Winter, in Chicago, Salt Lake City, and Washington D.C., and his I hope we get a chance to visit soon at the Ojai and Aldeburgh Festivals, where Mr. Hersch was a 2018 featured compos- er. Other recent premieres include his 10-hour chamber cycle, sew me into a shroud of leaves, a work which occupied the composer for fifteen years, at the 2019 Wien Modern Festival. 2021 will see the pre- miere of his new opera, Poppaea, in Vienna and Basel as part of the Wien Modern Festival in a co-pro- duction with ZeitRäume Basel and Gare du Nord Basel / Netzwerk zur Entwicklung formatübergreifende Musiktheaterformen. During the 2019/20 season, Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • A Soprano of "Fearlessness and Consummate
    A soprano of "fearlessness and consummate artistry" (Opera News), Ah Young Hong has interpreted a vast array of repertoire, ranging from the music of Monteverdi, Bach, Mozart, and Poulenc, to works of Shostakovich, Babbitt, Haas, and Kurtág. Widely recognized for her work in Michael Hersch's monodrama, On the Threshold of Winter, The New York Times praised Ms. Hong’s performance in the world premiere as "the opera's blazing, lone star." In a recent production directed by the soprano, The Chicago Tribune called her "absolutely riveting," and the Chicago Classical Review noted the soprano's "fearless presence, wielding her unamplified, bell-like voice like a weaponized instrument. Hong delivered a tour de force vocal performance in this almost unfathomably difficult music-attacking the dizzying high notes with surprising power, racing through the rapid-fire desperation of agitated sections, and bringing a numbed, toneless sprechstimme and contralto-like darkness to the low tessitura." Other operatic performances by Ms. Hong include the title role in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, Morgana in Handel's Alcina, Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, Fortuna and Minerva in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, and Asteria in Handel's Tamerlano. She has also appeared with Opera Lafayette in Rebel and Francoeur's Zélindor, roi des Sylphes at the Rose Theater in Lincoln Center and as La Musique in Charpentier's Les Arts Florissants at the Kennedy Center. At the 2020 Wien Modern Festival, Ms. Hong has been engaged to sing the lead role in the world premiere of Michael Hersch’s POPPAEA.
    [Show full text]
  • Invigorating the American Orchestral Tradition Through New Music
    FEARLESS PROGRAMMING: INVIGORATING THE AMERICAN ORCHESTRAL TRADITION THROUGH NEW MUSIC Octavio Más-Arocas A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS August 2016 Committee: Emily Freeman Brown, Advisor Timothy F. Messer-Kruse Graduate Faculty Representative Marilyn Shrude Kenneth Thompson © 2016 Octavio Más-Arocas All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Emily Freeman Brown, Advisor Despite great efforts by American composers, their prodigious musical output has been mostly ignored by American orchestras. Works by living American composers account for an annual average of only 6% of all the music performed by American orchestras, while works by living composers of all nationalities combined totals a meager 11%. This study examines some of the historical breaking points in the relationship between American orchestras and new music. Five exceptional orchestras are cited, the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Seattle Symphony, that are thriving while successfully incorporating new music in their programing. This document draws attention to the significant role new music can play in the future of American orchestras by analyzing the programing of new music and projects that support composers, identifying innovative orchestral leaders and composers who have successfully served in advisory positions, and by recognizing and discussing the many creative strategies orchestras are using today. This document attempts to increase the understanding of the need for change in concert programing while highlighting several thrilling examples of innovative strategies that are making an essential contribution to the future of orchestral music.
    [Show full text]
  • Michael Hersch End Stages Violin Concerto
    Michael Hersch end stages violin concerto Patricia Kopatchinskaja International Contemporary Ensemble Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Violin Concerto (2015) end stages (2016) There is no superficial beauty or decoration, and no compromises— everything is in the right place, crafted as if with a scalpel. -Patricia Kopatchinskaja There were years when Michael Hersch wrote often for orchestra, and years when he disappeared entirely from public view, writing only for his own hands as a pianist. He has been the recipient of many accolades, and he has been inundated with cancer diagnoses among his closest people, including his own ordeal. Through headwinds and tailwinds, Hersch has followed a remarkably durable inner compass: He always points himself, unflinchingly, toward the more vulnerable corners of human experience. As The Philadelphia Inquirer has noted, “Hersch’s language never hesitates to leap into the abyss—and in ways that, for some listeners, go straight to parts of the soul that few living composers touch.” Hersch’s strongest champions have always been the performers who share (and relish) the responsibility for externalizing such sensitive and private thoughts. The works recorded here—the Violin Concerto commissioned by Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and end stages written for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra—show just how potent it can be when entire ensembles of virtuoso players invest themselves in Hersch’s worldview. **** Kopatchinskaja first encountered Hersch through an online recording that she happened upon while searching the Internet on a sleepless night: “My husband and I were lucky enough to hear a piece that really we didn’t expect to hear in our days. And I thought, I want to meet this person, I want to speak with this person, I want to hear more music from him, and who knows, maybe once we will get a commission for him?” In her capacity as an Artistic Partner with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Kopatchinskaja proposed commissioning a new work from Hersch.
    [Show full text]
  • OJAI at BERKELEY PATRICIA KOPATCHINSKAJA, Music DIRECTOR
    OJAI AT BERKELEY PATRICIA KOPATCHINSKAJA, MuSIC DIRECTOR The four programs presented in Berkeley this month mark the eighth year of artistic partnership between the Ojai Music Festival and Cal Performances and represent the combined efforts of two great arts organizations committed to innovative and adventur- ous programming. themes from the Latin Requiem mass and fea- tures music by composers such as Scelsi, Biber, and ustwols kaja. It was premiered in North America last week, as part of the Ojai Music Festival. The violinist will revive Bye Bye Bee - tho ven here at uC Berkeley and at the Alde - burgh Festival later this summer. György Ligeti’s Violin Concerto is a feature of Kopatchinskaja’s season, with other highlights including performances with the Mahler Cham - ber Orchestra at the Enescu Festival in Bucha - rest under Jonathan Stockhammer and concerts with Orches tra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI. Last season’s highlights included Kopatch - inskaja’s work as artist-in-residence at major European venues and festivals including the Ber lin Konzerthaus, the Lucerne Festival, and London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as perform- ances with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Phil harmonic, and the London Philharmonic Or ches tra in London and New York under Vladimir Jurowski. Chamber music is immensely important to Kopatchinskaja and she performs regularly Marco Borggreve with artists including Markus Hinterhäuser, Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s versatility re- Polina Leschenko, Anthony Romaniuk, and Jay veals itself through her diverse repertoire, which Camp bell at such leading venues as the Berlin ranges from Baroque and Classical music, often Konzerthaus, Vienna Konzerthaus, and Con - played on gut strings, to new commissions and cert gebouw Amsterdam.
    [Show full text]
  • MICHAEL HERSCH Images from a Closed Ward the Blairstringquartet Michael Hersch Images from a Closed Ward
    MICHAEL HERSCH images from a closed ward The BlairStringQuartet michael hersch images from a closed ward Images From a Closed Ward (2010) I 3:41 II 1:13 III 3:30 IV 1:46 V 2:41 VI 1:03 VII 2:55 VIII 1:16 IX 4:01 X 2:01 XI 9:36 XII 4:45 XIII 3:45 - — 42:13 — - The Blair String Quartet: Christian Teal, violin I Cornelia Heard, violin II John Kochanowski, viola Felix Wang, cello innova 884 © Michael Hersch. All Rights Reserved, 2014. innova® Recordings is the label of the American Composers Forum. www.innova.mu www.michaelhersch.com innova 884 On Michael Hersch’s Images from a Closed Ward by Aaron Grad Michael Hersch’s string quartet, Images from a Closed Ward, has in its origins an encounter in Rome in 2000. The Ameri- can artist Michael Mazur (1935-2009) had created a series of etchings to accompany Robert Pinsky’s new translation of Dante’s Inferno, and Mazur’s works were on display at the American Academy in Rome while the then 29-year-old Hersch was there as a Rome Prize Fellow. During their time in the Eternal City, Hersch and Mazur seemed to recognize each other as kindred spirits. In 2003, Mazur provided artwork and commentary for Hersch’s first CD release, a collection of his chamber music performed by the String Soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic. In describing the young composer’s style, Mazur noted, “I am struck by what might constitute an analogy with painting and with my own work in particular.
    [Show full text]