ROGER REYNOLDS Aspiration
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ROGER REYNOLDS Aspiration Irvine Arditti Paul Hembree inauthentica Mark Menzies Roger Reynolds (*1934) CD 1 CD 2 1 Shifting/Drifting 1 Aspiration for violin and real-time algorithmic for solo violin and transformation (2015) 23:36 chamber orchestra (2004/05) 29:47 commissioned by UC San Diego ArtPower, commissioned by the California Institute of the Arts, and Oslo Sinfonietta and the Stanford University Nouvel Ensemble Moderne 2 imagE/violin 2 Kokoro imAge/violin for solo violin (1991/92) 25:07 for solo violin (2015) 18:26 commissioned by Irvine Arditti with funds from the British Arts Council TT 42:04 TT 54:55 Irvine Arditti violin Paul Hembree computer musician inauthentica Mark Menzies conductor 2 inauthentica Irvine Arditti solo violin Sarah Wass flute Phil O’Connor Eb clarinet James Sullivan bass clarinet Jonathan Stehney bassoon Allen Fogle horn Mike Davis trumpet Matt Barbier trombone James Waterman percussion Richard Valitutto piano Andrew Tholl, Mona Tian violins Ben Hudson viola Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick cello Scott Worthington bass Mark Menzies conductor Recording dates: CD1: 1 24 Sept 2015 2 4–5 Aug 2015, 26 Sept 2015 CD2: 1 2 Oct 2015 2 25–26 Sept 2015 Recording venues: CD1: 1 Theater of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technologies, UC San Diego 2 Conrad Prebys Concert Hall, UC San Diego CD2: 1 Citrus College, Los Angeles 2 Conrad Prebys Concert Hall, UC San Diego Recording supervisor: Roger Reynolds Recording engineer, editor: CD1: 1 Paul Hembree 2 Josef Kucera CD2: 1 Nicolas Tipp 2 Josef Kucera Producers: CD1: 1 Paul Hembree 2 Irvine Arditti CD2: 1 2 Mark Menzies, Irvine Arditti Final mastering: Josef Kucera Publisher: Edition Peters New York Graphic design: Alexander Kremmers (paladino media), cover based on Artwork by Enrique Fuentes (“Centralizaciion”, 2011) 3 Roger Reynolds © Malcolm Crowthers 4 While composing the music that would become Aspiration, a title came into my mind as an inevitability. Perhaps be- cause of Irvine’s ways, perhaps because of my creative resolve, who knows? But one day it was there. I mentioned the title to Ir- vine in an email and he responded, “That’s a strange name.” Dedicated as he is to ide- al outcomes, he was perhaps not at that moment considering that they are always uncertain, a sought-for result of the peril- ous act of “reaching further”. He suggested calling this two-CD set ASPIRATION, and I immediately embraced the idea. I mean to honor, in a general way, the ideal and the practice of always doing everything one imagines one might in search of elevated outcomes. Roger Reynolds 5 Reynolds — works for violin, been: Joachim and Brahms. I don’t assert more than “prodding“, and in the effort to written for and dedicated to an exact parallel, or indeed an heroic re- be deferential, nothing but irritating. No Arditti 1992–2015 play, of a past model. Rather, I imagined doubt with much patience towards my that Brahms’ notion of what the violin preliminary literary skills, I find the result- Mark Menzies in conversation with could express was manifestly suggest- ing answers moving: mostly because it is Roger Reynolds and Irvine Arditti ed by Joachim’s (virtuoso) ability and his so rare to read about people’s motivations greatly informed musical resourcefulness in collaborative art-making, particularly in and empathy. Their interaction lasted de- view of the great success that both these cades, with the music that came out of it wondrous artists enjoy. marking an evolution of possibility. This Mark Menzies, Christchurch, As we were completing the editing of Aspi- also sums up Roger and Irvine’s collabora- New Zealand ration, a question arose: how to approach tion perfectly. creating the liner notes for this collected Mark Menzies: Reflecting on the history of release of Reynolds’ works for violin. It is certain that Brahms was inspired by a long-term collaboration, and I am think- the breadth of Joachim’s performing rep- ing of Brahms and Joachim: how did your Earlier, I had been asked to assist in the ertoire choices – everything from the then collaboration start? Were there agendas producing of the Kokoro recording. During almost completely unknown solo Bach on both of your minds, at the time? And, if that process I found myself suddenly in the repertoire, to string quartets, to the “nev- so, have these agendas developed? middle of the palpable collaborative ener- er-performed“ Beethoven concerto. Cer- gy between Roger and Irvine – an extraor- tainly I see an equivalent energy transfer Roger Reynolds: Irvine and I first encoun- dinary connection going back decades – in the case of Roger and Irvine. tered one another at the Huddersfield and it immediately occurred to me that it Festival in 1982. Graham Hayter, then was this, above all, that the liner notes had Whatever: these preliminaries are but Promotions Manager at Peters Edition in to document. whimsy to prepare for Irvine and Rog- London, had picked me up at Heathrow. er saying how it goes in their own words. Unexpectedly, he proposed that we drive Their essential commitment to a refin(d) It was not without trepidation that I pre- north from London for a weekend New ing energy, evoked what I have always pared questions for these two to get the Music Festival at which a young string imagined an “other” greatly consequential conversation rolling: one fears, in the ef- quartet was performing an all-Xenakis composer-violinist collaboration to have fort to be “probing“, that one does nothing program. Graham was eager for me to hear 6 this remarkable group. They performed in tive, there was no “calculation” of any kind Saram. The years pass. Karen and I wel- a dreary recital space of the music depart- about what would, or could, result from come Irvine and Hilda into our Del Mar ment of Huddersfield University, not a working with Irvine. There was, rather, an home and we enjoy our deck overlook- proper concert space at all, but a large room immediate “recognition” of a kindred soul. ing the Pacific. When I (or we) are in Lon- that featured a wall of windows looking don, either Hilda or I cook something for out onto a grey and rainy day. The concert In the following years, as a result of vari- us all, and the evenings glow. These times started at 11.15. The members of the quar- ous performances (in London, in Brussels, together, whether 2, 3, or 4 attend, are oc- tet performed Iannis’ solo and small string in the States …) we came to know one an- casions to treasure. They nourish our lives. ensemble works. Every performance had other. I was back in the UK, perhaps for the an intensely focused character; each was premiere of Coconino … a shattered land- MM: Brahms sought to comprehend the electrifying. scape at the Almeida Theater, and Irvine potential of the romantic violin through his offered a bed at his Golders Green home evolving connection with Joachim (who After the program, Graham introduced in London. I came to know him (and Jen- also led an eponymous quartet …) – did me to Irvine, and we shared a meal at an ny and their sons) in a way that could not you find a similar opportunity with Irvine, Indian restaurant. Irvine and I came to have happened in the normal “profession- in this case regarding what the “contempo- an agreement, on the spot. I would write al” contexts. As I think back on these years rary” violin could mean to you? them a new quartet, and, as the group had now, I wonder whether he invited every- no funds for commissioning, Irvine prom- one into his home or that this gesture was RR: Let me begin a response from a more ised that they would perform the new unusual. general perspective. Of course I had heard work multiple times, and eventually re- and admired great violinists such as Heifetz cord it. I agreed. They did. I was not then, and am not now, a “carous- and Oistrakh. And also, in the context of er” who cultivates late nights out, but, as their performances of contemporary rep- At that time, I had not yet developed re- the quartet’s pattern was to eat and drink ertoire: Menuhin (who played my teacher’s lationships with many performers, and it with relish after their concerts, I was drawn [Ross Lee Finney] solo sonata for violin) was immediately clear – it didn’t require into their mix, in a collegial embrace. And and Yfrah Neaman (who performed music an analytic process – that these musi- by all the members of the quartet, not only by my other mentor, Roberto Gerhard). I cians possessed the kind of dedication to Irvine. It was a heady pleasure: the gener- noticed the range of individual approaches, what they did that I felt in regard to my al banter, Irvine’s edgy dynamism, and the from, say, the Olympian objectivity of Heif- own composing. So, from my perspec- philosophical musings of cellist Rohan de etz, through the ingrained romanticism of 7 Oistrakh, to the occasional sentimentality egorized as “expressive license”. In those greater than two human hands could pos- of Menuhin. But it was less the style of times (1950s and 60s), there was an ef- sibly realize.). So virtuosity of a new sort, playing – strongly focused on the lyrical fort to organize objectively (even to serial- outside the boundaries of what had been linearity associated with the 19th-century ize) the nuances of pitch, time, dynamics, thought “idiomatic” to instruments now tonal repertoire – and more the nature of and timbre formerly a part of an individu- become an accepted musical dimension.