A Labor of Love Ellen Taaffe Zwilich discusses her new Septet

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich by Fred Cohn t didn’t take long for Ellen Taaffe Zwilich to agree to Sharon Robinson’s proposal. “About a nanosecond,” the composer recalls. “I said, ‘I’d love to’ before I even Part of an ongoing series spotlighting Ithought about it.” performances supported by the NEA’s We’re on the roof garden of a New York City coffee shop, discussing the composer’s American Masterpieces: recent Septet. It’s a brilliant early-September day, but for all the abundant light around Chamber Music initiative us, the sunniest element on the terrace is the composer herself. She radiates an unaf- fected excitement about the work, derived both from the pleasure of having written it The November-December calendar of and a justifiable pride in the result. American Masterpieces activities The Septet addresses a practical concern: the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio often can be seen on page 12. Some of performs with the Miami String Quartet (Robinson’s brother Keith is its cellist), but the the works being performed are musicians have trouble finding repertoire for the combined forces; any piece chosen will acknowledged American classics, leave one or more players offstage. When the idea of commissioning a septet occurred to others are worthy but little known Robinson, Zwilich was the first person she turned to. The ties between the composer and and rarely performed, and still others the KLR go back a long way: the ensemble had introduced her 1987 Piano Trio and her are very recent commissions. 1988 Triple Concerto; Robinson and Jamie Laredo premiered her 1991 Double Concerto. “I love these people—they’re like family,” says Zwilich. “We knew that she would give us something that was, number one, playable, and

10 november/december 2009 number two, musical and from the heart,” says Robinson, in a separate phone con- versation. “She’s serious and organized in her work habits: she’ll pick a date, and she is never late. She won’t give us something that’s not quite there. You know it’s going to be a great piece. She charges more than anyone else I know—and it’s worth it.” Robinson and artist manager Frank Salomon assembled a consortium of 12 presenters to share costs and stage perfor- mances over two seasons, starting with the work’s April 28 premiere at New York City’s 92nd Street Y. (The Virginia Arts Festival performance on May 6 received The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and the Miami String Quartet, support from the NEA’s “American Master- premiering Zwilich’s Septet at New York City’s 92nd Street Y. pieces: Chamber Music” initiative.) The repeated performances not only give the The Septet’s first movement is entitled thing,” says Zwilich. “You can tell them, work a wider airing than it would get from “Introductions,” and the use of the plural ‘Give it a little groove.’” The movement a single commissioner; they allow the in- is deliberate. This isn’t just the introduc- nonetheless proved to be the most difficult terpretation itself to mature and deepen. tion to the piece, but an occasion for formal for the musicians to master. “We hadn’t “It’s wonderful for the piece,” says introductions between the players, as at a really encountered that kind of rhythmic Zwilich. “A piece of music has to marinate. diplomatic summit. These are effected complexity with [Ellen’s] music,” Robinson Before the first performance, I have a lot through musical quotations: the trio says. “It surprised me, but delighted me. to say. But I like the idea that there’s a announces itself through the first measures Once we worked it out, it felt like a great point where it becomes their piece, not of Zwilich’s Piano Trio; the quartet achievement.” mine: I happen to have written it, but through the opening of her String Quartet The brooding fourth movement is enti- now it belongs to them.” No. 2. “The two ensembles have lives of their tled “Au revoir,” but Zwilich is thinking The unusual instrumental configuration own and their own personalities,” Zwilich of renaming it. “It’s more a summation presented Zwilich with both a challenge said. “I wanted to put that in the mix.” than a ‘see you later,” she says. “But I like and an opportunity. She responded with a The second movement, “Quasi una the idea of ‘until the next time’.” work in which the two ensembles some- passacaglia,” calls for the players to alternate The KLR/Miami combo played the 24- times play in opposition, and sometimes between a romantic, espressivo sound and minute piece in four different venues this join in quasi-symphonic effusions. “You “Baroque style,” senza vibrato. These inter- past spring; the rest of the 12 presentations can’t write something like this without it pretive instructions are, in part, Zwilich’s start in November. It has thus far been a sometimes getting orchestral,” she admits. tribute to the flexibility of contemporary stimulating experience for the musicians, “But I love chamber music so much that instrumentalists. “Within my memory, according to Robinson. “In all of Ellen’s when I write for orchestra, I’m applying there was a French style, a Russian style, a music, she speaks from her heart,” she says. some of the same ideas. Why should the German style of playing,” she says. “Now “This piece especially is a leap forward in first violins be higher than the cello? The we’ve got the whole notion of historically terms of the depth of what she’s saying. whole idea of orchestral writing is that it’s informed performance, and the idea that It’s going to be played, going to last.” like a layer cake—one layer on top of the there isn’t one way of playing—the style Robinson cites “accessibility” as a key other. But with chamber music, you don’t comes out of the music. I like that a lot.” characteristic of the Septet. “Audiences love know what is going to happen. A chamber Earlier generations of chamber music it,” she says. This is surely due, in part, to music player is all ears, responsive to the players would also have had trouble the tonal, neo-Romantic mode of the other people. He knows when to lead, achieving the rhythmic looseness needed writing. But Zwilich’s music didn’t start when to follow, when to be a virtuoso. for the jazzy third movement, “Games.” out that way: her development mirrors the The whole music has these electrical inter- “You can ask people to play now with a recent history of concert music, moving actions.” little bit of jazz style—that also is a new from serialist orthodoxy to an exuberant 11 embrace of eclectic influences. As a young composer, she studied with Roger Sessions Performances in and Elliott Carter and wrote in an atonal November & December style; the arch-modernist Pierre Boulez led the premiere of her 1973 Symposium for Orchestra. NOVEMBER 2 Washington, D.C. NOVEMBER 14 Kalamazoo, MI But in 1979, the sudden death of her p r e s e n t e r : John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing (Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU) Arts p r o g r a m : Nolan Gasser’s Cosmic Reflection a r t i s t s : first husband, violinist Joseph Zwilich, p r e s e n t e r s : Fontana Chamber Arts and Opus 21 American Brass Quintet (Raymond Mase and Kevin Cobb, p r o g r a m : Electric Don Quixote (The Works of Frank made her reexamine her whole mode of trumpets; Michael Powell, trombone and John D. Rojak, Zappa) a r t i s t s : Opus 21 (Richard Adams, artistic composition, and turned her toward a bass trombone). www.americanbrassquintet.org director; Bradley Wong, clarinet; Henning Schröder, softer mode. “When something happens saxophone; Alexa Muhly, cello; Yu-Lien The, piano; NOVEMBER 4 Seattle, WA Judy Moonert, percussion; Greg Secor, percussion) like the death of a spouse,” Zwilich says, p r e s e n t e r : Earshot Jazz Society and Seattle Symphony www.fontanachamberarts.org “It either wipes you out or makes you p r o g r a m : Wayne Horvitz’s These Hills of Glory and Bill Frisell, stronger. It makes you rearrange all your Things Will Never Be the Same a r t i s t s : odeonquartet & NOVEMBER 20 Somerville, MA Carla Kihlstedt, violin; pianist Cristina Valdes; flutist priorities. There are lots of things in p r e s e n t e r : Boston Musica Viva p r o g r a m : Joseph Paul Taub; and clarinetist Laura DeLuca; guitarist Bill Schwantner’s Elixir; David Rakowski, Mikronomicon; careers that people think are important, Frisell. www.earshot.org Chris Arrell’s NARCISSUS/echo; Charles Ives/arr. and if you really look, they’re really silly. Pittman, Five Street Songs a r t i s t s : Pamela Dellal, The whole notion that composers have NOVEMBER 6 New York, NY mezzo-soprano; Richard Pittman, conductor; Ann p r e s e n t e r : The Juilliard School Paul Hall, Lincoln Center Bobo, flute; William Kirkley, clarinet; Robert Schulz, to exemplify a style is silly—I mean, it’s p r o g r a m : Shafer Mahoney’s Brass Quintet (NY Premiere) percussion; Geoffrey Burleson, piano; Bayla Keyes, ridiculous!” a r t i s t s : American Brass Quintet (Raymond Mase and violin; Jan Müller-Szeraws, cello [email protected] Even though she writes music that pleases Kevin Cobb, trumpets; Michael Powell, trombone and John D. Rojak, bass trombone) a wide range of concertgoers, Zwilich NOVEMBER 21 Los Angeles, CA www.americanbrassquintet.org p r e s e n t e r : Kronos with Los Angeles Philharmonic asserts that she doesn’t write for audiences. p r o g r a m : Artists will collaborate in an overlapping Put more precisely, she writes for the NOVEMBER 9 Conway, AR musical experience, drawing inspiration from their most limited of audiences: herself, and the p r e s e n t e r : Hendrix College p r o g r a m : David Sampson’s West Coast background a r t i s t s : Kronos Quartet (David Entrance and Joan Tower’s Copperwave a r t i s t s : American Harrington and John Sherba, violins; Hank Dutt, viola; musicians who take up her work. “You’re Brass Quintet (Raymond Mase and Kevin Cobb, trumpets; Jeffrey Zeigler, cello); Matmos, electronics; Terry Riley, not talking about Esterházy Palace, where Michael Powell, trombone and John D. Rojak, bass organ; Mike Einziger, guitar www.kronosquartet.org you know who’s out there,” she says. “The trombone) www.americanbrassquintet.org music will be performed in cities I’ve DECEMBER 1 Los Angeles, CA NOVEMBER 12 Portola Valley, CA p r e s e n t e r : Kronos with Los Angeles Philharmonic never been to, countries I’ve never visited. p r e s e n t e r : Other Minds Festival p r o g r a m : Henry Cowell, p r o g r a m : Ingram Marshall, Fog Tropes (brass version); The idea of knowing your audience is Adagio from Ensemble; Toccata, Piano Music, Songs, Harry Partch, US Highball; Frank Zappa, Yellow Shark kind of bizarre in the 21st century.” Quartet Euphometric, String Quartet No. 4 (“United”) (selections) a r t i s t s : Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music a r t i s t s : Sarah Cahill, piano; Wendy Hillhouse, mezzo- Group, John Adams, conductor; Kronos Quartet (David The collaboration between Zwilich and soprano; Jodi Gandolfi, piano; Colorado String Quartet Harrington and John Sherba, violins; Hank Dutt, viola; the KLR will continue. Their next project www.otherminds.org Jeffrey Zeigler, cello) www.kronosquartet.org will be a bass quintet, intended as a com- panion piece for Schubert’s Trout. Once NOVEMBER 13 San Francisco, CA DECEMBER 3 & 4 Los Angeles, CA p r e s e n t e r : Other Minds Festival p r o g r a m : Henry Cowell, p r e s e n t e r : Kronos with Los Angeles Philharmonic again, a consortium of presenters will act as Prelude for Organ, Processional, Set of Five, Songs, p r o g r a m : Jerry Goldsmith, Music for Orchestra; Mason co-commissioners. And once again, Zwilich Piano Music, Ground & Fuguing Tune, Hymn & Fuguing Bates, Liquid interface; Erich Korngold, Cello Concerto; will have an opportunity to do the things Tune No. 14, Sonata for Violin & Piano, Quartet Thomas Newman, Work for Kronos Quartet and Orchestra Euphometric, String Quartet No. 5 a r t i s t s : Sandra a r t i s t s : Kronos Quartet (David Harrington and John Sherba, she loves most—writing music. Soderlund, organ; Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio; Wendy violins; Hank Dutt, viola; Jeffrey Zeigler, cello) “I’m the happiest person of my age you Hillhouse, mezzo-soprano; Jodi Gandolfi, piano; Sarah www.kronosquartet.org know,” Zwilich says. “Because I love my Cahill, piano; Colorado String Quartet 3 www.otherminds.org work!”

Fred Cohn is Chamber Music’s consulting editor.

12 november/december 2009