Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited October 2013 2013/3 Adams Saxophone Concerto Maxwell In his new concerto John Adams fuses classical Included in this issue: masters – I never considered the saxophone saxophone with recollections of Stan Getz and an alien instrument… Fortunately I met Tim Davies Andriessen McAllister, who is quite likely the reigning Interview about new Charlie Parker. master of the classical saxophone, an artist orchestral work Mysteriën who while rigorously trained is also aware of the jazz tradition.” Timothy McAllister has described how he hears “the thread of the saxophone as the ‘point man’ for some rather challenging, polyrhythmic orchestral writing throughout – the sax is the center of the architecture rather than simply being a detached personality out in front of the ensemble… the scope of the Photo: Martin Lengemann concerto – close to 30 minutes – makes for a physically demanding work, and, easily, the most important work for saxophone in this young century.” Ebb of Britten “Adams has thrown down the gauntlet with a solo line which demands speed, flexibility, musicality Grimes on the beach, and, above all, stamina to keep going with barely Winter in cinemas, on disc a bar’s rest… the Sharks and the Jets morphed Peter Maxwell Davies’s new Concert overture: into a restless riff, while muted trumpets and Ebb of Winter is premiered by the Scottish piccolos summoned the ghost of Stravinsky’s Chamber Orchestra in Glasgow City Halls on Rite of Spring. But the most beautiful moments 8 November conducted by Oliver Knussen, were all Adams, from the brain-addling cross- with a performance the following day in rhythms of the final movement to the delicate interplay between solo saxophone and clarinet.” Edinburgh. The work was commissioned for Sydney Morning Herald the SCO’s 40th anniversary season and John Adams with Timothy McAllister at the Sydney Opera House for the Saxophone Concerto’s premiere. “Compared to the Violin Concerto’s often celebrates the close association between subdued, dark-robed instrumentation, the new orchestra and composer. John Adams’s tour of Australia in August, Alsop and the Saint Louis Symphony under concerto has an appealing blend of bright colours Maxwell Davies recalls how he was conducting the Sydney and Melbourne David Robertson. The South American and astringency. Saxophonist Timothy McAllister commissioned in the late 1980s to compose Symphony Orchestras, unveiled his new premiere is planned by the Orquestra was the outstanding soloist, channelling Stan the series of 10 Strathclyde Concertos, Getz in the smooth lyrical passages. In the concerto written for the virtuosic talents of Sinfonica Do Estado De São Paulo and dates “writing for and working with the leaders of saxophonist Timothy McAllister. The for European performances are scheduled relentless, bebop-like figurations – stunningly executed – it recalled the frenetic solos of Charlie each section, and conducting performances Chin programmes also included the first Australian from summer 2014 onwards. Parker, Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane.” of these works not only in Scotland, but also performances of his Violin Concerto with Leila The Australian Featured composer in Adams writes in his programme note about in Europe and America. It is a great privilege, Josefowicz, who has played the work over Stockholm festival how he grew up “hearing the sound of the with this history, to be invited to write a work 100 times around the world. Nonesuch is recording the Saxophone saxophone virtually every day – my father had Concerto with Timothy McAllister, the Saint for the SCO’s fortieth birthday, as a vote of The Saxophone Concerto travels homeward played alto in swing bands during the 1930s Louis Symphony and David Robertson, for thanks for a wonderful musical experience to the USA this autumn with performances by and our family record collection was well future release coupled with City Noir which with them in the past, and also as a vote of the Baltimore Symphony conducted by Marin stocked with albums by the great jazz also includes a prominent solo for McAllister. confidence in their glorious future.” Scored for chamber orchestra, the new 15-minute work relates to the shift of seasons experienced in the Scottish islands where the composer has made his home Rorem since 1970: “I wrote this piece in the ‘Ebb of Górecki late works Winter’, and spring was just starting to come in. The weather and the climate in A collection of late works by The fourth symphony does Orkney changed day by day when I went at 90 Henryk Mikolaj- Górecki is in not emulate the distinct Doyen of American out for a walk with my dog. The piece is a Turnage preparation for premiere and character of its vocal reaction to the Orkney climate and song composers and publication over the coming predecessor, the New piano concerto and celebrated diarist, influenced by Orkney folk music.” US premieres seasons. The Polish composer celebrated Symphony of Ned Rorem is 90 on left a number of scores, both Sorrowful Songs, but The premiere of Ebb of Winter acts as an 23 October, heralding large and small, compositionally rather reflects the upbeat to the celebrations in 2014 for the performances of his complete but unperformed at composer’s musical composer’s 80th birthday. Next year sees vocal magnum opus the time of his death in journey as a whole while the completion of Naxos’s re-releases of on both sides of the November 2010. paying homage to his Maxwell Davies discs originally on the Collins Atlantic. Evidence of fellow-Polish composer Classics label, with repertoire including Photo: Christian Steiner Górecki’s Symphony No.4 Things Not Seen Alexsander Tansman Strathclyde Concerto No.10, Seven in (Tansman Episodes) receives builds a full evening of song from a sequence (1897-1986). As Górecki Nomine, Stone Litany and The Beltane Fire. its premiere on 12 April 2014 of 36 settings of the composer’s favourite scholar Adrian Thomas Boosey and Hawkes has recently released by the London Philharmonic poets from Auden to Yeats, scored for four notes, “although it appears study scores of three of the Orkney Saga Orchestra conducted by solo voices and offering an ideal showcase not to quote from series and Seven Skies of Winter in its Andrey Boreyko at the Royal for a quartet of singers. The Curtis Institute in Tansman’s music, Górecki Hawkes Pocket Score series. Festival Hall. Performances by Photo: Gerry Hurkmans Philadelphia and the London Song Festival in does make use of a co-commissioners the Los To explore Maxwell Davies’s music in Covent Garden both present the work on the musical theme based on his name. This Angeles Philharmonic and the Zaterdag preparation for his 80th birthday visit: birthday itself and its German premiere is purely instrumental work relates closely to the Matinee series at the Concertgebouw in www.boosey.com/max80. given by the vocalists of the RIAS chamber music that he wrote in the 1980s Amsterdam follow in the 2015/16 season. Kammerchor in Berlin next March. and ‘90s, with its reflective intimacy and The symphony was complete in short score extrovert dance impulses.” Rorem’s new Shakespeare setting for mezzo, with detailed annotations of orchestration double bass and piano, How Like a Winter, is and dynamics, as was the composer’s usual A large-scale collection of choral Church premiered at the Concertgebouw in practice. The orchestral score, with Songs underway at the time of the Amsterdam on 29 October by Christianne prominent obbligato roles for piano and composer’s death, many dating from the and Rick Stotijn and Joseph Breinl, tours in organ, has been realised from the particell by mid-1980s, is now available for the Netherlands and Belgium, and travels to Górecki’s son Mikolaj,- also a composer, performance. Essentially simple in style, Cologne in the New Year. Northwestern following his father’s instructions and these choral adaptations of church melodies University near Chicago honours its alumnus employing an extensive knowledge of his are scored for unaccompanied mixed with a Ned@90 series of events on orchestral works and instrumentation. voices. The extant cycle of 20 Church 10-11 October, the New York Festival of Songs was premiered in June by the Song presents a Ned is Ninety programme in Rorem’s volumes of diaries, flamboyant and Cracow Singers conducted by Wlodzimierz the presence of the composer at Merkin Hall shockingly candid about his peers, track his Siedlik, released on CD by Dux Records, on 5 November, and the BBC National musical and social life from Paris and New and will soon be published for sale. Orchestra of Wales performs Eagles on York in the 1950s to his later home in 19 November in Cardiff. Works for choir and orchestra, currently in Nantucket, while his memoir Knowing When preparation, include a 15-minute setting of the The Royal Mint has announced a new 50p coin Earlier highlights in the 90th year have to Stop charts his life as a young man, Kyrie for SATB chorus, percussion, piano and commissioned to mark Benjamin Britten’s included Evelyn Glennie introducing the Mallet offering vivid portraits of Bernstein, Copland, string orchestra, and an hour-long cantata centenary on 22 November 2013. Concerto to Hong Kong and a further Paul Bowles and Truman Capote. An ideal honouring Saint Adalbert for soprano and This first British coin to feature a composer, production of Rorem’s successful Thornton introduction to Rorem’s writings is The Ned baritone soloists, chorus and orchestra. For designed by Tom Phillips with a textual quote Wilder opera Our Town in Central City Rorem Reader, summed up by Alex Ross in further information about these Górecki works from the Serenade, will enter full circulation so Colorado, taking the performance count to The New Yorker as “one of the wisest and and their availability for performance please that Britten will be in pockets throughout the UK.