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Ensemble Signal Brad Lubman, Conductor Paul Coleman, Sound Director

Ensemble Signal Brad Lubman, Conductor Paul Coleman, Sound Director

Sunday, January 29, 2017, 7pm Hertz Hall Ensemble Signal Brad Lubman, conductor Paul Coleman, sound director

PROGRAM

Steve REICH ( b. 1936) (1972) and Brad Lubman

Quartet (2013) Bill Solomon and Doug Perkins, David Friend and Oliver Hagen,

Runner (2016, United States Premiere) (co-commissioned by Cal Performances *) Kelli Kathman and Jessica Schmitz, Adrían Sandí and Ken Thomson, Jackie LeClair and Christa Robinsion, oboe Doug Perkins and Bill Solomon, vibraphone Oliver Hagen and David Friend, piano Courtney Orlando, Yuki Numata, Ari Streisfeld, and Will Knuth, Caleb Burhans and Isabel Hagen, Lauren Radnofsky and Kevin McFarland, Greg Chudzik, double bass

INTERMISSION

Radio Rewrite (2012) Kelli Kathman, flute Adrían Sandí, clarinet Bill Solomon and Doug Perkins, vibraphone David Friend and Oliver Hagen, piano Courtney Orlando and Yuki Numata, violin Isabel Hagen, viola Lauren Radnofsky, cello Greg Chudzik, electric bass

 PROGRAM NOTES

Double (2007) Sextet 1 Kelli Kathman, flute Adrían Sandí, clarinet Bill Solomon, vibraphone David Friend, piano Courtney Orlando, violin Lauren Radnofsky, cello Sextet 2 Jessica Schmitz, flute Ken Thomson, clarinet Doug Perkins, vibraphone Oliver Hagen, piano Ari Streisfeld, violin Kevin McFarland, cello

* Steve Reich’s Runner was commissioned by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden; Ensemble Signal, through New Music USA’s Commissioning Music/USA program, made possible by generous support from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Ford Foun dation, the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Helen F. Whitaker Fund; Cal Performances, University of California, Berkeley; Washington Performing Arts; and Ensemble Modern, with kind support by the City of Frankfurt am Main.

This performance is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Lance and Dalia Nagel.

PROGRAM NOTES

or countless numbers of people during Clapping Music (1972) the past 45 years or so, Steve Reich has Starting in 1971 my ensemble began touring Fbeen a very important composer, musical Europe. We would carry 2,000 pounds of loud - thinker, and source of inspiration. He has cer - speakers, amplifiers, drums, , glock - tainly touched my life in a profound way, as enspiels, electric organs, microphones, and so well as the lives of the musicians of Ensemble on. In 1972 I composed Clapping Music to cre - Signal. I have found that one can have many ate a piece of music that would need no instru - sources of inspiration in life, many different ments beyond the human body. At first I people and mentors, different pieces of music, thought it would be a phase piece, but this but it’s another thing when a single person and proved inappropriate since it introduced a his music continually provide inspiration, fas - difficulty (phasing) that seemed inconsistent cination, and joy. As with all great music, you with such a simple way of producing sound. can return to Reich’s greatest pieces time and e solution was to have one part remain fixed, time again, always making new discoveries and repeating the pattern throughout, while the having new perceptions. The musicians of second moves abruptly, aer a number of re - Ensemble Signal and I are very fortunate and peats, from unison to one beat ahead, and so thankful to have had—and to continue to on, until it is back in unison with the first. have—many wonderful musical experiences It can thus be difficult to hear that the second with Steve Reich and his music. Most impor - performer is in fact always playing the same tantly, we are always thrilled to be able to share pattern as the first, though starting in a differ - these experiences with our audiences. ent place. —Brad Lubman

 PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

Quartet (2013) a return to the sixteenths but now played as Quartet, when mentioned in the context of con - pulses by the winds for as long as a breath will cert music, is generally assumed to mean string comfortably sustain them. e title was sug - quartet. In my case, the quartet that has played gested by the rapid opening and my awareness a central role in many of my pieces (besides the that, like a runner, I would have to pace the ) is that of two and two piece to reach a successful conclusion. percussion. It appears like that or in expanded form with more pianos or more percussion in (2012) e Desert Music , Sextet, ree Movements , e Over the years many composers have used Four Sections , e Cave , Dance Patterns , ree pre-existing music (folk or classical) as mate - Tales , You Are (Variations) , Variations for Vibes, rial for new pieces of their own. is was par - Pianos and Strings, , Double ticularly notable from the beginning of the 15th Sextet, and Radio Rewrite . In Quartet, there is to the end of the 17th century when over 40 just this group alone: two vibes and two pianos. settings of the Mass using the tune “L’homme e piece is one of the more complex I have armé” as its point of departure were written by composed. It frequently changes key and oen composers Dufay, Ockeghem, Josquin des Pres, breaks off continuity to pause or take up new and Palestrina, among others. “L’homme armé” material. ough the parts are not unduly diffi - was a popular secular song, yet writing a mass cult, it calls for a high level of ensemble virtuosity. was similar in scope then to writing a sym - e form is one familiar throughout history: phony in the Classical or Romantic period. fast, slow, fast, played without pause. e slow Much later in the 19th century, Brahms wrote movement introduces harmonies not usually Variations on a eme of Haydn and in the 20th found in my music. century we find Stravinsky reworking the music e piece is dedicated to Colin Currie, a per - of Pergolesi for his own Pulcinella . Radio Re- cussionist who has broken the mold by main - write , along with (Pérotin) and taining his solo career with orchestras and Finishing the Hat—Two Pianos (Sondheim), is recitals and also, quite amazingly, by founding my modest contribution to this genre. the , which plays whatever Now, in the early 21st century, we live in ensemble music he believes in. I salute him and an age of where musicians take audio hope others will take note. samples of other music and them into Quartet was co-commissioned by Southbank audio of their own. Being a composer who Centre, , the Juilliard School, Cité works with musical notation I chose to refer - de la musique, and Kölner Philharmonie/ ence two songs from the rock group KölnMusik, and is approximately 17 minutes in for an ensemble of musicians playing non-rock duration. instruments. e two songs chosen were “Everything in its Right Place” and “Jigsaw Runner (2016, United States Premiere, Falling into Place.” e story is as follows: co-commissioned by Cal Performances) In September 2010 I was in Krakow for a Runner, for a large ensemble of winds, percus - festival of my music. One of the featured per - sion, pianos, and strings, was completed in 2016 formers was of Radiohead and is about 16 minutes in duration. While the who had prepared all the backing tracks for remains more or less constant, there are my piece Electric , and then five movements , played without pause, that are played electric guitar live against those tracks based on different note durations. First even in concert. It was a great performance and we sixteenths, then irregularly accented eighths, began talking. I found his background as a vi - then a very slowed down version of the stan - olist and his present active role as a composer dard bell pattern from Ghana, fourth a return extremely interesting when added to his major to the irregularly accented eighths, and finally role in such an important and innovative rock

 PROGRAM NOTES

group. Even festival director Filip Berkowitz e idea of a single player playing against a suggested I listen to Radiohead. When I re - recording goes all the way back to turned home I made it a point to go online and of 1967 and extends though Vermont Counter - listen to their music; the songs mentioned point (1982), (1985), above stuck in my head. (1987), and Cello Counter- It was not my intention to make anything like point (2003). e expansion of this idea to an “variations” on these songs, but rather to draw entire chamber ensemble playing against pre- on their harmonies and sometimes melodic recordings of themselves begins with Different fragments and work them into my own piece. Trains (1988) and continues with is is what I have done. As to actually hearing (1999) and now to . By doubling the original songs, the truth is—sometimes you an entire chamber ensemble one creates the pos - hear them and sometimes you don’t. sibility for multiple simultaneous contrapuntal Radio Rewrite is in five movements played webs of identical instruments. In Different without pause. e first, third, and fih are fast Trains and Triple Quartet all instruments are and based on “Jigsaw” and the second and strings used to produce one large string fabric. fourth are slow and based on “Everything.” It In Double Sextet there is more timbral variety was completed in August 2012. through the interlocking of six different pairs of percussion, string, and wind instruments. Double Sextet (2007) e piece is in three movements fast, slow, ere are two identical sextets in Double Sextet. fast and within each movement there are four Each one is comprised of flute, clarinet, vibra - harmonic sections built around the keys of D, F, phone, piano, violin, and cello. Doubling the in - A-flat, and B or their relative minor keys B, D, strumentation was done so that, as in so many F, and G-sharp. As in almost all my music, of my earlier works, two identical instruments modulations from one key to the next are sud - could interlock to produce one overall pattern. den, clearly setting off each new section. For example, in this piece you will hear the pi - Double Sextet is about 22 minutes long and anos and vibes interlocking in a highly rhyth - was completed in October 2007. It was com - mic way to drive the rest of the ensemble. missioned by and received its e piece can be played in two ways; either world premiere by that group at the University with 12 musicians, or with six playing against a of Richmond in Virginia on March 26, 2008. recording of themselves. — Steve Reich

Berkeley RADICAL INCLUSION, INNOVATION , AND IMMERSION is performance by Ensemble Signal is part of the 2016/17 Berkeley RADICAL Innovation strand, a selection of concerts and related activities that follow a group of artistic trailblazers, some cele - brating key milestones, who continually ask us to perceive, to think, and to understand in new ways. Cal Performances’ next Innovation program this season features a celebration of composer ’ 70th birthday with revival performances of choreographer Lucinda Childs ’ 1983 master - work Available Light (Feb 3 –4), set to Adams’ richly impressionistic Light Over Water . For complete details of all performances and related activities, please visit calperformances.org.

 PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Ensemble Signal is a New York-based ensemble Brad Lubman is one of the foremost conduc - offering the broadest possible audience access tors of modern music and a leading figure in to a diverse range of contemporary works the field for over two decades. A frequent guest through performance, commissioning, record - conductor of the world’s most distinguished or - ing, and education. Since its debut in 2008, the chestras and new music ensembles, h e has group has performed over 150 concerts; given gained widespread recognition for his versatility, the world, US, or New York premieres of over commanding technique, and insightful inter - 20 works; and co-produced eight recordings. pretations. His flexibility in a variety of settings Signal was founded by co-artistic/executive has led him to conduct a broad range of reper - director Lauren Radnofsky and co-artistic toire ranging from classical to contemporary director/conductor Brad Lubman. Lubman, works, and to direct projects including orches - one of the foremost conductors of modern tra, opera, multimedia, and mixed ensemble. music and a leading figure in the field for over Lubman has led major orchestras including two decades, is a frequent guest with the world’s the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian most distinguished orchestras and new music Radio Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles ensembles. Signal regularly performs with Lub- Phil harmonic, San Francisco Symphony, NDR man and features a selection of independent Sin fonieorchester Hamburg, Dresden Phil har - artists from the modern music scene. The monic, DSO Berlin, RSO Stuttgart, WDR Sym- group is flexible in size and instrumentation, phony Cologne, Orchestre Philharmo nique de enabling it to meet the ever-changing demands Radio France, Finnish Radio Sym phony, the on the 21st-century performing ensemble. Netherlands Radio Chamber Phil harmonic, At home in concert halls, clubs, and interna - and the National Symphony. tional festivals alike, Signal has performed at In addition, he has worked with some of the Festival, Walt Disney Concert most important European and American en - Hall, BIG EARS, the Ojai Music Festival, sembles for contemporary music, including Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, Miller Theatre, Ensemble Modern, Sinfonietta, Klang- (le) Poisson Rouge, the Tanglewood Music forum Wien, Musik Fabrik, ASKO Ensemble, Festival of Con temporary Music, the Cleveland Ensemble Resonanz, and Steve Reich and Museum of Art, the Wordless Music Series, and Musicians. Lubman has conducted at new- the Bang on a Can Marathon. music festivals across Europe, including those Signal’s programming ranges from minimal - in Lucerne, Salzburg, Berlin, Huddersfield, ism or pop-influenced to the iconoclastic Euro - Paris, Cologne, Frankfurt, and Oslo. pean avant-garde. The group has worked with Lubman has conducted numerous world artists and composers including Steve Reich, premieres. Among these are Steve Reich’s Three Helmut Lachenmann, Irvine Arditti, Kristian Tales, Daniel Variations, Radio Rewrite, and Bezuidenhout, Michael Gordon, , Variations for Vibes, Pianos, and Strings. Addi- Julia Wolfe, Oliver Knussen, Hilda Paredes, and tional world premieres given by Lubman in - Charles Wuorinen. The group’s recording of clude Helmut Lachen mann’s Concertini and Reich’s (May 2015, har - Michael Gordon/David Lang/Julia Wolfe’s monia mundi) received a Diapason d’or and Shelter , as well as works by , Charles appeared on the Billboard Classical Crossover Wuorinen, John Zorn, and Hilda Paredes. chart. Beginning with this evening’s concert, Lubman’s own music has been performed in Signal will perform Steve Reich’s new Runner at the United States and Europe, and can be heard venues across the US. The group’s educational on his Insomniac CD (Tzadik). Brad Lubman is activities include community performances and on faculty at the Eastman School of Music and educational outreach, as well as workshops with the Bang on a Can Summer Institute. emerging composers in June at the Buffalo Festi val, where Signal is a resident ensemble.

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