AMERICAN CLASSICS GEORGE FREDERICK McKAY Violin Concerto Sinfonietta No. 4 Brian Reagin, Violin National Radio Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine John McLaughlin Williams George Frederick McKay (1899-1970) Violin Concerto Suite on Sixteenth Century Hymn Tunes Sinfonietta No.4 Song over the Great Plains George Frederick McKay, known as the Dean of teacher, with students including , Earl Northwest Composers and revered Professor of Music at Robinson, John Cage and . He died the for 41 years, from 1927 to in 1970 at his home in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. 1968, was born to a pioneering family in the small In 1941 George Frederick McKay entered his wheat-farming community of Harrington, Washington recently composed Violin Concerto in the Heifetz on 11th June, 1899. He spent most of his childhood in Competition, newly established by and Spokane where his father worked as a farmland surveyor the music publisher Carl Fischer. By 1940, when he for a local bank, and began composing orchestral music wrote his Violin Concerto, McKay was an established as early as his high school years. His father did not composer who could point to many performances and approve of a career in music, and he was encouraged to broadcasts by some of the great musicians of the day. enroll at Washington State College at Pullman to earn a His position at the University of Washington in , business degree. In 1919, weary of this, he transferred to however, far removed from the musical centres of the the University of Washington, Seattle, where he began northeast, meant that he was still seen as an artist of seriously studying music and composition with Carl largely local significance. McKay, like other competitors, Paige Wood. Two years later a scholarship allowed him hoped that success would give his work the kind of to study composition with Christian Sinding and Selim broad national exposure that only a world famous artist Palmgren at the at Rochester, could give it. Though McKay’s work received an New York, earning the first composition degree awarded honourable mention and was praised by Heifetz, it failed there. His first published compositions were written and to capture the top prize, which went to Gail Kubik’s published during this time. Violin Concerto No. 2. McKay’s concerto shares strong After his graduation from Eastman in 1923, McKay formal affinities with Max Bruch’s famous Violin embarked on a teaching career that included posts in Concerto No. 1 in G minor, a rather operatic first North Carolina, South Dakota, and Missouri and finally movement, an inward and poetic slow movement and at what became his permanent professorship at the rhythmically vigorous finale, all written to lie well on University of Washington, Seattle. There he became the instrument while sounding extremely virtuosic. Like recognized over the span of four decades as an the Bruch, McKay’s work is in one movement divided outstanding teacher, composer and leader in the into three sections that correspond to the standard fast- propagation of American music. His works were widely slow-fast scheme of romantic concerti. Unlike Bruch’s performed and broadcast under some of the most concerto, the first movement is actually a three-themed distinguished conductors. He was the recipient of many sonata-arch form. The character is declamatory and lyrical. honours during his lifetime, including his twice holding It begins with a brief orchestral introduction of the first the Alchin Chair at the University of Southern California theme, followed by the solo violin stating the second, (1938-39). He received important commissions from primary theme in double stops. After much recitative- national orchestras, and was awarded national prizes for like interplay by orchestra and soloist, the ravishing harp, woodwind, piano, organ and symphonic third theme is played by a soaring solo violin, compositions. McKay was equally successful as a underpinned by undulating triplets in the winds. The

8.559225 2 middle section is both development and cadenza, after nothing is heard of him after 1560. which the recapitulation reveals the movement’s arch McKay’s homage to Bourgeois was composed for form by returning the themes in reverse order. Another organ in 1945 and shortly thereafter cast for string cadenza serves as a bridge to the second movement. This orchestra, a version first performed in 1946 in a benefit movement is the intimate heart of the concerto. A solo concert for refugees of the Spanish Civil War, featuring oboe gives a four-bar introduction and the violin enters six of McKay’s works, all conducted by the composer. with a soulful melody resembling a folk-tune. In 1962 he transcribed the work for two string Throughout, the violin spins an endless cantilena until orchestras, and it is this version that is here recorded. the winds restate the theme of the introduction. This is The 1962 transcription differs in that the parts for the followed by a striking passage scored only for solo flute second string orchestra are intended for younger players, and solo violin, in which the composer’s love of nature and a celeste is effectively added in the fourth is most evident. This passage is also a seamless bridge to movement, Chœur Céleste. Vilem Sokol conducted the the finale. The third movement is a vehicle for pure Seattle Youth Symphony, using more than a hundred virtuoso enjoyment. Highly rhythmic in a mildly jazzy string players, in the 1963 première of this version. The way, the composer slightly offsets its flow with two score bears the dedication ‘In Memory of Louis dance episodes in irregular metre. The movement ends Bourgeois – 1510’. in triumph after a cyclical return of the first movement’s The Suite is in five movements, given with the main theme combined with the irregular dance motive. Genevan Psalter psalm numbers: The concerto is dedicated to Moritz Rosen, a faculty member of the University of Washington, and was first 1 Méditation (Psalm 6: L’Accueil de Dieu) performed in the fall of 1941 by his son Kensley Rosen 2 Rondolet (Psalm 140 & 42: with the University of Washington Symphony Orchestra, Les Commandements de Dieu) conducted by the composer. Rosen performed the 3 Air varié (Psalm 107: Donnez au Seigneur Gloire) concerto again in 1946 with the Seattle Philharmonic, and 4 Chœur céleste (Psalm 12: Donne Secours) played it many times to other audiences with piano 5 Cortège joyeux (Psalm 118: Rendez à Dieu) accompaniment. It was not performed with orchestra again until its triumphant revival by Ilka Talvi and the The titles of the individual movements, broadly in 2001. descriptive of the music, are McKay’s own, given in The Suite on 16th Century Hymn Tunes is based French to preserve the music’s original identity. upon the music for psalms composed by the Frenchman Méditation is reflective, and Rondolet playful and courtly. Louis Bourgeois (c.1510-1561). Bourgeois was a Air Varié offers four highly imaginative variations of a follower of John Calvin, and in 1541 went to Geneva, simple theme, while Chœur Céleste evokes a heavenly where he was charged with bringing order to the chorus. Cortège Joyeux is akin to a recessional, when all Genevan Psalter (hymnal). Showing great flair for this worshipers arise in gladness at the end of a Mass. work, he introduced some unapproved changes to the McKay sometimes varies the original hymns, with an hymns, and was subsequently jailed briefly. He was occasional change of rhythm, or less frequently, a note. released through the intervention of Calvin, who saw the The Suite is put together with the assurance of a master value of Bourgeois’ highly musical adaptations and had craftsman, and the writing for strings is, as always, of a them implemented for the Psalter’s publication. After high order. the Psalter was published, he returned to France, where McKay wrote five sinfoniettas, each preceding

3 8.559225 some further stylistic development realised in a later Symphony on 13th November, 1944, under Carl work. In the case of Sinfonietta No. 4 the work is most Bricken, and revived in 1972 at the Seattle Center Opera certainly a conscious precursor of the true symphony House as part of Seattle’s Festival ‘72, on a day reserved McKay planned to write one day, achieved with the for the memory of the composer. commission of his Evocation Symphony in 1951 (Naxos The Song Over the Great Plains is one of the first 8.559052). His study of contemporary European works of McKay’s maturity, the result of a commission compositional developments had a decisive impact upon in 1953 by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra for a the evolution of his late style, and this can first be seen work featuring the piano to commemorate the centennial clearly in his Sinfonietta No. 4. From its opening it is of the Steinway Piano Company. McKay was one of apparent that McKay’s expression has taken on a new four composers commissioned for the occasion; the others astringency. The motives are angular and are based upon were Leo Sowerby, Nicolai Berezowsky and Henry chords of the fourth or tritonal relationships. The overall Cowell. One of McKay’s early teaching assignments orchestral sound has taken on a steely, burnished quality during the 1920s was in the gold-mining town of Lead, and a rough-hewn spareness that will be completely South Dakota. He later explained that the Song was realized in the Evocation Symphony. There is ceaseless based on a meadowlark call he had noted down in the eighth-note (quaver) motion and the brass instruments Dakotas. He often added programmes to his works, and (muted throughout) are used as punctuation, a hallmark on the autograph score of Song Over the Great Plains he of McKay’s late style. The first movement is quite terse, appended the following guide: presenting two themes in the customary order, offering “It is early spring ... but the desolation of winter has no development, no longueurs and a straightforward not yet given over to the new life lying dormant in young restatement. The second movement is a poem in the buds and branches. Suddenly the song of the Western style cultivated by McKay during the 1940s. meadowlark bursts forth over brooding landscape, and The lonely theme presented by clarinet and bassoon has for a moment all that is beautiful in life is held in the the contour of a Native American folk-song, the rolling mind and heart ... Sing on blithe spirit!... fill the skies timpani suggesting clouds in the distance, a storm with your irrepressible joy!” coming. There are highly expressive solos for clarinet The spare atmosphere here suggested manifests and oboe leading into the restless middle section, which itself immediately, with craggy, dissonant brass rises to a full orchestral climax. The opening themes are declamations over a pedal tone. Throughout the work, returned, albeit in reverse order, until the movement the concertante piano plays mostly in its higher registers, stops precisely where it began. The Finale is written in as the voice of the meadowlark, whose bitonal song McKay’s most playful and fun-loving mode. The strings always soars above the other instruments. A magical rustle in sixteenth notes (semi-quavers) beneath the moment occurs when the flute gently tumbles down an flutes and clarinets hopping and skipping. A more arpeggio leading to a gorgeous English horn theme, serious element appears in a brass fanfare, punctuating played over shimmering string tremolos, as if revealing as in the first movement. There is a second, more lyrical the vast emptiness of the Plains for the first time. This is subject played by the winds and answered by violas and the work’s main theme, and though original, it has a cellos. The intervals of the two themes are combined modality reminiscent of the Western folk-music that with a new theme and worked motivically for a short, often inspired McKay. The flutes and horns take this up intense development. An abbreviated recapitulation as the music rises from its dreaminess, agitating and follows, hustling to a joyful coda capped by a humorous, stirring awake. The brass plays a typical McKay fanfare, chordal tag. The work was first given by the Seattle announcing full day on the Plains. Harmonic instability 8.559225 4 accompanies the winds recalling the opening motive, as estimated. He was able to resist the consuming influence the meadowlark call leads to a comforting and hopeful of native composers proselytizing the methods of theme in D major. This tune is spun out until the full European composers as well as that of orchestra arrives at a triumphant and grandiose and his imitators in their establishment of what many recapitulation of the main theme. The atmosphere suggests accepted by default as the “American Sound”. By the majesty of the plains, more and more remaining true to his Northwestern roots and drawing ecstatic, until the orchestra spends its energy in a great upon the vast musical resources of the region’s migrants climax, then falls silent. A short bridge section leads to and indigenous peoples, McKay forged a style at once an extended solo piano cadenza, and the work dies away wholly individual and completely American, one filled in pianissimo. Song Over the Great Plains enjoyed a with a striving and nobility that mirrors the number of performances in the 1950s, but remained determination that led to the founding of America. unpublished. George Frederick McKay’s achievement as a nationalist, neo-romantic composer cannot be under- John McLaughlin Williams

5 8.559225 Brian Reagin

Concertmaster of the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra since 1988, Brian Reagin was for eight years Assistant Concertmaster with the Pittsburgh Symphony under André Previn and Lorin Maazel. With the Pittsburgh Symphony he toured Japan, China, Hong Kong, Europe, Canada and Puerto Rico and performed numerous recital and chamber works in Europe, Africa and the West Indies. Prior to joining the Pittsburgh Symphony, he served as Concertmaster of the Cleveland Institute of Music Symphony Orchestra and taught in Carnegie Mellon University. Named Concertmaster of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in 1996 at the Chautauqua Institution in New York, he became only the fourth Concertmaster in the history of that summer orchestra since its inception in 1929, joining a distinguished list of musical leadership. With Chautauqua he has also performed concertos of Korngold, Bruch, Bartók, Prokofiev, Schumann and Stravinsky. Brian Reagin made his solo début with the performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Since that time he has appeared as soloist in performances with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Charleston Symphony, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Syracuse Symphony, and the Wheeling Symphony. He has made annual solo appearances with the North Carolina Symphony performing concertos by Vieuxtemps, Paganini, Sibelius, Bruch, Korngold, Mendelssohn, Barber, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Bach and Vivaldi. Two days after the terrorist attacks of 11th September he was called on by the North Carolina Symphony to substitute for , stranded in Detroit, for a performance of the Mendelssohn Concerto at their Gala season opening concert. He is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he earned a Diploma in Violin Performance in 1976 and an Artist Diploma in 1977. For four years he participated in the Cleveland Chamber Music Seminar, coaching with the Guarneri Quartet and with Mischa Schneider of the Budapest Quartet. He spent seven summer seasons at the Meadowmount School of Music where he studied with Ivan Galamian, coached with Josef Gingold and served as both an assistant and faculty member. He has been a recipient of numerous prizes, including First Prize in the Ohio Music Teachers Association Collegiate Artist Competition, First Prize in the Cleveland Institute Concerto Competition, the Society of American Musicians Talman Award in Chicago, and the Jerome Gross Memorial Prize at the Cleveland Institute

In this recording of George Frederick McKay’s Violin Concerto, Reagin performs on a Lorenzo and Tomaso Carcassi violin made in Florence, Italy, in 1763.

8.559225 6 National Radio Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine The Ukrainian National Radio Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1929 in Kiev, under the direction of M. Kanershtein and for many years was conducted by V. Gnedash. The orchestra has done much to preserve the musical traditions of Ukraine and Eastern Europe in general, with an archive that includes more than 10,000 recordings of orchestral works.

John McLaughlin Williams The American conductor John McLaughlin Williams has been highly praised for his outstanding interpretive abilities and engaging podium presence. With the release of his first three recordings on the Naxos label of works by John Alden Carpenter (8.559065), Henry Hadley (8.559064) and George Frederick McKay (8.559052), his conducting has become familiar to listeners on both sides of the Atlantic, and he has been critically acclaimed in international publications such as Fanfare, Gramophone, Classic fM, The International Record Review and American Record Guide and in France in Diapason. His busy career has brought conducting engagements throughout the and he remains known in particular for his advocacy of the music of our time and particularly of African-American and minority composers. John McLaughlin Williams began violin studies at the age of ten in a Washington D.C. public school, followed by private study with the late Howard University professor Bernard Mason. At the age of fourteen the Cabinet wives of the Nixon Administration selected him to appear as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra in its first Kennedy Center concert series for Washington D.C. schoolchildren. Studies at Boston University and the New Conservatory were with Jerome Rosen, Eugene Lehner and Dorothy Delay. While attending the Cleveland Institute of Music, from which he received undergraduate and graduate degrees, he studied the violin with Martin Chalifour, composition with Donald Erb and Margaret Brouwer, and conducting with Carl Topilow. He was a member of the Houston Symphony, concertmaster of the Virginia Symphony, and has appeared as violin soloist with many orchestras, including the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, South Carolina Philharmonic and the Portland Symphony, and as guest concert-master with ballet, opera and symphony orchestras. Among the conductors he has appeared with as a soloist are James Sedares and the film composer John Williams, and he was the soloist in the American premières of concertos by Bax and by Joseph Jongen, and in 1998 performed the Violin Concerto of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, some of whose chamber music he has also recorded.

7 8.559225 Also available on Naxos

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