559337 bk Locklair US 2/7/07 10:08 Page 12 Also available: AMERICAN CLASSICS Dan LOCKLAIR Symphony of Seasons Lairs of Soundings Phoenix and Again In Memory – H.H.L. 8.559257 Harp Concerto Janeanne Houston, Soprano Jacquelyn Bartlett, Harp Slovak Radio 8.559295 Symphony Orchestra Kirk Trevor 8.559337 12 559337 bk Locklair US 2/7/07 10:08 Page 2 Dan Kirk Trevor LOCKLAIR (b. 1949) Kirk Trevor, internationally known conductor and teacher, is a regular guest conductor in the world’s concert halls. Music Director of the Knoxville Symphony Symphony of Seasons (Symphony No. 1) (2002) 31:06 Orchestra from 1985 until 2003, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra since 1988, and the Missouri Symphony since 2000, he has forged a strong musical partnership 1 1. Autumn 6:49 with three of America’s leading regional orchestras. Born and educated in England, 2 2. Winter 11:13 he trained at London’s Guildhall School of Music where he graduated cum laude in 3 3. Spring 5:28 cello performance and conducting. He was a conducting student of the late Sir 4 Adrian Boult and Vilém Tausky´. He went on to pursue cello studies in France with 4. Summer 7:36 Paul Tortelier under a British Council Scholarship and moved to the United States Lairs of Soundings (A Triptych for Soprano and String Orchestra) (1982)* 10:58 on a Fulbright Exchange Grant. It was there that his conducting skills led him in 1982 to the Exxon Arts Endowment Conductor position with the Dallas Symphony. 5 I. Invocation 3:05 In 1990 he was recognized as one of America’s outstanding young conductors, 6 II. Voicings 4:57 winning the American Symphony Orchestra League’s Leonard Bernstein 7 III. Wordhoard 2:57 Conducting Competition that led to performances with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. From 1995 to 1999 he was Chief Conductor of the 8 Phoenix and Again (An Overture for Full Orchestra) (1983) 5:51 MartinÛ Philharmonic Orchestra in the Czech Republic, and in 2000 forged a new relationship with the famed Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (SRSO) in 9 In Memory – H.H.L. (for String Orchestra) (2005) 5:16 Bratislava. With the SRSO he began a new series of recordings of American music for various record companies. Concerto for Harp and Orchestra (2004)** 22:03 To date, he has made 46 albums of new American music. In 2003 he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the orchestra and took them on a three-week tour of Japan as well as many other concerts throughout Europe. In the 0 I. Dialogues (Heralding and Joyous) 6:19 spring of 2004 Kirk Trevor led the orchestra on the European Première tour of Oratorio Terezin, a new oratorio ! II. Variants (Still and Gently Moving) 10:17 based on the poems of the children of Terezin, the Nazi work camp where thousands of children of Jewish artists @ III. Contrasts (Very Quick and Vibrant) 5:27 and intelligentsia were killed. He has recently recorded symphonies by Dvofiák and Mahler with the SRSO, as well as recording movie scores for Hollywood and music for major computer games. As a guest conductor, he has appeared on the podiums of more than forty orchestras worldwide including the London Symphony Orchestra, and Janeanne Houston, Soprano * orchestras in Hong Kong, Canada, Israel, Spain, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico and throughout the United States. As much in demand as a conducting teacher as a performer, Kirk Trevor was Director of Orchestral Studies at the Jacquelyn Bartlett, Harp ** University of Tennessee and has been a guest teacher at universities and conservatories throughout the world. Since 1991 he has been Director of the International Workshop for Conductors held each year in the Czech Republic. For Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra the 2005/6 season he was Director of Orchestras at Ball State University as well as teacher of Graduate conducting. Kirk Trevor Partial funding for this recording was provided through the Research and Publication Fund and the Archie Fund of Wake Forest University. The composer wishes especially to thank the administrators of these funds, Dr. Gordon Melson and Dr. Deborah Best, as well as Dr. David Levy (Chair, Department of Music), for their support of this recording. Ms. Bartlett’s participation in this recording was supported, in part, by the schools of music of UNC-Greensboro, North Carolina School of the Arts and Appalachian State University. 8.559337 2 11 8.559337 559337 bk Locklair US 2/7/07 10:08 Page 10 Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Dan Locklair (b. 1949): Symphony of Seasons • Lairs of Soundings Phoenix and Again • In Memory – H.H.L. • Concerto for Harp and Orchestra The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1929 as the first professional musical ensemble fulfilling the needs of radio broadcasting in Slovakia. The first conductors already placed particular emphasis on Symphony of Seasons Germany’s Thirty Years War and is still sung there on contemporary Slovak music in their programmes, resulting in a close connection with leading Slovak composers, national occasions of rejoicing and thanksgiving. In including Alexander Moyzes, Eugen SuchoÀ, Ján Cikker and others. The original ensemble was gradually enlarged Symphony of Seasons (Symphony No. 1) was the result America it is one of the most popular hymns of and from 1942, thanks to Alexander Moyzes, the then Director of Music in Slovak Radio, regular symphony of an orchestral consortium commission by several thanksgiving surrounding Thanksgiving Day, which concerts were given, broadcast live by Slovak Radio. From 1943 to 1946 the Yugoslavian Kre‰imír Baranoviã was American orchestras, led by The Louisville Orchestra occurs during the season of autumn. The remainder of the chief conductor of the orchestra, to which he made a vital contribution. His successors were ªudovít Rajter, (Uriel Segal, Music Director) in Louisville, Kentucky. this movement alternates and develops the ideas Ladislav Slovák, Václav Jiráãek, Otakar Trhlík, Bystrík ReÏucha and Ondrej Lenárd, whose successful Composed between July 2000 and January 2002, it was introduced in these two primary sections. The opening performances and recordings from 1977 to 1990 helped the orchestra to establish itself as an internationally known funded in part by the Copying Assistance Program of fanfare idea returns to bring the movement to a thrilling concert ensemble. His successor Róbert Stankovsky continued this work, until his unexpected death at age of 36. the American Music Center. Symphony of Seasons has close. Charles Olivieri-Munroe held the position of chief conductor from 2001-2003, with the current principal guest as its extra-musical stimulus excerpts from extended conductor Kirk Trevor. Oliver von Dohnányi was appointed chief conductor of the orchestra in 2006, and regular poems from The Seasons, by the eighteenth-century 2. Winter concerts have continued under the new second conductor Mario Kosik. Through its broadcasts and many recordings British poet, James Thomson. Below, brief details about the orchestra has also become a part of concert life abroad, with successful tours to Austria, Italy, Germany, The each movement follow the Thomson verse excerpts that SEE, WINTER comes, to rule the vary’d Year, Netherlands, France, Bulgaria, Spain, Japan, Great Britain and Malta. inspired each of the four movements. Sullen, and sad, with all his rising Train; Vapours, and Clouds, and Storms. Be these my Theme, 1. Autumn These, that exalt the Soul to solemn Thought, And heavenly Musing. Welcome, kindred Glooms!… CROWN’D with the Sickle, and the wheaten Sheaf, While AUTUMN, nodding o’er the yellow Plain, A dark and solemn recurring harmonic progression - a Comes jovial on; the Doric Reed once more, chaconne - is heard in the strings throughout Winter. Well pleas’d, I tune. What’er the wintry Frost The chaconne appears twelve times and is twelve Nitrous prepar’d; the various-blossom’d Spring measures in length, thus symbolizing the twelve months Put in white Promise forth; and Summer-Suns of the year. After the initial statement of the chaconne in Concocted strong, rush boundless now to View, the cellos and basses, the English horn enters with a Full, perfect all, and swell my glorious Theme… melodic idea that develops throughout the movement. Winter finds its form in three words from the third line Autumn begins with an exuberant brass and percussion of Thomson’s poem: Vapours, statements 1-3 and 11-12 fanfare, which soon leads to the first primary section of of the chaconne; Clouds, statements 4-6 and 9-10 of the the movement. Like the fanfare, this section, marked chaconne; and Storms the climactic 7-8 statements of Joyous, is highly rhythmic, and its melodic material is the chaconne. first introduced by the strings and woodwinds. Maintaining the rhythmic energy of the first section, the 3. Spring second primary section of the piece is soon introduced, with its melodic materials first introduced by the brass, COME, gentle Spring, Etherial Mildness, come, accompanied by the horns, harp, piano and percussion. And from the Bosom of yon dropping Cloud, Introduced in this section, and freely quoted throughout While Music wakes around, veil’d in a Shower the remainder of the movement, are variants of Martin Of shadowing Roses, on our Plains descend… Rinckart’s seventeenth-century hymn tune, Nun danket alle Gott. The Rinckart text originally paired with this Spring seeks to capture the delight and spontaneity of tune, Now thank we all our God, was written during spring. An irregular accompanimental idea opens the 8.559337 10 3 8.559337 559337 bk Locklair US 2/7/07 10:08 Page 4 movement and soon becomes more regular as it subtly stated in the high strings and, later, becoming Jacquelyn Bartlett underpins an idea reminiscent of both the traditional more apparent.