KENNETH FUCHS Piano Concerto ‘Spiritualist’ Poems of Life • Glacier • Rush Jeffrey Biegel, Piano • Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Countertenor D
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AMERICAN CLASSICS KENNETH FUCHS Piano Concerto ‘Spiritualist’ Poems of Life • Glacier • Rush Jeffrey Biegel, Piano • Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Countertenor D. J. Sparr, Electric guitar • Timothy McAllister, Alto saxophone London Symphony Orchestra • JoAnn Fal letta Kenneth Kenneth Fuchs (b. 1956) Piano Concerto ‘Spiritualist ’ • Poems of Life • Glacier • Rush FU(b. C195H6) S Helen Frankenthaler’s work has made a significant impact the instrument to make a Silent Wish and embraces a on my creative life. I was first introduced to it in 1983 by diatonic musical cryptogram including the pitches F–C– Piano Concerto ‘Spiritualist’ the PBS Television documentary “Helen Frankenthaler – H–S derived from my surname and the German letter Toward a New Climate.” Through absorbing her free names for two pitches: H for B natural and S for E flat. (After Three Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler) (2016) 21:45 1 creative aesthetic and my personal encounters with her, I The orchestra quietly ruminates on these pitches as the 2 I. Spiritualist: Allegro con spirito 6:28 began to find my own creative path and surmount the piano intones one last fragment of the gymnopédie and II. Silent Wish: Lento – Allegro agitato – Adagio flessibile – doctrinaire rhetoric of avant-garde musical composition brings the movement to quiet repose. The third 3 Allegro agitato – Adagio mesto 9:40 that prevailed at the time. My Piano Concerto is the fourth movement, Natural Answer , in modified rondo form, is III. Natural Answer: Allegro deciso 5:29 work I have composed inspired by Frankenthaler’s visual energetic and optimistic, combining previous mottos and images. I had been captivated for several years by the themes and interpolates jazzy syncopated rhythms. The Poems of Life idea of using three of her large canvases as the basis for piano and orchestra race to a brilliant and jubilant a musical journey in a three-movement piano concerto for conclusion. I am grateful to Jeffrey Biegel for organizing 4 (Twelve Poems by Judith G. Wolf for Countertenor and Orchestra) (2017) 18:03 my Juilliard colleague Jeffrey Biegel. The titles of the the commission of this work by individual donors and the 5 Prologue: Ethereal; Times Slips Away 2:40 paintings (which are also the titles of the movements), are Springfield Symphony Orchestra (Massachusetts) and 6 Movement 1: Gary Died; Just Like That; Watching for Death; Face 5:02 Spiritualist, Silent Wish, and Natural Answer. Taken the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra (West Virginia). 7 Movement 2: Sisters; Forever Gone; The Retreat 3:06 together, the paintings and their titles suggest a logical Poems of Life is an orchestral song cycle that sets to 8 Movement 3: The Dream 2:26 progression visually, emotionally, and musically. The music twelve poems from Judith G. Wolf’s volume of Epilogue: Conversation; Epiphany 4:37 concerto represents my mature musical style, poetry Otherwise . The poems weave a narrative of love, incorporating hallmarks of the American symphonic the pain of loss through death, emotional transformation school, rigorous counterpoint, and aspects of minimalism. through grief, and spiritual enlightenment. Poems of Life Glacier (Concerto for Electric guitar and Orchestra) (2015) 22:07 9 The first movement, Spiritualist , in modified sonata- is cast in five separate movements, in each of which the 0 I. Glacier: Tranquillo 2:54 allegro form, is optimistic and playful. The woodwinds component poems are set continuously. The work is ! II. Rivulets: Moderato 7:48 introduce a jocular rhythmic motive that the piano scored for countertenor, the protagonist of the work; solo @ III. Vapor: Misterioso 3:42 comments upon and extends melodically. The piano cello, the instrumental doppelgänger of the protagonist’s # IV. Stone: Vivace 4:37 subsequently introduces two themes, one rhythmic and spirit and emotions; and solo English horn, the spirit of the V. Going to the Sun: Tranquillo 3:06 robust, the other lyrical and legato. The development lost beloved. My lifelong friend and musical champion section features the piano and orchestral sections tossing JoAnn Falletta introduced me to Judith Wolf, who back and forth virtuosic riffs on the intervallic and melodic commissioned me to set her poetry to music. Special Rush (Concerto for Alto saxophone and Orchestra) (2012) 14:56 $ material introduced in the exposition. The recapitulation thanks to vocal coach and accompanist David Krane, who I. Evening: (Cadenza – Adagietto) 7:36 % develops the lyrical theme which, in its newly developed prepared Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen for this recording and II. Morning: (Cadenza – Allegro) 7:20 form, will appear as the rondo theme in the third the premiere performances with the Virginia Symphony movement finale. The second movement, Silent Wish , in Orchestra. Recorded: 21–22 August 2017 at Abbey Road Studio 1, London modified rondo form, is introspective and reflective. The Although electric guitar is a powerfully expressive Producer: Tim Handley • Engineer: Jonathan Allen piano begins with a slow version of the rhythmic theme, instrument, there are few concertos for it in the classical then introduces a version of the lyrical theme as a genre. Glacier (Concerto for Electric guitar and gymnopédie . Two violent orchestral outbursts utilizing all Orchestra) , commissioned by the Bozeman Symphony Publisher: all works copyright © by Piedmont Music Company; twelve tones interrupt the ambient atmosphere. The piano Orchestra, is a five-movement virtuoso concerto inspired Edward B. Marks Music Company: Sole selling agent reiterates the gymnopédie, attempting to pacify the by the sweeping vistas of Montana. Each movement is orchestral furor. Slowly, the piano rises from the depths of based on my aural conception of the natural elements in Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park. The Rush (Concerto for Alto saxophone and Orchestra) Poems of Life first movement, Glacier: Tranquillo , is meant to suggest was commissioned by Ryan Janus, then principal Twelve Poems by Judith G. Wolf the glacial mass as seen from a distance. The opening saxophonist of the United States Air Force Academy 4 jazz chord introduces the harmonic motive of the Band, and a consortium of 37 saxophonists and PROLOGUE Just Like That It is lonely there concerto, while the soloist intones the melodic motive that ensemble conductors throughout the United States. The but comforting… undergoes transformation through the remainder of the work, composed in versions for both band and orchestra, Ethereal It only took a minute work. The second movement, Rivulets: Moderato , meant is composed in two movements. The first, which begins for the last breath to leave… not moving… to suggest streams of water, is an étude on sixteenth with a short cadenza that introduces the thematic material A wisp notes in five-part rondo form with a solo cadenza. The of the work, is a rhapsodic Adagietto with transparent of thought I can still hear his voice. wallowing third movement, Vapor: Misterioso , inspired by mist rising textures. The second movement, which begins with an lights on a flower weeping from geysers, has a transparent orchestral texture upon extended cadenza that introduces blue notes into the waving in the breeze Watching for Death wishing it would end which the soloist improvises a modified version of the harmonic language, is cast in the form of a jazz-inflected of memory. but too afraid harmonic motive. The fourth movement, Stone: Vivace , passacaglia. The orchestra interjects a series of If I knew we were to let it go, suggesting through sharp, syncopated rhythms the hard syncopated chords, and the soloist then intones the Time Slips Away romancing with death admit at last edges of stone, is a seven-part rondo that concludes with passacaglia theme. The orchestra takes up the theme I would hug you again. you’re really the soloist trading virtuosic riffs with the full orchestra. A and with the soloist weaves an elaborate tapestry of ten Time slips away gone. final cadenza leads to the coda-finale. Going to the Sun: variations based on the theme and the syncopated sliding through a day In the night Tranquillo , a musical ode to the scenic Going-to-the-Sun chords. The soloist concludes the concerto with a bravura like a snake slithering I watch your 6 Road in northwest Montana, is a simple gymnopédie display. through the grass chest rise and fall MOVEMENT II based on a rising lyrical version of the melodic motive not disturbing a soul into another day. intoned over two alternating major seventh chords. Kenneth Fuchs but gone in a flash. Sisters If we knew Can you grasp death was Holding hands a moment in your hand, lying in wait across the years hold it close we blend. against your heart we would hold it at bay with remedies Smiling we slide down a rainbow. before it slips through the floor hands clasped around Forever Gone while you stand the wall of pain. staring Borne by gentle breezes at nothing Face coasting on a down draft at all. coating the wings of doves I thrust my face into the pain carried away by the tide. 5 and let it wash over me MOVEMENT I Are you in a storm cloud tears swirling in the mist in a raindrop or Gary Died fog washing over swollen eyelids in another womb seeping into pores waiting to be born? He left us in bits and pieces curling into circles drifting away till only the smile through my throbbing head. was left. The Retreat melding into comforting me JoAnn Falletta oblivion. filling me with light I LOOK for you. amazing me with peace. JoAnn Falletta serves as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic and Virginia Incessantly watching I chased after you Symphony and is the principal guest conductor of the Brevard Music Center of North for the light and fell through the earth The earth looks Carolina.