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2 | New Music Connoisseur Fall/Winter 2012 | 3 live performance reviews contributors

Leann Davis Alspaugh writes about the performing and visual arts. She is a regular contributor to The New Criterion, among other publications, and blogs about arts and literature at www.orangetintedglasses.com

Benjamin Boretz, composer, poet Dorota Czerner and filmmaker Russell Craig Richardson, and pianists Ian Pace and Michael Fowler, are collaborators on a new 2- DVD release from Open Space. Open Space will also be issuing Ben's Qixingshan (String Quartet No. 2) with the Momenta Quartet (with Quattro per Quattro by Robert Morris), Downtime with pianist Ian Pace, and Postlude with the DAFO Quartet of Krakow.

Anne Eisenberg covers new developments in science and technology in the column "Novelties" that she writes for the Sunday business section of The New York Times. Sofia Gubaidulina The Clever Mistress Mark N. Grant is both composer and writer. He is librettist/lyricist of both of his two current projects: the at Miller opera The Human Zoo, excerpts from which were performed by the Center for Contemporary Opera last spring, and the Irish Gaelic cabaret song cycle Sean- Nós Ballads for a New World. He is the author of two by Anne Eisenberg books, Maestros of the Pen: A History of Classical Music Criticism in America and The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical. A big snowstorm brought much of New York herself in part by writing scores for the maneuver is “clamore” or “clamorously.”) Leonard Lehrman’s Metropolitan Philharmonic Chorus celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2013 with concerts City to a stop on February 9, but it didn’t movies. In the 1980s, her fortunes gradually At other times, she had to make the bassoon at LIU Post Apr. 27 and Great Neck Library May 5. His opera Hannah will receive its US premiere Dec. 23, deter the booted, scarved crowd drawn to changed, in part because the violinist Gidon sound alla saxofono, that is, imitating the sound 2014 at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he will be teaching the first course in Miller Theatre at Columbia University for the Kremer regularly performed one her pieces, of a human laugh as the saxophone can do. Jewish Opera. program Composer Portraits that featured introducing her music to a growing audience in the unconventional, powerful music of Sofia the West. In 1992 she was able to permanently In an online interview, Ms. Heller describes Nancy Manocherian is the Founder and Facilitator of Coincidence of the cell, A Twenty First Century Gubaidulina, the 81-year-old Russian composer. relocate in Germany. this dark, five-movement, complex work as a Salon™, in New York City. She is a lyricist, writer, and playwright whose past projects include the opera, struggle for dominance between the strings Dinner and Delusion; Rio, a musical novella; Guilty; and is currently working on a screenplay called Dream On. Gubaidulina’s music is known for its Her unusual instrumental combinations and the bassoon – as the bassoon sometimes combination of the traditional and the avant were well illustrated in the centerpiece laughs, and sometimes sounds as though it Barry O'Neal, busily involved in Holy Week events at his upper-Westside Church, St. Michael's, reports that guard – a striking blend of religious themes of Saturday’s program at Miller Theatre, is weeping. he recently finished a set of pieces for cello and piano, Three Dedications. He continues his extensive opera and atonality, microtonality and dissonant, Concerto for bassoon and low strings, and concert going activities and recently heard a terrific performance of Olivier Messiaen's Des Canyons aux episodic structure. This unusual compositional composed in 1975, (before the boycott.) The opening piece in the Miller Theatre Etoiles…by Ensemble ACJW. style was shown in all its scope and power This intricate music was brought to life by program, Trio for violin, viola and cello, is in a varied program performed by the the skilled bassoonist Rebekah Heller, and dedicated to the memory of Boris Pasternak. Deborah Rosenthal is a painter represented by the Bowery Gallery in New York. Her work has been featured International Contemporary Ensemble that members of the International Contemporary The piece shows off many hallmarks of the in The New York Times, The New Yorker, the Yale Review, Art in America, and others. She is Editor of the included a range of Gubaidulina’s music from Ensemble – in this case four cellos and three composer’s style, including extensive use Artists & Art book series for Arcade Publishing. Meditation on the Bach Chorale ‘Vor deinen double-basses, conducted by Christian Knapp. of glissandos, short phrases, and intense, Thron tret’ich hiermit’ for harpsichord and almost-violent pizzicatos. The instruments Mark Shapiro is a conductor in New York City. As an opera conductor, he has recently led productions for string quartet to Concerto for bassoon and The mournful, opening soprano notes of the begin playing together on a single note at Juilliard Vocal Arts, American Opera Projects, and the Carolina Coast Festival. This season he also conducts low strings. bassoon, reminiscent of the famous opening the beginning of the trio, and then answer orchestral programs with the Prince Edward Island Symphony and Nova Sinfonia (Halifax). Shapiro is of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, start this rarely one another for a while. But eventually they music director of Cantori New York and The Cecilia Chorus of New York, which presents an annual season heard piece. Ms. Heller, who began playing go off on their own in separate, crashing, in Carnegie Hall. Shapiro has won four ASCAP Awards for programming and several citations from the Shostakovich advised her the bassoon at nine, when the bassoon melancholy directions. In contrast, in American Prize. He is on the faculties of LIU Post and Mannes, and each summer directs the conducting in a famous piece of advice was far taller than she, was up to the many another piece on the program Concordanza, program of the European American Musical Alliance in Paris. virtuosic techniques required for the work. composed for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, to “continue on your own, These included multiphonics, with their many, horn, percussion, violin, viola, cello, and Andrew Violette is a composer and lives in Brooklyn. incorrect way” unusually fingered pitches sounded at once, bass, the music ends dramatically with a as well as microtones, howling trills and even convergence – the only chord of the piece. Ben Yarmolinksy is the author of the docu-opera "Clarence & Anita" and the classroom drama In the program were pieces from 1975 to violent, repeated tongue-flutters – particularly "Music Appreciation." He is a professor of music at the Bronx Community College. 1993, composed despite extreme Soviet hard to perform on the bassoon. There On that snowy night at Columbia University censure of Gubaidulina’s non-conformist music were many other dramatic maneuvers of in February, the composer’s distinct musical Composer Mark Zuckerman lives in Roosevelt, Negw Jersey. that included an official boycott in 1979. Not the instrument, too, in its dialogue with the vocabulary was captured and brought to life everyone was against her, though, during this low-register strings. At times Ms. Heller placed by the skilled young musicians in ICE, who difficult period. Shostakovich advised her in a her teeth on the reed and oscillated her jaw seemed extremely comfortable speaking famous piece of advice to “continue on your – the result is a strange, high-frequency buzz. Gubaidulina, and in transmitting this own, incorrect way” – and she did, supporting (The direction in the score for this dramatic language to an appreciative audience. II on the cover: Winter Journey (Winterreise) 2010 Oil on linen, 26 x 20" Collection of Jock Ireland, NYC

4 | New Music Connoisseur Fall/WinterFall/Winter 2012 2012 | | 5 live performance reviews

with Nikola Tesla’s inventions and theories. attempt to be about something other than premiered on April 28, 1994, conducted by contributions to the canon of late 20th MUSIC FROM Oscillate began with a burst of energy. The joy in sound or noise, the skill in scoring then music director Wolfgang Sawallisch, century music. The chaste strangeness of THE DISTRACTED piano and strings kept up a steady pulse and sincerity in making the difficulty of the with Dawn Upshaw as the soloist, and Apollinaire’s surrealist vision of angels is from the fierce opening to the quiet fade at compositional process a witty and central subsequently recorded by New World Records. rendered with a subtle interplay between GENERATION the end, with string arpeggios and repeated focus (very post-modern, that). Mr. Norman The ensemble version of Counterpoise was piano, wind and percussion sonorities. The piano notes, including some plucking of the got my attention and whether or not I would one of the composer’s last projects and its delicate tipsiness of Dickinson’s poem is CONTACT! The New Music Series piano’s strings, while the percussion battery want to hear Try again, I will follow his career recasting for eight musicians (flute doubling beautifully captured in Druckman’s slightly of the New York Philharmonic. offered a wide variety of rapping, tapping with interest. alto flute, clarinet doubling bass clarinet, 2 unbalanced and giddy setting. Ms. Futral and clicking sounds. The percussion array horns, trombone, percussion – one player, sang splendidly, her floated high note on Members and friends of the New was often employed in non-traditional ways, Described by Mr. Rouse as “high octane” piano, violin and cello) was first presented by the last word of the final song (“Sun”), York Philharmonic conducted by the vibraphone bowed or scraped with wire and by Mr. Ogren as “testosterone in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Jayce Ogren, Symphony Space, brushes, the glockenspiel played with snare water,” Jude Vaclavik’s Shock Waves (2012; on April 13, 1997. Despite the small forces, Saturday, December 22, 2012. drum sticks, and so forth. The effect was often World Premiere), was also a New York this version of Counterpoise is a radiant stunning as sound in an over‐the‐top way, Philharmonic commission. In the event, it testimony to Druckman’s compositional skill Ms. Futral sang but at 17 minutes, Oscillate was a bit tiring was as loud as promised, as if Mr. Vaclavik, and marvelous sense of instrumental color. By Barry O’Neal in its in-your-face prolixity and lack of any a well‐credentialed and connected graduate The term “counterpoise” is used in electrical splendidly, her floated memorable musical ideas. of Juilliard had something to prove. Scored engineering to describe a type of electrical for symphonic brass section (4‐3‐3‐1) and ground not connected to earth, but a more high note on the last Andrew Norman, whose Try (2011; New York three percussion players, the brass made common definition of the word is “a factor, word of the final song Premiere) followed, presented an enaging, much use of what were billed as unusual force or influence that balances or neutralizes The concert presented on December 22, though somewhat diffident air, in his effects involving an array of various mutes another.” In this piece, Druckman has set two (“Sun”), breathtaking. 2012 by the New York Philharmonic in interview with Rouse and Ogren. Though he (called “flavor enhancers” by the composer) austere but precise poems by Emily Dickinson their invaluable series, CONTACT!, was lives in New York now, he trained in California and techniques (flutter tonguing, blowing on either side of two voluptuous and particularly striking and instructive. In a and at Yale. His piece reflected his claim that into mouth pieces, wa‐wa sounds, gradual extravagant poems by Guillaume Apollinaire. chat with conductor Jayce Ogren before his compositional process is fraught with removal of mutes, etc.). However virtuosic The contrasting settings, airborne and breathtaking. Her diction was slightly better the concert, Christopher Rouse outlined peril and in Try he faced the challenge of the brass writing was, the basic repertoire of delicate for Dickinson, earthy and sensual for in the plain English of the two Dickinson his role as the new Composer‐in‐Residence trying to find a satisfying form for a range of sounds would be familiar to anyone who has Apollinaire, demonstrated the subtle virtuosity settings, than in the more high‐flying and with the Philharmonic and his desire to interesting musical ideas. Masterfully scored been exposed to contemporary wind of the composer’s art at its most beguiling. ornamental lines of Apollinaire’s French, curate a program that showcased three for a mixed ensemble (single winds, 2 horns, ensemble music by composers such as Warren The first song, “Nature is what we see,” a but that is a minor cavil. The ensemble, young American‐born composers living in trumpet, trombone, 2 percussion players, Benson, Dan Welcher, David Maslanka, Karel chaste and onomatopoetically phrased paean as throughout the evening, played nearly and around New York and contrast them piano and single strings), the work showed a Husa and Carter Penn, among others. Though to the simple joys of the natural world, shot flawlessly under Mr. Ogren’s clear direction. with a work by an older “New York School,” composer full of talent but unable to decide well‐proportioned and reasonably short at 15 through with naïve musical imitations of the Though the oldest and longest work on composer – Jacob Druckman. Without which way to go from one moment to the minutes, Shock Waves was all sound and fury, items enumerated, could not have made a the program at 20 minutes, Counterpoise, pushing an agenda, the program did the next. Norman’s struggle to achieve a kind of and did not make much of an impression on more startling contrast to the hot house, seemed in its mastery to be the shortest younger composers no special favors, since perfection made Try a piece about writing a this listener. fin de siècle atmosphere of the setting and freshest. It is a work of dazzling, but the Druckman work , the chamber version piece. His attempts at melodic sweetness and of Apollinaire’s “Salomé” that followed. serious, entertainment. II of Counterpoise, is a masterpiece of the way in which he re-works the opening In brief, the music of the first half of the The very sound of the French language mature refinement. madcap riff throughout, the material circling program seemed like much so‐called culture seemed to call forth from the composer a back on itself again and again, showed his of our day, ephemeral, scattered and intended wonderful panoply of exotic sounds from Of the younger composers, all in their admitted confusion in an amusing way. The for an audience with a short attention span, the small forces, especially from the piano thirties, Andy Akiho, a percussionist as ending was both poignant and annoying: easily distracted by the ceaseless chatter of and the large percussion battery (played by well as a composer, offered the most the pianist (as in Oscillate, the superb young proliferating “communication” devices, that Druckman’s son David, a longtime member intriguing repertoire of sounds. His work, pianist of the New York Philharmonic, Eric inhibit rather than focus communication of the Philharmonic). There is even a touch Oscillate (2012; a world premiere) was Huebner) offered a quiet descending phrase, between sentient beings. And with that of wicked Straussian hootchy-kootchy commissioned by the New York Philharmonic. as the rest of the ensemble fell silent, then belligerent digression, let us turn to the dance music for the reference to “The King It is scored for a vast array of percussion repeated it ad infinitum. It became an second half of a concert made memorable in his snuff box…” Skirting camp, but just instruments (handled by three members arpeggio, was tried as a chord, and kept the hands of a master composer. barely, Elizabeth Futral, the soloist for this of the Philharmonic’s percussion section, repeating with subtle changes in voicing, performance, was particularly outstanding in Christopher Lamb, Daniel Druckman and until one was near the point of screaming Counterpoise (1994‐1995), was one of Jacob this song. The final two sections, “La Blanche Kyle Zema), and an ensemble of strings “enough!” Finally satisfied, with the chord, Druckman’s last works (the composer died Neige” (Apollinaire again) and “I taste a and piano. The title is an anagram of “Tesla the composer (or the pianist) allowed in 1996 at the age of 68). It was originally liquor never brewed” (Dickinson), closed Coil,” and in an interview with Rouse and the piece to end. Despite the occasional written on commission from the Philadelphia the sale in persuading me that Counterpoise Ogren, Mr. Akiho revealed his fascination frustration, Try engendered sympathy for its Orchestra, for Soprano and Orchestra and is one of Jacob Druckman’s most perfect

Fall/Winter 2012 | 7 live performance reviews

Tempest successful one by David Lang and a classic by Eaton's palate is more varied, encompassing The Mark of Cain Albert Tepper. consistent quarter- tone harmonies, Presented by Chelsea Opera Treatments Renaissance modality (and instruments), and Paulk noted that the Adès opera "rewards a jazz trio that accompanies Caliban and his Thursday, Nov. 8th, Saint careful repeat listening. And there will cohorts. Eaton writes: "All of the 1/4 tones Peter’s Church, by Leonard J. Lehrman almost certainly be plenty of opportunities." in Caliban's part are 'blues notes' and can be 346 West 20th Street, NYC The Metropolitan Opera provided one this easily negotiated, once a jazz singer knows past October, in a well-received production what they are. Furthermore, this part should by Benjamin Yarmolinsky conducted by the composer. The part of Ariel, be rewritten for each performance, especially Nearly seven years ago, James L. Paulk sung by Audrey Luna, written almost entirely for the singer employed, to take advantage Biblical opera is something we don’t see very noted in the pages of this magazine that above the staff, was so stratospheric as to of his or her special capabilities. If a female much in New York these days. The Chelsea The Tempest, the most musicalized of be virtually unintelligible, though of course singer is used, she must have a low, husky, Opera recently presented an evening of two Shakespeare's plays, had been subjected one could argue that supertitles ameliorated masculine voice. Therefore the part presented short Biblically-inspired pieces at St. Peter’s to "many operatic assaults," most of them that somewhat. Simon Keenlyside dominated [in the score] is just a skeleton, subject to Church. The two works were Benjamin Britten’s raised platform in front of the sanctuary of the pronouncements over radiant major chords, failures. Reviewing the US premiere at Santa the stage as Prospero, but King Alonso's change and improvisation." Both productions “Canticle II” Op. 51, a twenty- minute work church. There is a backdrop made of swaths Cain, (Brace Negron) as the heavy, is given Fe of Thomas Adès's opera on the subject, music was most memorable, gorgeously sung of his opera, the 1985 premiere at Santa Fe for two voices and piano, based on the tale of of blue and orange fabric suspended from a Hollywood-style bad guy music, and Zellah commissioned by Covent Garden in 2004, by William Burden. Caliban was assigned and one a year later at Indiana University, Abraham and Isaac, and “The Mark of Cain” wire – one is reminded of the dyers souk in (mezzo-soprano Blythe Gaissert) sings in the Paulk found it "odd" that "perhaps the most to a tenor, Alan Oke, not too dissimilar to used a female singer. While Ann Howard sang a chamber opera in one act, with music by Marrakesh. The air is suffused with incense. mode of a Puccini heroine. The orchestration successful one, by John Eaton," premiered Ferdinand (Alek Shrader), making him more the part beautifully at Santa Fe, the crassness Matthew Harris and libretto by Terry Quinn, in is inventive and effective and gets a lot of in 1985 at Santa Fe, "to mixed reviews," exotic than vulgar. One sensed a European I think a male singer could have brought to its premiere performance. The librettist Terry Quinn has fashioned an sound out of eighteen players, whom Steven seemed to have been forgotten. colonialist attitude here, trying to find nobility the role was missing. John emailed me "To my original story around the sparse facts given M. Crawford conducted competently. or at least sympathy in the savage (as Hoiby ears most female jazz singers communicate The Britten is a strangely bland piece on a in Genesis about Cain and Abel. He has Margaret Ross Griffel's Operas in English seems to have done also). Paulk noted that in masculinity whereas male jazz singers can harrowing topic. It was composed in 1952 supplemented this sketchy information by Some elements of the production were (Greenwood, 1999) lists 8 different operas Santa Fe the part required "that he spend the often sound feminine. Also, I wanted his and premiered by Peter Pears as Abraham and drawing on other sources, including the Koran puzzling. For instance, one didn’t know based on the play, from the 17th, 18th and evening virtually naked on stage," which was voice to sound 'un-human' in a way." In both Kathleen Ferrier as Isaac. The text is drawn not and a Midrash which postulates the existence what to make of the costumes. In the early 20th centuries, along with the Eaton; a not the case at the Met. the Westergaard and the Eaton, the role of from the Bible but from a medieval mystery play. of twin sisters to both Cain and Abel. One of opening scene, a chorus of ten men and 1992 version by Peter Westergaard premiered Prospero was sung magnificently – by Tim these sisters, Zellah (Abels’s twin, disguised as his women dressed identically in djellabas and in 1994 by the New Jersey Opera Festival Bringing out Caliban's vulgarity – he is, after all, Noble at Santa Fe in the Eaton; by William Abraham (sung by tenor Eapen Leubner) ghost) comes to the Land of Nod where Cain is headscarves comes onstage.Cain sits on (where she lists Christopher Mattaliano as referred to and even addressed constantly as Parcher at the New Jersey Opera Festival in and Isaac (sung by boy treble Benjamin Perry living (post-murder) to avenge Abel’s death. This his throne in a peplum and gold pharaonic having conducted, when in fact he directed; "Monster" – seems to have been the aims of the Westergaard. Wenzelberg) both narrate and act out their innovation has the operatic advantages of adding headdress. A farmer appears in a loud black Michael Pratt conducted); and the one I'd both Eaton and Westergaard, the latter casting well-known story in song, including the voice a love interest and a high voice. It seems that and white checked suit. Zellah is in high- really most like to hear, complete: the late Lee him as a bass. Both composers generously Both Westergaard and Eaton make use of of God (sung by the two voices together). After Cain and Abel were each originally betrothed to waisted buttoned breeches, the Serpent is in Hoiby's, on a libretto by Mark Shulgasser, that sent study scores and videos for this article. electronic sounds in their scores, especially intoning an introduction offstage, father and the other’s twin sister. In this version of the story, pantyhose, and God sports a Las Vegas style premiered in Iowa in 1986, repeated in Dallas Both Princetonians, they write music that is in the scenes with Ariel and the other spirits. son enter, dressed in suitable Biblical clothing. sexual jealousy between the two brothers was white outfit with gold trimmed accessories. in 1996, both times with Constance Hauman highly controlled, serial in pitch though not in Eaton's Ariel is a coloratura mezzo, going The boy is carrying a basket of wood on his a contributing motive for the original murder. In These are fun touches, but they detract from as Ariel and Jacque Trussel as Caliban. Hoiby dynamics, containing moments of deliberately up to a C (his Miranda goes up to a D, and back. He asks his father where the animal is the course of the opera this murder is reenacted, the ostensible seriousness of the work. revised it for an April 26, 2008 production chaotic aleatoria. Their third act librettos are beyond), "because," he emailed me, "he that they are to sacrifice. His father responds with interventions from both the Serpent and at SUNY Purchase, bringing excerpts more identical than not, both concluding with (it) must communicate all the power of with the bad news that he is to be the sacrifice. God himself. Eventually, Zellah reveals her true These and other authorial and directorial (what American Opera Projects called an Prospero's Act I Scene 4 speech, invoking "the Prospero's intellect" – accompanied by a The boy expresses his dismay, submits and lays identity. Cain tries to seduce her, and Zellah takes choices raise the question of what attitude "excerpted, semi-staged concert version") stuff dreams are made on." trio of spirits, many string harmonics, and himself down on an altar-like surface. The father her revenge by stabbing him to death. There is a this work means to take towards its subject to Symphony Space two days later. In my a "Harmonizer" that produces an echo. procrastinates, attempts to negotiate with God, touching ending in which Zella cradles the dying matter. It is difficult to stage Biblical stories NMC review of the event I noted that it "left (Some may know that phrase as "the stuff Westergaard remarks in his long preface: agonizes, but eventually bows to God’s will. Cain in her lap while she sings him a lullaby their without referring to the long tradition of one wanting to hear more of it," that Molly dreams are made of" – made famous by "Synthesizer and midi technology is changing He unsheathes his knife. There is a moment mother Eve used to sing to them as children. what is sometimes disparagingly referred Davey's coloratura as Ariel was "awesome," Humphrey Bogart in John Huston's 1941 film so rapidly that it would be foolhardy to of suspense. The Lord intervenes. A stuffed to as “sword and sandal” drama – what while "Eric Barry as Caliban displayed a nice The Maltese Falcon, and often quoted by others specify the best means for achieving" his toy lamb is pulled from under the altar and The music of the opera consists largely of the French call “le film péplum”. There is an lyric tenor, unfortunately often covered" by A 1940 edition I have of the complete plays of goal: "to make the voice note and the sacrificed in the boy’s stead. The pair is relieved illustrative and punctuational gestures. This undeniably camp aspect to this tradition. the orchestra. Shakespeare actually uses the word "of" in the synthesizer note become one sound... An and praises God. Intermission. is prima le parole (words first) opera. The The self-conscious lofty tone of the libretto, passage, not "on." But "on" seems to be the ideal arrangement would use the singers' words are well set and intelligible much in combination with the sometimes Also worth mentioning is the forthcoming consensus of later scholarship, and an online input to shape the synthesizer's output in Both singers sang their difficult parts admirably. of the time. On the whole, the melodic portentous music, often seems close to musical, La Tempesta, by Tom Jones (of wit at enotes.com actually chides Bogart and real time..." II Benjamin Wenzelberg is a talented young man material is functional and generic. The parody. Still, the quality of the lyrical and Fantasticks fame) with songs by Andrew Gerle, Huston for not having sufficiently "brushed up" who has sung many operatic roles, including that one notable exception is the music for the musical workmanship is high, the singers are which Jones claimed during York Theatre's on their Shakespeare!) of Miles in “The Turn of the Screw.” He is also a Serpent (soprano Kate Oberjat), which is in fine, the production well-rehearsed, and it spring 2012 mufti festival will be his magnum composer who is working on his first opera. a sort of Arabian Nights vein. These Middle lasts less than an hour. II opus. And various songs from Shakespeare's But while Westergaard achieves a feeling of Eastern melodies are catchy and the pastiche play have of course had their own life, uneasy symmetry in his harmonic treatment “The Mark of Cain” is scored for six soloists, convincing. As the old saying goes, the Devil especially Ariel's "Where the bee sucks," of half- tones and tritones as consonances, an 18-piece orchestra, and chorus. As in the gets the best tunes. Otherwise, God, (bass in innumerable settings, including a recent Britten, all of the action takes place on a Tom McNichols), is characterized by stentorian

8 | New Music Connoisseur Fall/WinterFall/Winter 2012 2012 | | 9 live performance reviews

Again and again, I’ve been impressed original Pippin have been transformed into big Hochman proposed a different intro from On the Right Track Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies, Irene Ryan Magic to Do with the theater’s vocal casting. They have top performers, complete with handsome strong the easily-recognizable piano vamp: “I had was an accomplished vaudevillian whose American Repertory Theatre’s never succumbed to the temptation to cast men, buxom bendable ladies, dramatic aerialists, a notion of starting with instruments tuning As the original Leading Player, Ben Vereen career began at age 11. She also originated production of Pippin “Broadway voices” in any of the musicals and even a cute circus dog. The troupe also joins up, starting with the A given by the oboe, was paired again with Bob Fosse (he had the role of Berthe in Pippin, bringing down Music and Lyrics by that I’ve seen there. The role of Leading in the singing and dancing to give the whole spreading out to the strings, tuning up with worked with Fosse in Sweet Charity) and his the house when she sang about “a man who Stephen Schwartz Player, especially if held by a woman, would company a strong sense of cohesion. their open strings and morphing into an characterization owed much to his purist calls me granny.” Ryan had a stroke during be a plum for any aspiring singer, but it takes orchestral kind of avant-garde crescendo, a the first months of the show’s run and died Book by Roger O. Hirson approach to the choreography. Fosse’s direction, more than a grandstanding voice to handle Circus veteran and Seven Fingers co-founder, little bit like the end of ‘A Day In the Life’ however, led to a rocky relationship with on April 26, 1973. the choreography, the almost non-stop stage Gypsy Snider created a circus world that [by the Beatles].” At the A.R.T., we heard By Leann Davis Alspaugh Schwartz. It seems that the clash had more to do time, and the distraction of jaw-dropping tempers the show’s darker side with wholesome the piano vamp, but Hochman’s idea could with toning down the role’s raunchiness in order acrobatics just inches away. Miller, a 2011 physicality. There are even witty references to have its chance in New York. to avoid undermining the character of Pippin. About That Second Act Tony nominee for her work in Sister Act, the show’s legacy as when Thomas’s Pippin In a 2010 online forum, Schwartz remarked: handles it all gleefully and we willingly put makes his entrance by vaulting through a hoop Schwarz and Hirson also worked with “My issue with Bob Fosse was not so much the The problematic second act keeps the ourselves into her hands. When her character in the P of Pippin, a nod to the original 1972 Paulus to revamp some of the songs. Some A.R.T. artistic director Diane Paulus is making darkness of his vision, but the tawdriness and new ending that Schwartz and Hirson turns downright nasty in the second act, it’s Broadway poster. of these improvements have been made to quite a name for herself as a reviver of classic the emphasis on bumps and grinds and cheap adopted about a decade ago after seeing tough to avoid feeling like we’ve been duped. acknowledge that times have changed in the shows. The recent revivals have been critical jokes. I also felt that the Leading Player was it in a London production. Unfortunately, Oddly-matched, sexy costumes have long been 40 years since Pippin first appeared: “When successes in Boston, and last year her Porgy undercutting the focus on Pippin in some cases it doesn’t save the intervening scenes from Matthew James Thomas is Pippin, the second- a part of the Pippin tradition, but often the Pippin was done in 1972, the Vietnam War and Bess went on to Broadway where it won and forcing Pippin to become a relatively one- appearing underpowered and the finale from string prince who just wants to find some way actors look like they’ve raided the attic costume was on, so kids of Pippin’s age were, in the Tony for Best Musical Revival. Pippin, dimensional character.” all-but-fizzling. to be extraordinary. Big brother Lewis (the box. For this revival, Dominique Lemieux’s fact, enlisting or resisting,” notes Schwartz. which played in Boston this past December hilarious Erik Altemus) seems to have it all costumes mix pantomime, surrealism, grand “The sexual revolution was going on, there and January, moves to New York’s Music Box In the revival, Chet Walker’s choreography Still, you have to credit Schwartz and Hirson figured out, that is, if being a pale copy of his guignol, medievalism, and good old-fashioned was a huge generation gap, and protests Theatre, running through May 12. This revival “in the style of Bob Fosse” keeps the master’s for creating a show that manages to escape father Charlemagne is all it takes. But Pippin Ziegfeld fringe and spangles. One of the original against the government, et cetera. So the marks the 40-year anniversary of the original sinuous and sensual style – especially in the the schlock lock of the 1970s and leaps to is on a quest – first he gives war a chance, designers for Cirque du Soleil, Lemieux knows experiences that Pippin goes through were Broadway production, which won five Tony classic Manson Trio – but it also has to work new heights under the creative guidance then sex, and finally rebellion. how to enhance a body in motion. very much in the world then. His choices Awards in 1973. within the show’s circus metaphor. That’s of Paulus and company. Even if the second didn’t need to be as dramatically justified something Walker was not at all sure about act doesn’t quite carry through on the Thomas does what he can with a role that’s because people understood right away. From its thrilling new circus concept to its until rehearsals started and he began to see new promise of the first, it’s difficult to see that written almost as a clean slate. Wide-open Now that we are in different times, people refreshed music, dialogue, and lyrics, this Pippin’s New Glow possibilities. As musical theatre’s reigning Fosse as an unforgivable sin. Its ambiguity sits idealism can be a little tiresome, but Thomas still make those choices, but they are not Pippin has a lot of magic to do. An irreverent expert, Walker was a natural to work on the uncomfortably with us because, like Pippin, balances his matinee idol looks with the a generational constant. Therefore, we felt mash-up of history and 1970s what-does-it- One of the most significant updates to Pippin revival of Pippin since he, too, has a personal we harbored great expectations set up in the right amount of self-assured dash and that his coming to each of those decisions all-mean earnestness, this production is not is in the orchestra pit. There, a pared-down connection to the show. Walker joined the glittering first act. But the fact still remains impeccable comic timing. From his work in needed to be more dramatically validated.” anything like those watered down high- band of 12 plays new orchestrations by Larry original company midway through its five-year that magic was done. II Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark – he played school versions perpetrated over the last few Hochman (The Book of Mormon and Monty run and became a life-long protégé, helping Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the 2011 Broadway But you’ll still hear Schwartz’s signature decades. The A.R.T. Pippin reminds us of what Python’s Spamalot, among many others). develop the 1999 show Fosse: The Musical. production – Thomas learned about wire work lyrics, an often-uneasy blend of wit, poetry, made the original so appealing: a sense of Hochman’s musical credits are long, but he has and performing in a heavily physical role. In and tin-eared rhymes: humor, sexy Fosse moves, and catchy songs. a sentimental tie to Pippin, having played in the an interview during rehearsals, Thomas noted Unfortunately, by the time the second act gets 1974 Broadway production. His orchestrations Now listen to me closely Three Smart Women the difference between jumping off a balcony into gear, we also recall what made Pippin here call for an ensemble that reflects the circus while I endeavor to explain while tethered to a safety wire as opposed a bit of a bore. theme. “Not a Ringling Brothers circus,” as he what separates a charlatan Sly wisdom is the dominant quality of the three to floor acrobatics: “This is a very different describes it, “but more of an urban, timeless from a Charlemagne main female roles in Pippin. Andrea Martin as aesthetic of acrobatics. It’s very human based. circus.” In addition to high-tech techniques like (“War Is a Science”) Berthe tackles the crowd-friendly “No Time at It’s very grounded and very theatrical and we’re digital sampling, Hochman draws on instruments All” not as an elderly grandmother, but as a trying to be innovative in the emotional impact The Leading Player with unique sounds such as the otherworldly Blood is red as sunset femme d’un certain âge. The parade won’t pass of the acrobatics.” and the Lead hurdy gurdy (a medieval lute-like instrument Blood is warmer than wine her by, because she’s marching right along with whose strings are plucked by a crank) and the The taste of salty summer brine it, engaging in a few stunts of her own. Rachel As with the 2010 production of Cabaret, in celestial sounds of the glockenspiel. Steel is cold as moonlight Bay Jones as Catherine has the unenviable which the role of the male Emcee was played Leaps and Leotards Steel is sharper than sight task of coaxing the sullen Pippin back to life. with intensity by Dresden Dolls frontwoman In “Corner of the Sky,” for example, Hochman The touch of bitter winter white Her ditsy demeanor masks her determination Amanda Palmer, so Paulus casts Pippin’s In fact, it is the acrobats who are the real restored the piano introduction to what (“Glory”) to make Pippin extraordinary by simple love. Leading Player against gender with the stars in this production. The circus antics Schwartz had always preferred rather than As Fastrada, Charlotte d’Ambroise is sweetly impressive Patina Miller. She fits Chet Walker’s of Montréal-based Les 7 Doigts de la Main what was heard in the original Broadway show. Join us…leave your fields to flower shrewd and her “Spread a Little Sunshine” is a Fosse-inspired choreography perfectly and (Seven Fingers) are flawlessly executed and Pippin’s patricidal ditty “Morning Glow” sounds Join us…leave your cheese to sour show-stopper. brings fierce charisma to this demanding role. endlessly diverting. The strolling players of the less Godspell and more textured thanks to (“Magic to Do”) One bit of trivia: Before she became Granny Hochman’s new treatment. For “Magic to Do,”

10 | New Music Connoisseur Fall/WinterFall/Winter 2012 2012 | | 11 book

Both literarily and musically, Burgess was one of the 20th century’s most extraordinary autodidacts. He was an intellectual outsider, from working class Manchester, not London, not the product of Eton or Harrow or Oxbridge. His parents were part-time musicians and he grew up lower middle class, attended Catholic A Clockwork schools in Anglican Britain, got a B.A. from the university in his hometown while playing cocktail piano, arranged music for an army dance band while serving in the war. He never Counterpoint: studied composition with a great teacher, and The Music and Literature of Anthony later applied to the Royal College of Music but failed the entrance exam when Herbert Howells Burgess by Paul Phillips. “faulted him for not recognizing a Neapolitan sixth chord.” Nevertheless, merely from self- studying scores and textbooks on harmony, Manchester University Press 2010. Distributed in the US by Palgrave Mcmillan. and could have afforded to stop writing to counterpoint, and orchestration, he acquired

reviews the skills to compose some 250 opuses in all By Mark N. Grant support his family and concentrate full-time on composing, especially now that most of musical genres (an output far larger than that of the organizations who requested (or, more most full-time composers) and a fluent, masterly rarely, commissioned) his late pieces covered feel for the orchestra – a gigantic reproof to the the copying and musician hire costs. But no, silly notion that legitimate composers can only “The obscurity created by the wrong kind for Orchestra. Then, book by book, slowly in the last two decades of his life Burgess be midwifed and wet-nursed by Ph.D.- granting of fame”– a wonderful phrase coined in but steadily, you become a well-known writer. published another 30 books while composing university music departments. 1955 by conductor Richard Franko Goldman At 54 you abruptly become a celebrity when another 80 major musical works. It’s as if he to describe a pitfall suffered by some very one of your least favorite of your own novels were two Georges Simenons, one a writer But the obscurity Burgess fell into is a successful artists. For example, Samuel is made into an extremely notorious motion and one a composer. In fact, his astonishing cautionary tale about the necessity for F. B. Morse wanted to be memorialized picture. As a by-product of this sudden musical fecundity alone from the age of 60 networks – academic, professional, collegial as the accomplished painter he was, but fame, the world (sort of) discovers you are to 76 may be unique, comparable at least in – for a composer to hit the radar. Even Ives history remembers him as the inventor of also a composer, and in your remaining 22 quantity to Leos Janacek’s similar age period. (who unlike Burgess paid big bucks out of the telegraph. Arthur Sullivan thought he years, you (now remarried to a music-loving pocket for musicians to rehearse his pieces) would be remembered for his serious concert wife) for the first time enjoy professional According to this fascinating book by had a devoted network of promotional works, but posterity knows him only as W. performances, some very modest income as conductor/composer/musicologist Paul epigones in Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison, and S. Gilbert’s collaborator. Even Shakespeare, a composer, and a long-delayed fulfillment. Phillips, Burgess composed everything others. Burgess’s only network proved to some have argued, thought he would be Yet even after your death people still don’t in ink in final draft, in the neat hand of be his late fame as a writer, by which time remembered more for his sonnets and lyric seem to remember or care that you were a an autographer, rarely revising except to people took Burgess the composer as a gifted poetry than his plays. composer. A good one. re-orchestrate to someone’s order, and musical hobbyist. Even his friend Yehudi never used the piano while composing. Menuhin, who introduced Burgess to Princess This “obscurity created by the wrong kind of Unlike Paul Bowles, Anthony Burgess did “Professional composers compose in pencil, Grace and praised the violin concerto Burgess fame” was a cross borne by a person who not split time periods of his life between the erasing as much as they write. I am foolhardy wrote for him, reneged on the promised was one of the most famous writers and two muses. When I meekly asked him during enough to set everything down in ink, Monaco performance. one of the most obscure composers of the Q&A at his 92nd Street Y lecture appearance evading errors as though I were performing last 50 years: John Wilson, better known to in New York on May 10, 1988 how could he a surgical operation,” Burgess remarked. I have listened to 10 CDs (mostly private the world as Anthony Burgess (1917-1993). possibly do both at the same time, Burgess He wrote his books similarly, “producing a recordings) of Burgess’s mature music (most Suppose from the age of 12 your life’s looked perplexed by the very question (why quota of finished pages each day and always of the early manuscripts are lost). How does it ambition was to be a well-known composer, would it be any problem, his face seemed to proceeding without amending what had sound? Well, as the aforementioned Richard but life had other plans. After sedulously hint) and then replied that he simply wrote come before,” says Phillips. Burgess claimed Franko Goldman once said in praise of the creating scores for the drawer for years while during the day and composed at night. After to consistently write 1,000 words a day of typical Robert Russell Bennett arrangement, married to an unmusical wife and working a percentage of profits from his biggest hit, prose seven days a week. He composed a “One never has to worry as to whether or as a schoolteacher, at age 39 you suddenly the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film adaptation of set of 24 preludes and fugues for piano, a not [Russell’s chart] will work. It just always are a first-time published novelist three years A Clockwork Orange (about which he had cycle lasting 90 minutes, in a matter of a few does.” Or as Deems Taylor put it, “Does the after the BBC turned down your Passacaglia mixed feelings), Burgess became wealthy weeks in 1985. Yet he never learned to drive. music seem to run under its own power?”

Fall/Winter 2012 | 13 book reviews

While receptive to modernism and innovation, Burgess always A Clockwork maintained a strong reverence Counterpoint for the grand tradition. Remarkably for a composer who had scarcely earlier draft. Whereas the logodaedalic symphony to the music department. The head Mr. Phillips’s book also conveniently reference. You have to go David Drew’s of Cyrano de Bergerac was the first money ever heard his orchestration played until the Burgess, in his book Re Joyce, “improved” of the composition section was a Bronx man cross-indexes just about everything you’d handbook on Kurt Weill to find something Burgess ever earned for composing music, age of 58, Burgess’s music always sounds a passage from “Anna Livia Plurabelle,” [Morton Feldman] who spoke of dis and dat want to have at your fingertips: there is comparable about a composer. In A and not much more followed. But by the well. While not every piece is on an equal cheekily introducing even more complicated and de woiks of Beethoven (the mention of a general index, an alphabetical index to Clockwork Counterpoint, Burgess has finally end of his life he was a multimillionaire from level of inspiration (whose oeuvre is?), if wordplay than Joyce himself had settled on the name provoked a delicate sneer among Burgess’s literary works, an alphabetical met his reverse Charon in biographer Paul the proceeds of his writing, owning “three you’ve ever read disparaging comments about in the final draft. Yet Blooms of Dublin is the students…” Burgess not only viewed rock index to Burgess’s musical works, a complete Phillips, someone to ferry his composer’s condominiums in Monte Carlo plus homes in what a duffer Anthony Burgess was as a straightforward entertainment, with plenty music as trash, but, even more, the respectful annotated chronological list of the music soul from oblivion back to life. Now all we Switzerland, France, and England.” Less than composer, trust me: you can discount them as of good tunes: part Victor Herbert operetta, scholarly treatment of rock and roll music (eighteen pages!), a Burgess bibliography, need are more performances and commercial three weeks before his death of throat cancer either malicious or ignorant. He occasionally part jazzy Broadway, part English music irked him. a discography, a filmography. The chapter recordings of the music! in 1993, Burgess replied to a newspaper borrowed from himself and recycled themes hall. The rumba melody of its Act Two song endnotes are a pleasure to read. This interviewer’s question: “Has music brought you from previous or unfinished works, but so “Gibraltar” sounds almost like a quotation of It would be hard to imagine a more magisterial book is obviously the fruit of A $500 fee in 1971 (when he was 54) from more satisfaction and benefits than literature?” have many other composers. Particularly “Speak Low” from Kurt Weill’s 1943 musical sympathetic, knowledgeable, yet objective many years of labor and research and has the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis to impressive are his 35- minute Third Symphony One Touch of Venus; Burgess had earlier tried advocate for Anthony Burgess’s music than been wisely designed as a permanent ready compose incidental music for their production “Generally, yes.” II and the 11-minute A Manchester Overture, to adapt into an opera the story upon which Paul Phillips, who conducts the Brown both of which give Bax, Walton, and even One Touch of Venus is based. University Orchestra, the fine Pioneer Valley Britten a run for their money; also the Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts, 26-minute Mr. Burgess’s Almanack for “The writing of a three-hundred page and guest conducts elsewhere. Most of chamber symphony, the 25-minute cantata musical work is more laborious than the Burgess’s music was never performed during Song for Saint Cecilia’s Day for SATB chorus, merely literary person is able to appreciate,” his lifetime, and still hasn’t been, but Paul orchestra and organ, the Second Guitar Burgess wrote. “A desire to avoid the labour Phillips has conducted and studied more of Quartet, the Piano Concerto, etc. Usually to an end unrealisable in performance it than any other musician in the world. His Burgess’s music is tonal, frequently with led me eventually to prose composition, book neatly condenses a panorama of tasks mild dissonance, but occasionally he goes which I have always seen as an analogue to into one succinct, lucidly written volume. It outrightly atonal. symphonic writing…In a symphony many gives a thumbnail biography of Burgess, so strands conjoined, in the same instant, to one can sidestep the too verbose, maliciously As a former pub pianist, Burgess was make a statement; in a novel all you had was distorted Roger Lewis biography or the more also proficient in jazz and commercial a single line of monody. The ease with which responsible but music-deficient Andrew styles. Having started but not completed dialogue could be written seemed grossly Biswell biography. It provides a complete a couple of operas, he wrote a couple of unfair. This was not art as I had known it. It overview of the music, with excellent musicals: Trotsky’s in New York! (late 1970s, seemed cheating not to be able to give the structural analyses, textual program notes, unperformed) and Blooms of Dublin, his reader chords and counterpoint. It was like and graphic musical examples of most of own adaptation of Ulysses broadcast on pretending that there could be such a thing Burgess’s major scores. It, too, offers useful BBC radio in Ireland on the Joyce centenary as a concerto for unaccompanied flute…I still plot summaries and interpretations of in 1982. (Burgess not only wrote the book, think that the novelist has much to learn from Burgess’s major literary works. And lastly, music, and lyrics himself, but wrote the musical form: novels in sonata-form, rondo- it brilliantly elucidates the purely musical orchestrations for the 31-piece band the form, fugue-form are perfectly feasible.” organization of many of Burgess’s literary BBC allowed him.) Burgess was one of works, while also shedding light on the the few writers who ever tried to emulate While receptive to modernism and innovation, literary construction of some of his musical Finnegan's Wake in prose, notably with the Burgess always maintained a strong reverence works (several are based on alphabetic multi-lingual pidgin-Russian argot “Nadsat” for the grand tradition. “During a six-week motifs). No other scholar has been such a the characters speak in Clockwork Orange. residency at SUNY-Buffalo in the spring of diligent exegete of Burgess’s unique efforts to Edmund Wilson, reviewing Finnegan's Wake 1976,” according to Phillips, Burgess was interrelate the two processes of composition, in 1941, compared an early draft of a passage “disheartened by students in the English literary and musical, which were poorly from Finnegan Wake’s ”Anna Livia Plurabelle” department who regarded most great understood by literary scholars during his chapter with Joyce’s final draft of the same literature of the past as irrelevant.” Wrote lifetime, as Phillips points out. passage and criticized Joyce for not staying Burgess, “I was made to feel even more old with the less portmanteau language of the fashioned when I took a tape of my Iowa

14 | New Music Connoisseur Fall/Winter 2012 | 15 book reviews

Bernstein, with whom he had a supportive and chronological, and Pollack introduces Blitzstein’s Shows on 1950s television, made her debut in competitive relationship – and collaborations, work as part of the historical narrative. This Blitzstein’s Triple‐Sec in1930; but it’s only being both failed (as with Jerome Robbins) and succeeds particularly well in the chapter academically rigorous to recite the entire first cast, successful (as with Orson Welles). Blitzstein devoted to Blitzstein’s critical writings in the few (if any) of whom would be recognized by the arc knew a lot of fascinating people, and with him 1930s, illustrated with a judicious selection of normal reader. It’s a pity the physical book medium as a vector Pollack reveals much about them. Blitzstein’s reviews. Talking about Blitzstein’s doesn’t allow for hypertext, so the reader could M music presents a greater challenge, one that control seeing these details; failing that, however, Blitzstein’s world was just as fascinating, especially Pollack meets with thoroughness and insight. the best place for this kind of information litzstein: since so much of it was tied up with his work. His For each piece, Pollack reports the genesis would be an appendix. However, the book has B studies brought him to the Europe of Boulanger and evolution, outlines a synopsis (for the no appendix, though a catalog of work and a His Life, and Schoenberg in the 1920s. Back in the U.S. in dramatic works), provides an analysis of the discography (especially in view of how sparse it the 1930s, he became involved in the communist score, excerpts critical reaction, and details the would be) would have been helpful. The reader His Work, movement and wrote music for political events. performance history, listing the complete cast could use as a companion Leonard Lehrman’s He was stationed in London during World War II, from performances involving Blitzstein and Marc Blitzstein: a Bio‐Bibliography (Praeger, 2005), His World where he composed his Airborne Symphony and occasionally some that didn’t. This works best if they can find it (or afford it – it’s $125). worked with a chorus of Negro soldiers. In the for the more celebrated pieces, like The Cradle late 1940s and 1950s he was in New York City, Will Rock and Regina, whose genesis stories Despite these occasional bumps in the road, Howard Pollack [Oxford University Press] creating his most mature work (like Regina and are most interesting and the cast more familiar. Pollack treats us to an eventful and rewarding Threepenny Opera) and active in the anti‐House It works particularly well for Cradle, where the voyage of immersion into the life and work By Mark Zuckerman Un‐American Activities Committee movement (he suspenseful story of its premiere – thwarting the of an important American composer. To say eventually testified in front of HUAC, admitting his attempt to suppress it by the Federal Theater that Marc Blitzstein is undeservedly neglected lapsed Communist Party membership but refusing Project, which had, ironically, commissioned it – unfortunately does not distinguish him from to name names of anyone else, unlike Jerome was the subject of a 1999 Tim Robbins film. very many other fine American composers, Robbins, among others). Pollack offers evocative especially those of his generation. Happily, erhaps the greatest irony for American Although he was well‐versed in the music penetrating music criticism and also scores for descriptions of the artistic cauldron that simmered But sometimes this thoroughness impedes the it appears Howard Pollack is on a mission P of his time and wrote and lectured about it documentary films. Like Copland, Blitzstein composer Marc Blitzstein (1905‐1964) – in a around Blitzstein wherever he was at the time. narrative, as with the discussion of Blitzstein’s to correct this situation with an extensive life and career laden with ironies – is that his extensively, he decried the modernist “art for was active in social causes and in organizing earlier pieces. For example, it may be historically biographical series on American composers, biggest critical and monetary success came art’s sake” movement and felt his music should composers – both were charter members of But Pollack’s main focus – as it should be – is interesting to learn that Imogene Coca, who of which Marc Blitzstein: His Life, His Work, not from any of his many substantial original communicate issues of social importance. He American Composers Alliance, though, as on Blitzstein’s work. The book’s structure is later co‐starred with Sid Caesar on Your Show of His World is a superb example. II works, but from his Off‐Broadway adaptation was involved for a time with communism and ASCAP affiliates, both had to leave when ACA of the 1929 Die Dreigroschenoper by German worked all his life for leftist causes, both with associated with BMI. Like Bernard Hermann, dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt and outside his music. He had a penchant for Blitzstein wrote incidental music for Orson Welles’ Weill. Indeed, The Threepenny Opera, which satire and wit, aimed frequently at what he theatrical productions. Both Blitzstein and Leonard premiered in 1954, had many times more saw as social evils, particularly capitalism and Bernstein, a Blitzstein acolyte, came to popular performances and generated many times more racism. He wrote equally well for inexperienced musical theater from a classical background. And royalties for Blitzstein than all of his other singers – like actors, in the case of The Cradle like other theatrical craftsmen of Jewish heritage, works combined. Even though the underlying Will Rock, or amateur chorus, as in Symphony: like Frank Loesser, Richard Rodgers, and Oscar work is not his own, Blitzstein’s contribution to The Airborne – and seasoned professionals, as Hammerstein II – all of whom credited Blitzstein as The Threepenny Opera exhibits qualities that in his most‐performed opera, Regina, based on an influence – Blitzstein wrote for Broadway. distinguish his catalog of original work for the Lillian Hellman’s play The Little Foxes. His work stage, comprising most of his surviving output: was innovative, blending speech with song with Yet among this company, Blitzstein remains facility with language, fluency in a multitude of shades in between and using popular idioms virtually unknown by comparison, a situation musical idioms, mastery of dramatic structure, for dramatic effect: revealing character and biographer Howard Pollack attempts to rectify in and proclivity for social commentary. evocative of time and place. His musical theater his thoroughly‐researched, comprehensive (and pieces frequently defied genre, as evidenced by 500+ page) Marc Blitzstein: His Life, His Work, His Blitzstein was a piano prodigy in a Jewish reviews from both drama and music critics. World (Oxford University Press). Philadelphia family with a father devoted to left‐wing causes and a mother with family ties In short, Marc Blitzstein appears to be the Pollack uses the fruits of his research to illuminate to the Yiddish theater, heritages that informed ideal composer for the many music lovers who the highways and byways – both personal and his composition. In his home town, he attended decry the state of modern American music as musical – of Blitzstein’s colorful and eventful the University of Pennsylvania and the Curtis narcissistic and academic and seek genuine journey. He details Blitzstein’s early life and his Institute of Music and went abroad to study spirits who try to connect with audiences – yet special relationship with his sister, Jo. He speaks (albeit briefly) with both Nadia Boulanger and he doesn’t seem to be. frankly about Blitzstein’s homosexual liaisons – Arnold Schoenberg. He proved gifted and some long‐ term and some casual, like the one creative at languages, especially his own; in It wasn’t as if Blitzstein’s career didn’t parallel resulting in Blitzstein’s murder in Martinique addition to his singable American translations of others’ of his generation. Like his fellow Curtis – and his marriage – a love match even though foreign language songs, he wrote most of the alumnus Samuel Barber, Blitzstein joined the Army he was gay – to Eva Goldbeck, who died of words he set to music. His music demonstrates Air Corps in World War II – though of the music anorexia in 1936. He reveals the complexities of considerable versatility, equally adept and each wrote for the service, Barber’s Commando Blitzstein’s friendships – in particular with Kurt effective in both cabaret and art song and in March is still performed while Blitzstein’s Airborne Weill, who regarded Blitzstein as a mediocre both popular musical theater and grand opera. Symphony far less so. Like Virgil Thomson copycat up until the time Weill agreed to the and Aaron Copland, Blitzstein wrote literate, Threepenny Opera project, and with Leonard

16 | New Music Connoisseur Fall/Winter 2012 | 17 Second, there is With the Grain (2009), its consequences on the individual. In fact, Evaporated Pleasure (2001) for piano four- Paul Lansky- commissioned by the Fromm Foundation, Civilization and Civilization and its Discontents is like Rent hands is "composed from an equal-tempered Imaginary a concerto in four movements for classical its Discontents before Rent was Rent and out Boheme’s La and sub-harmonic series and multiple Islands guitar and orchestra. The excellent soloist is By Michael Sahl and Boheme in the same way; by comtemporizing corrupted stochastic processes". What does David Starobin, who also produced the CD. Eric Salzman - Labor Records the human struggle for freedom. The title, this mean? Does it mean that Byron takes The Alabama Symphony Orchestra Each movement is named for a particular Civilization and its Discontents, may have been elements from an equal tempered scale and Justin Brown, conductor wood and grain: “Redwood Burl”, “Karelian [LAB 7089] plagiarized, but the content came from the elements from a sub harmonic series and Bridge Records #9366 Birch”, “Quilted Beech”, and “Walnut Burl”. astute powers of observation and creation of processes them all stochastically? Fine, but Whatever its inspiration, this is attractive, By Nancy Manocherian the two brilliant, zany guys who conjured it. in what way? Is it by way of the statistical by Benjamin Yarmolinsky skillfully wrought music. The age-old problem mechanics of gases, Markov chains, Brownian It's years now I've had a Listening to it on a CD gives it new life as of how to balance the intimate sound of the motion, statistical distribution of points or vinyl copy of Civilization fresh and timeless as any modern classic. guitar with the public sound of the orchestra something unspecified and different? (These, and its Discontents (not is handled masterfully here (albeit with a by the way, were all done by Xenakis decades Freud’s version), but sadly touch of amplification). Again, Lansky draws ago.) Perhaps Byron is too laid-back to tell. no turntable or incentive on a quiver full of styles, all filtered through a to pursue a path to such Michael Byron- Awakening at the inn of the birds (2001), sophisticated and individual sensibility. an antique on which awakening played by and written for the FLUX Quartet, Finally, there is Imaginary Islands, a three- to play the LP. So when I was asked to write is a color-field of rhythmic and melodic cells movement work with evocative impressionistic about the newly minted (re-released) CD, I at the inn of developed by means of permutation. Charles titles: 1) Rolling Hills, Calm Beaches, was eager to listen to the celebrated recording the birds Ward compares the work to Scelsi but that Something Brewing 2) Cloud- shrouded, written and composed by my colleague and Sarah Cahill, Joseph Kubera, composer's music is much more extreme in Mysterious, Nascent 3) Busy, Bustling, With collaborator, Michael Sahl, and my friend, Eric pitch limitation, with many more microtonal and piano; Kathleen Supove, a Heartbeat. In these movements one hears Salzman. Given the full disclosure contained timbal oscillations. What I'm hearing is an echo occasional shades of Mahler, Copland, and in that last sentence, I won’t pretend I can be synthesizer; FLUX Quartet; of the severe early minimalism of Steve Reich. some of the better Hollywood composers, Gregg August, contrabass – entirely objective about this work; I am, I think, The music is warm with an arrestingly beautiful among others. I hear a touch of Eastern spiritually tied to their politics and humor, Paul Lansky is best known to the new music cold blue CB0012 surface – though not quite as complex as the Europe in the first movement, plenty of something so deeply ingrained I feel it must world as a pioneer of computer-generated program notes would suggest. Mr. Byron has film-noiresque mystery in the slow second stem from our common Eastern European music. Thus it comes as something of a edited the Journal of Experimental Aesthetics movement and a cleverly syncopated dance- roots. Jewish humor is a fact, but I also believe By Andrew Violette surprise to hear a CD of his recent music and the book series Pieces. He's also played like theme running through the finale. These there is universal truth in all things tribal, no written for conventional acoustic instruments with the Gamelon ensemble Son of Lion. pieces call for and receive expressive and less from these two composers with a gift for played by human beings. Imaginary Islands nuanced playing from the members of the commentary; political and otherwise. contains three substantial compositions, Alabama Symphony Orchestra. all written for and played by the Alabama After reading the CD jacket and all the Symphony Orchestra, and conducted by The harmony of these pieces is sophisticated accolades, I wondered, how could I possibly From Afar Justin Brown. and varied, and always sounds as if it is add something that hasn't already been said? Nicholus Goluses, guitar. serving a purpose. In other words, it is I then listened. From the opening line – “Boys The notes to the CD include this quote from Albany.[Troy 1379] functional harmony. This is a rare thing and girls come out to play, the moon shines Lansky: “I never expected to write orchestral these days and gratifying to hear. The as bright as day–" I thought (despite knowing music. On the other hand I never planned to Goluses plays Manuel De Falla's Homenaje rhythm of Mr. Lansky’s music is often jazzy better), I was in for some kind of torturous spend more than thirty years doing little but pour le tombeau de Claude Debussy, a gem of or derived from popular or “world” music. version of Freud’s famous book. Suddenly - trying to get dumb computers to sing.” a piece. It's De Falla's only guitar piece, which It sounds spontaneous, natural and lively maybe 40 seconds in - the music took a turn he wrote for the 1918 Debussy tribute edition Better late than never, Lansky has produced – also rare things in much contemporary for the better. I’d been had… I found myself Contiments of City and Love (2001) of the Paris based Revue Musicale. three orchestral pieces in a wide range of composed music. Despite his having been a curiously transported. Of course, I reminded (for synth, string quartet, double bass and two Benjamin Britten wrote Nocturnal after styles and for interesting combinations of distinguished professor at Princeton for many myself, this is Michael and Eric. pianos) is mostly treble piano lines over a series forces. First, there is Shapeshifters (2007-08), years, there is nothing academic-sounding John Dowland, op. 70 when Julian Bream From the rhyming lyrics - hilarious and of sustained chords. The program notes say a sort of concerto in four movements for about Lansky’s music. was giving recitals with tenor Peter Pears. unexpected, to the voices - operatic without that the piano phrases grow "longer and more two pianos and orchestra. This is a winning It is probably the most famous and beloved It is encouraging to hear such grateful and cloying drama, to the music - melodic yet edgy complex over time" but neither their growing combination. It recalls works for two pianos contemporary guitar piece, with 7 variations beautiful compositions solicited and beautifully and modern, I was drawn into the spell of length nor their complexity are striking. of the thirties and forties written by Poulenc and a Passacaglia, ending with Dowland's played by a relatively unknown provincial cliché turned on its head, bopping along to the Richard Robert compares the piece to Gavin and Stravinsky. It is also reminiscent of music lute song Come Heavy Sleep (1597). There orchestra. If the Alabama Symphony Orchestra various twists and turns of rhythm and sound. Bryars but that's a stretch. There are no loops by the expatriate American composers Paul are several version out on youtube, each with can produce such lovely contemporary music, The character of the music is as unique as its or hymns or fade-outs – and Michael Byron's Bowles and Colin McPhee, whose Concerto a particular emphasis. Here, Goluses plays why can’t the New York Philharmonic? creators. I am sure this was a radical piece at harmonies (reminiscent of John Luther Adams) for Two Pianos and Winds and Tabuh-Tabahan down the drama and carefully enunciates each the time of its first release, but it still holds up are foreign to the Bryars pallete. both use the combination of two pianos and The CD is very well recorded. Bridge Records gesture – an approach more improvisatory as a post- Rent musical dramatization of the orchestral instruments to create rich and exotic deserves credit, as do engineer Jess Lewis, Tidal (1981), for pianos and strings, which than structural. time in which it was conceived. "combines strictly notated music with tapestries of sound based on music they heard and mixmaster Adam Abeshouse. Ponce's Variations and Fugue on La Folia measured improvisation" in what seems to in their travels. The pianists on the recording “If it feels good, do it,” was the anthem of d'Espana, Joseph Scwantner's From Afar… be an expanded chorale, seems to hearken are Alice Rybak and Susan Grace who my generation. This glorious refrain speaks and Mikis Theodorakis's Three Epitafios round back to the early 60s work of Earl Brown and constitute the duo “Quattro Mani.” volumes about the 70’s as well as sums up out the CD. Freud’s ideas about repression of instinct and Morton Feldman.

18 | New | New Music Music Connoisseur Connoisseur Fall/Winter 2012 | 19 The interesting and lovely Brown Velvet (2009- tempi. This mirrors what he was doing in With the banda's clever takes on the traditional Harmonically it's squarely in the Barber/Menotti 10) features a laptop-generated electronic the V-X Piano Pieces; ditto in Mr. Boulez's Cruzar La Cara ranchera and corrido, am I really hearing tradition, though with a sprinkling of quarter Little Heaven drone in a "continuous descent" from "a low contemporaneous Structures 1b and Le de la Luna/To references to the Vargas soundtracks of the tones and a dab of mildly oriental quotes. With Songs of Lowell Liebermann. register…toward subauditory tones." The Marteau sans maitre. Cross the Face 50s? Am I really hearing an impossible mix of phrases lacking memorable climactic points, the Brenda Roe, soprano; William bassoon's "organic phrasing, occasional pitch Jalisco and Puerto Rican Tino Puente/Celia Cruz, opera seems a drama-less, through-composed bends, and jarring multiphonics" compliment Also on the CD is Schoenberg's Wind Quintet of the Moon seemingly arrebatado on too much smoke? recitative. The vocal writing, accompanied by Hobbs and John Musto, piano; Op. 26. the laptop. Jose "Pepe" Martinez, music/ stolid orchestration, is conventional. Edward Klorman, viola, John The Bene More-inspired duet Los Ojos de tu The engineering of the Stockhausen is lyrics; Leonard Foglia, book/ Hancock, baritone. The musique concrète Collapsible Mandela Madre, sung by Octavio Moreno and David exceptional – preferable to the original 1958 lyrics; David Hanlon, music Guzman, is outstanding. Albany [Troy 1359] (2008-2009) is an installation "comprised David Maslanka of material spontaneously recorded by the Craft recording. In the Schoenberg every note director – Octavio Moreno, of every phrase is justly placed with an even, – Symphony No. 9 composer over the course of three months Cecilia Duarte, Brittany In Six Songs on Poems of Nelly Sachs Mr. controlled, warm wind sound throughout. Sumeida's Song John Koch, reader; Illinois State Liebermann resurrects his inner early Alban of travel throughout Japan." It features an Wheeler, Brian Shircliffe, David absorbing use of of extended "silence between Mohammed Fairouz – Jo Ellen University Wind Symphony, Berg and late Strauss with a spare piano Phoenix plays like they were born for this music. Guzman, Vanessa Cerda-Alonzo, articulations, which provide ample space for the Miller, Rachel Calloway, Robert Stephen K. Steele, conductor – accompaniment reminiscent of a softer version Juan Mejia – Albany [Troy 1299] of Shostokovich's Michelangelo Songs. This images to impress themselves palpably into one's Mack, Mischa Bouvier--The Troy 1360 carefully crafted work nicely fits Ms. Roe's consciousness." Carl uses silence in the mystic Evan Mack – Houston Grand Opera's 41st world premiere Mimesis Ensemble, Scott Dunn, An old sage once said that there was still a lot golden mid-range. way I haven't heard since late Morton Feldman. and supposedly the world's first mariachi Angel of the conductor – Katie Reimer of good music to be written in C major. David opera (written for the anniversary of Mexican Clearly influenced by the post-Takemitsu artistic director – Bridge 9385 Maslanka teeters on the edge-but-not-quite Struwwelpeterlieder (soprano, viola, piano; text Amazon independence) may not have the same gut generation of Japanese composers, Carl of functional harmony hokeyness. That he by Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann) is a wry Wagnerian Ionisation New Music Ensemble; appeal as Ruben Blade's legendary mini- Sumeida's Song is an opera in 3 scenes, based "credits Charles Ives as his strongest manages this rather jolly balancing act is a romp. The initial microphone placement was Caitlin Mathes, Jose Rubio, Luiz; opera Pedro Navaja, but it's filled with catchy on Tawfiq al-Hakim's "Song of Death." The influence." In an e-interview with Eric Smigel tribute to his deft orchestration and knowing wrong. The viola and piano focus in and out tunes sung with sometimes deliciously funny composer, Mohammed Fairouz, also wrote (who wrote the extensive program notes) Carl Michael Armstrong Barr, Jose when too much is just enough. and, at times, the vocal overloads, which American-accented Spanish. the libretto. cannot be right. writes, "That [Ivesian] type of individualistic, Candelaria, Jennifer Caruana, undogmatic sense of spiritual reality, which Armanda-Camille Isaac, Douglas Appalachian Liebeslieder (soprano, baritone, is a kind of pragmatic spirituality, and is very Jabara, Amanda Lee, Barrett D. piano duet; text by Laren Stover). Liebermann American, I find appealing." Mack,Brittany Palmer, Adam doesn't overplay this medley for Eurotrash soprano and redneck baritone, which makes it Carl reviews new music for Fanfare and wrote Russel, Justin Ryan, Elex Lee all the funnier. How nice to hear a piece of wit a book on Terry Riley's In C (Oxford University Vann, Lara Stevens – Mara written for the New York Festival of Song which Press, 2009). Waldman, conductor isn't in the standard Menotti/Barber stamp. Albany [Troy 1323/24] Phoenix According to the program notes "in 2005 Evan Robert Carl Ensemble Mack attended a lecture…where he heard the From Japan – Elizabeth Brown Stockhausen Schoenberg story of the murdered nun, Dorothy Stang. & Robert Carl, shakuhachi; – Mark Lieb, clarinet; Kelli Facing gunpoint and recognizing the hired gunmen, Dorothy pulled out her bible and Katie Kennedy, cello; Bill Kathman & Erin Lesser, flutes; said, "This is my only weapon," and read the Solomon, vibraphone; Sayun Carl Oswald & Erin Gustafson, Beatitudes. Upon hearing this story, Evan Mack Chang, percussion; Ryan Hare, oboes; Keve Wilson, english thought, "This is an opera." bassoon; Aleksander Sternfeld- horn; Alana Vegler, horn; Gina His research led him to the…”Sisters of Notre Dunn, laptop. New World Cuffari, bassoon. Engineer and Dame where he was given access to Dorothy Records 80732-2 Mastering, Jeremy Tressler. Stang's letters from 1969 until the week "In A Clean Sweep (2005) Carl sets the gentle Albany [Troy 1371] before her murder. And in only five years time, the opera went from page to stage, with and unhurried phrasing of the shakuhachi in Karlheinz Stockhausen's Zeitmasze (1957) for workshops at San Francisco, Cincinnati, and sharp contrast with the unrelenting severity five woodwinds was written during the fruitful Dayton, and the world premiere by Encompass of an electronic drone." (All quotes from CD Gruppen/Klavierstucke/Gesang der Junglinge New Opera Theatre …in NYC in May 2011." program notes) And though "the drone is period of his life, shortly after his essay …how comprised of gradually ascending glissandi that time passes…. A great story! but the libretto (written emphasize different overtones of the flute," by the composer) spells everything out in the drone still lacks richness. "Music consists of order-relationships in excruciatingly numbing detail. Mack sets this time," writes the young Messiaen student. An in an early opera recitative. Though there are "Bullet Cycle features recorded sounds of the early example of mobile form, in Zeitmasze occasional arias and ensemble pieces they're Japanese "bullet train"…Max/MSP filters the Stockhausen directs the performers to play so uninflected they seem burnished with the train's sound into a series of chords" which are as fast (or as slow) as possible within a single same sameness. mesmerizing. Here the weakest link is the live breath – all within a counterpoint of five performers. Their improvisation cloys. The singers try but don't get much of a chance to soar.

20 | New Music Connoisseur Fall/Winter 2012 | 21 Cornell Simpson A Francesa Animal Songs Revolutionary Fred Ho and University Crown of Stars Anderegg, Stephen Swanson, baritone; Earthworks the Afro Asian David Gompper, piano Wind Ensemble, Schnittke Requiem – Cantate violin; Brent Music for Mechanical Music Ensemble Albany [Troy 1365] Cynthia Johnston Turner, Chamber Singers: Lisa Edwards Funderburk, Piano by Carson Cooman Fred Ho, baritone sax; Masaru conductor – Augenblick – Troy 1344 Burrs, soprano; Joseph Dietrich, According to the CD notes, "In 1895, French Zimbel records #ZR120 Koga, alto sax; David Bindman, piano author Jules Renard published the first 45 of tenor; Gisele Becker, conductor; According to the CD notes, "the "doyens" tenor sax; Art Hirahara, piano/ Christopher Stark's Augenblick (2008), for Albany [Troy 1261] his prose poems Histoires naturelles (Nature The Maryland State Boychoir, of this medium are Henri Cowell (who first wind ensemble and electronics, "is a study on Songs). The 1899 deluxe edition, illustrated keyboards; Wesley Brown, bass, Stephen Holmes, music director Late in life Schoenberg returned to an earlier proposed the idea of using a player piano to the idea of instant" (Augenblick is German by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, was dedicated Royal Hartigan, drums and freer style of writing. His Phantasy Op. 47 realize rhythms too complicated for accurate for "the glimpse of an eye"). The piece opens – Albany [Troy 1358] to the great French actor Lucien Guitry, who Chinese, Korean, and African for Violin with Piano Accompaniment is an human reproduction), Conlon Nancarrow, with the audience clapping (I thought it was had recited the vignettes about animals at one Andrew Earle Simpson's A Crown of Stars: example of this. It's said that he composed the James Tenney and Kyle Gann. Nancarrow percussion; Rami Seo, Korean a live performance at first) which morphs into of Sarah Bernhardt's Saturday poetry reading Wedding Oratorio in Three Parts (2006/2010) violin part first and the piano accompaniment wrote his music for player piano with rolls, but vocals and kayagum – Big Red! something highly processed – like a flock of in Paris….In setting five of Renard's poems is scored for soprano and tenor soloists, SATB later. Here is Schoenberg's last lyrical take modern technology has made it possible for the – [innova]794 birds caught in a telephone booth. Cut to a to music, composer Maurrice Ravel departed chorus, treble chorus SSA, and large chamber on Brahms's phrasing. Anderegg plays the music to be realized on computer-controlled slowly evolving drone and a Louis Andriessen- from traditional French art song style by Fred Ho died in 2006 but he left this remarkable ensemble. It's a wedding oratorio. According Schoenberg almost like a composer. You can pianos, such as the Yamaha Disklavier." style development. It's a remarkable 14 minutes. experimenting with new methods of setting CD. Big Red was Malcolm X's nickname. to the CD notes it celebrates "the universality hear the form. text. Ravel told Renard that he wanted to Cooman's (b. 1982) got a huge catalogue, Composer Ryan Gallagher features Derek of human love. The title refers to the crown of Park Bum-hoon's Kayasong (arranged by Fred (For more info, David Lewin has an interesting literally interpret the words through the music. with at least 25 recordings on all the labels. His Roddy, drumset, in Exorcism (2008). It's as Ariadne, who in Greek mythology was married Ho) is sensitively sung by kayagum performer article in Perspectives of New Music, Fall- Ravel and soprano Jane Bathori premiered teachers were Bernard Rands, Judith Weir, Alan short and action packed as Beethoven's Rage to Dionysus. After her death, the god placed a Rami Seo. There's a modified drumset with Winter 1967, A Study of Hexchord Levels in the song cycle at the Societe Nationale de Fletcher and James Willey. He encompasses Over the Lost Penny, which it quotes. starry crown in the sky to honor her memory." chango Korean hour drum and Ho on baritone Schoenberg's Violin Fantasy. And, of course, Musicque in Paris on January 12, 1907." every style. sax. Ho was immersed in Korean folk opera, Zachary Wadsworth's A Symphony of Glances Simpson's work has an appealing Copland there's the Larry Polansky article, Form and Every student of L'enfant et les sortileges, On this CD he uses a Yamaha C7 with particularly the pansor'i form. He thought of (2010), Catherine Likhuta's Out Loud (2008), simplicity. The choral sections are probably the Tonality in Schoenberg's Phantasy, on the web.) Takuma Itoh's Daydreams (2010) and Jesse Jones's most successful, the recitatives and arias less so. Ravel's wild, influential and gorgeously Disklavier Pro Mark IV system (with assistance free jazz as almost musically equivalent to this Through the Veil (2011) round out the CD. Sometimes in the recitatives it seems he doesn't Anderegg plays the George Perle (1915-2009) orchestrated opera, should acquainted and advice from Kyle Gann). shamanist Korean music. It's a mesmerizing piece with equal understanding. In his Triptych himself with these songs. The phrases reflect which Ho delineates with fierce sax grunts. quite know how to handle a declamatory vocal Three Canons for Mechanical Piano (2009) is a for Solo Violin and Piano, according to the the spoken text. Janecek and Mussorgsky line but falls off into something resembling short and fast paced homage to Nancarrow. Gadzo is based on a traditional Ewe song (the program notes, Perle "tried to make 12-tone were doing this when they wrote their songs. Cornelius the less than inspired parts of Carmina Burana. Ewe are a people from Ghana). Royal Hartigan music more flexible and accessible. The Swanson sings the Ravel with intelligence and Cooman describes The Better Part of Forever Dufallo The opening tutti, though, At The Carnival, is and Wes Brown perform the traditional Ewe Triptych shows his idiosyncratic style very true impressionist style. (2009) as a "memory piece" with a tapestry a swinging page out of Gershwin's Porgy and drum calls and improvs of great rhythmic – Journaling well. The first movement presents two simple, of "bell-like melodies and harmonies." It's Bess. The text is a skillful juxtaposition of quotes "In 1903 and 1904 German composer Max complexity along with some raspy sax licks [innova] 831 charming ideas, which appear at different pitch inspired by American poet Stanley Kunitz's The by Dante, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Blake, Reger composed two sets of extremely difficult from six-octave Ho. Christina Rosetti and others. Yes, he's in the levels. The rhythmic quality of the movement Long Boat. It's so melodic and austere I don't Joan Jeanrenaud, former cellist of Kronos, songs, after which his publisher asked for usual American choral tradition but the music is light and playful. In the second movement, see why it couldn't be played by a real person. The Un…! And Ir….! Suite is inspired by wrote Empty Infinity, for solo violin and digital some lighter fare for the general public. sounds fresh and it's worth a hearing. each gesture is comically exaggerated. The last Archie Shepp's close harmony and odd-meter loops. It's a sweet page in which string lines Reger began to compose a collection of folksy A Little Dance for Bill (2009) is a "quasi-tango movement is an energetic romp." rhythms. It's got the 5/4 tempo plus Korean overlap in a cloud of complex, consonant songs…His opus 76, Schlichte Weisen (Simple [in which] the two melodic voices engage in Schnittke's Requiem (1975) was originally music and African percussion. This well-rehearsed harmonies. Perle succeeded. That the performance here is Tunes) is comprised of 60 songs in six sets." heterophonic counterpoint over an ostinato in for a Moscow production of Schiller's Don ensemble's got a great sense of timing. They Carlos which he reworked for brass, electric as absorbing and "accessible" as it is, we owe These short, cute songs are sung with intimate the bass." In Vijay Iyer's Playlist One (Resonance) Mr. know just when to lay off extended technique guitars, piano, organ, percussion and choir. in part to the sympathetic performances of expression. The diction is always good. Dufallo navigates a memorable passage Triadic Legends (2009) is a mechanical tour and kick off 40s swing. "Chimes are heard throughout as tolling bells, both Anderegg and Funderburk. consisting of a long melody in harmonics Selections from The Bestiary of Flanders and de force dedicated to Kyle Gann. "Triads are most prominent in the "Requiem Aeternam" Big Red! honors both Malcolm X (It was his accompanied by open string left hand pizzicatti. Elliott Carter's (1908-2012) Four Lauds for Solo Swann take us back to the Victorian English employed for their raw sound, but also their nickname. He was tall with reddish hair) and movement that bookends the work and serves as Violin was written over a span of 17 years. Music Halls. Swanson sings the clever, Donald ability to immediately conjure up "functional" Another study in harmonics and open strings is Mao Zedong (who was certainly a Big Red). both processional and recessional." Each little piece is an homage to a specific Swann's GIlbert and Sullivan-inspired The progressions in the listener's ear. In the first John Luther Adams's Three High Places. Although he identified himself as a "polystylist," colleague, written in their style: 1 Statement Warthog with dry comic wit. Michael Flander's movement, Truest Horse, "a driven 16th note XXX uses text from Ho's opera A Chinaman's Dufallo's got the chops – though toward the meaning he "unabashedly plundered every possible – Remembering Aaron (1999) [an homage to The Wild Boar is a howler ("For Oh! Oh! What pattern runs throughout, punctuated by triadic Chance (1989) Here Ho skillfully fuses end of the CD I thought that if I heard one genre in music – from Jewish cantillation to pop," Aaron Copland] 2 Riconoscenza per Golfredo a Bore he is, what a thundering, thumping arpeggios that assert themselves (without contemporary music and jazz. The more filler-arpeggio I would scream. according to the program notes, Alfred Schnittke's Petrassi (1984) 3 Rhapsodic Musings (2000) Boar."). Swanson's bronze-like baritone and tiring) in the treble register." In the second instrumentals work the spoken text doesn't over-all work is remarkably stylistically unified. [an homage to Robert Mann] 4 Fantasy – Gompper's sensitive piano create something movement, The Strangeness of Kindling, quite fit in. I was wishing he would have scat- Also on the disc are Cornelius Dufallo's Violin Schnittke (1934-1998) called his conglomeration of Remembering Roger (1999) [an homage to intimate and convivial and English. lines unfold in a 13:7:4:3 relationship. In sung the text, or the instrumentalists would Loops I & V, Huang Ruo's Four Fragments, styles "stylistic democratization." In this combining Roger Sessions]. Revolutionary Earthworks, which closes the have buried the singer in a mass of sound but John King's Prima Volta, and Kenji Bunch's David Gompper's light-hearted The Animals different approaches he was only doing then what piece, layers of ostinato (all in different tempi) it didn't happen. Until Next Time. How lovely to hear Anderegg play these completes the CD. create a complex Charles Ives fantasy. most composers are doing now – except he did it beautiful, vintage Carter pieces with such an Also on the CD is the straight on free jazz Suite better. Why? Because he thought of it first and he authentic understanding. for Sam Furnace (2004). had the technique to bring it off. Also on the CD is Mozart's Serenata K. 304 in The Cantate Chamber Singers nail both the E minor and Schubert's Rondo Op. 10, D. 895. Simpson and the Schnittke. Hats off to the Maryland State Boychoir. 22 | New Music Connoisseur Fall/Winter 2012 | 23 24 writing seriousmusic. that's thehallmarkofaseriouscomposer these toward hisownpersonalend.To me to takeelementsofanoldstyleand modify "dirty" roving triadicharmony. Wynerisable freely atonalharmonywithoccasionalglintsof a bitofstretch. WhatI'mhearingissolid and folkmusicasWynerinfluencesbutthat's The program notesclaimSinatra,ArtTatum (1996) of Jacob Druckman Epilogue: inmemory lines sinceRogerSession'ssymphonies. heard thecreation of suchskillfullongviolin twenty minutemovement.Idon'tthinkI've chords." It'sonecontinuous,thoughepisodic, melody perse.Themelodiesarisefrom as "more ofakindsingingharmonythan Harmony (1996)whichthecomposerdescribes Susan DavennyWyner, performsWyner'sLyric The FestivalOrchestra ofBoston,conductedby and transparency. low register doublestopswithaccomplishment intense Astringwriting,thearpeggiosand managestheexpressive,minute pieceHornung Susan DavennyWyner. Inthetwenty-five Odense SymphonyOrchestra, conductedby isthesoloistwith Maximilian Hornung really isasenseofimprovisation inthepiece. narrative, anadventure, avoyage."There expectations ofaconcerto….[Itsformis] "The piecedoesnotconformtotraditional (1994) isinballadeform.Thecomposerwrites, The understand thesuddenbluesostinatocoda. Harmonically freely atonalthroughout, Idon't piece, thesolowritingisalmostnon-virtuosic. movement, twentyminute,piece.Notashow sensitive gestures inthiscarefully craftedone transformation…" There are lyricallinesand spontaneously, organically, movingtoward a work tobreathe inanaturalway, toprogress He goesontosay, "Iwantedthefinished hand"…In otherwords: "Keysinhand."" the composer, "isdesignedtofall"underthe Mano" (2005)."Thepianowriting,"writes in Yehudi Wyner'sPianoConcerto"Chiaviin conducting theBostonSymphonyOrchestra, Robert Levinisthesoloist,withSpano Orchestral Works –Bridge9282 Yehudi Wyner |

New Music Connoisseur Cello Concerto,"PrologueandNarrative" rounds outtheCD. II

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| 25 review FILM In 2010 Spong touched down in New York wanted to say.” Heartbreakingly, many of adores, but she is no Methuselah. She City and somehow connected with Stern- the projects on the long to-do list he set is more mischievous than strange, and Wolfe as she was in the throes of putting himself remained unfinished, and survive notwithstanding her high spirits admits together the program and recruiting the only in sketches. In photos Oldham looks that she is slowing down. artists for her twentieth annual show. like Donny Osmond in his early prime, all The undertaking is, as she confides in the gleaming teeth and bright, glad eyes. While the composers themselves movie, a hassle; the project entails a lot undoubtedly raged against the dying of sweet-talking on the phone. Spong Next comes songwriter Robert Chesley, light, the movie is eerily devoid of anger. immediately perceived the possibilities represented by his Emily Dickinson setting The overall mood is one of sorrow, the Way for a documentary that would celebrate “Nobody Knows this Little Rose.” The reconciliation; the vein is lyric not tragic. both the missionary labor of Stern-Wolfe camera’s eye travels over the glittering Stern-Wolfe astutely points out the and the loving camaraderie of an intimate ornaments on a Christmas tree as Chesley’s simplicity and directness of expression Through Evening community of composers and performers, sister Joan Englehaupt talks about her that characterize all of the vocal music we many just a few degrees of separation brother: he was, she says, a “keen observer.” hear. Referring to the fading legacy of her from Stern-Wolfe’s confederate and pal, Segue to the naughty bits. There is a brief beloved composers – and, no doubt, to by Mark Shapiro the tenor Eric Benson, for whom the clip from a film of Chesley’s play Jerker the gradually nearing terminus of her own All concert series is named. The concerts, and (as, also, in “tear“) about phone sex that personal voyage – Stern-Wolfe observes: Serendipitously, as I was walking down Broadway pondering how to convey to Stern-Wolfe’s dedication to presenting morphs into something loftier and more “The world moves so fast…it sweeps things readers of New Music Connoisseur the experience of watching 31‐year old Australian them year after year, constitute the vulnerable. Chesley’s friend Perry Brass deftly under the rug.” There is a triple poignancy: filmmaker Rohan Spong’s tenderly engaging 2011 documentary film All the Way material of Spong’s film. skewers the kebab of “high art and low sex” of the athletes dying young; of Stern-Wolfe through Evening, my attention was drawn to a fellow pedestrian coming up the on which Chesley and his circle routinely in the early twilight of her journey through avenue toward me. On his lapel – startlingly – was pinned a frayed and faded AIDS “All the Way through Evening” feasted. Countertenor Marshall Coid brings the Vale of Sorrows; and of a vividly Awareness Ribbon. Those inverted twists of red satin once seemed ubiquitous, but magnanimously folds into its sixty‐six Chesley’s Dickinson setting to life in a remembered era already receding, with it was ages since I had last noticed one. Later I read on a blog that in some circles minutes extensive footage of vintage sweetly communicative rendition. shocking swiftness, into history. they long ago came to be considered “unfashionable.” To a teenager or a twenty‐ concert performances of music by three something in America or Europe or Australia today, the once savagely omnipresent composers – Kevin Oldham, Robert Anchoring the film is a performance from The film’s visual style is subtly appealing. AIDS epidemic might seem as remote as the Vietnam, or for that matter the Chesley, and Chris DeBlasio – plus Walt Whitman in 1989, a songcycle by The nostalgia the movie rather queerly Peloponnesian War. In the film’s press kit, Spong observes that, although he is gay, interviews with a cadre of artists who Chris DeBlasio (on poetry of Perry Brass) inspires is attributable not only to the “I come from a generation that came after the initial outbreak of AIDS. I didn’t have loyally been tending the votive that contains the movie’s melancholy but fossilized-in-amber (culturally speaking) *Proceeds from the sale of the know anyone who had died, and didn’t know anyone who knew anyone who had flame, notably “heldentenor” (as he also promissory title phrase. Stern-Wolfe quality of its heroine – Stern-Wolfe CD will go to the Bill Clinton- is billed) Gilles Denizot, deploying a reports that after receiving his diagnosis, inhabits not a gentrified contemporary died as I was growing up.” George Bush Fund for Haiti winsome Gallic accent, and countertenor DeBlasio, in contradistinction to Oldham, “East Village” but a poor, artsy, teeming- and violinist Marshall Coid. Underscoring turned his back on composing; AIDS with-immigrants “Lower East Side” – but The actor Jeremy Irons inaugurated the socially and politically aware Mimi Stern- memorably poetic shots of painterly‐ activism became his preferred – his only – also to the sepia tones in which the AIDS Ribbon at the Tony Awards in 1992, Wolfe, Artistic Director and Impresaria of looking skies and cityscapes is the grittier expressive medium. For a time he could see images are cast. Spong has a particularly Recent orchestral music five years after Larry Kramer founded Downtown Music Productions, has curated, music of Robert Savage, performed by no point in writing music, until successfully alert way with hands and faces. He crops of Jeffrey Jacob ACTUP, seven years after President and is now presenting, the first in what cellist Robert Kogan. goaded by Brass, who lured him back them interestingly, at curious angles, Ronald Reagan’s first public mention of will become an unbroken string of annual to pen and paper with an obvious but and catches them in the act of doing the disease, and three years before the concerts in connection with World AIDS The film is organized into acts, each essential imprecation: “Only you can write captivating things. With a film-maker’s Death anD transfiguration epidemic peaked in the United States, Day. (In a sly bit of historical irony, St. of which focuses on a single composer. your music.” tactile gaze, he shows a thumb passing The London Symphony Orchestra Daniel Spalding, Conductor extinguishing over 48,000 lives. (Not a Mark’s happens to enclose the vault of none The acts hew to a pattern, schematic under fingers at the keyboard, or a parenthesis: since the beginning of the other than cantankerous anti-Semite Peter yet satisfying, progressing from wintry In the movie, we eavesdrop as Stern- lowered eyelid softly palpitating in an Music for haiti pandemic, AIDS has killed approximately Stuyvesant, who sought, unsuccessfully as it exterior shots in city neighborhoods Wolfe watches, apparently for the first effort of recall. He presents Sterne-Wolf The Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber 30 million people worldwide, and turned out, to rid New Amsterdam of Jews; to the cozy interiors in which Spong time, a videotape of a performance by in eloquent silhouette, as she might have Orchestra continues to claim nearly 2 million victims to his Dutch bosses he wrote understatedly interviewed the speakers. In each panel the baritone Michael Dash, with Chris been painted by de la Tour. Daniel Spalding, Conductor annually.) In the 1980s and 1990s artists that he “deemed it useful to require them the composer’s family and friends DeBlasio at the piano. In an outburst of

produced a cornucopia of books, plays, in a friendly way to depart.”) reminisce and offer commentary about spontaneous collegiality she exclaims, Fifteen years ago I had the privilege of elegy films, paintings, ballets and musical the era in which the early concerts took movingly: “He was such a good pianist.” conducting a recording of Chris DeBlasio’s Royal Queenstown Philharmonic compositions evoking the sorrow and Zoom over now to an East Village (sorry: place. A musical performance concludes Moments later her anguish is palpable beautiful cantata The Best Beloved. Jon Mitchell, Conductor anger felt so personally by so many as “Lower East Side” – more about that in each episode. as she realizes that the cameraman has Marshall Coid played first violin. In a they reacted to the losses exacted by a moment) apartment, a film location focused entirely on Dash, cutting DeBlasio strange and bitter irony, that recording’s reMeMberance of things Past the virus. agent’s dream, chockablock with scores, Oldham gets to go first. His is a flashy, out of the picture. producer Gabe Wiener died, shortly after The Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Zoom in on New York City, 1990, where archives and videotapes – videotapes! easeful pianism, gratifying to watch the music was recorded, of a cerebral Orchestra the epidemic is raging but has yet to – with just room enough for a sonorous and to listen to; his collaborator Karen In press materials and on-line commentary aneurysm. He was 26. II for the chilDren reach its peak, and where many of these Steinway grand incongruously adorned Kushner, tells us that he had big hands about the film, Stern-Wolfe has attracted Jeffrey Jacob, Pianist artists lived and worked. with leftie stenciling: “Support Your Local and liked to play Rachmaninoff. She to herself, like iron filings, a trilogy of Musician.” These are the headquarters chokes up. After learning of his diagnosis e‐adjectives: elderly, eccentric, exuberant. Zoom in more closely, to the gracious in which Stern-Wolfe, now an impish 75, Oldham devoted himself single‐mindedly Actually, she seems not to be any of these and airy St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery. appears to have been living for decades. to composing; there was the pressure, things. Age has brought to her features a We’re still in 1990. It’s December 1, and the not surprisingly, of “something he craggy, crannied elegance that the camera

26 | New Music Connoisseur Spring/SummerFall/Winter 2012 | 27 NMC: I’ll pick this up mid-stream. I was what’s called being a living artist; it’s what gets RB: I have a huge consortium commission saying that your music seems to do what you up in the morning, that’s what gets you to from 28 bands – wind ensembles – and I’m western music has always done well: it cre- put pencil to paper. actually writing a piece for voice and wind ates expectation in the listener and intention- ensemble. I’m now starting to collect texts. ally thwarts those expectations as often as it This is a long winded way of saying that I ini- There’s a deadline on this; so I’ve had to put meets them. Would it be fair to say, in that tially thought every piece had to be different. aside my symphony – a commission from the sense, that your music is ‘conservative’? I started to arrive at a different point at the Juilliard Orchestra . turn of the century (that still sounds strange RB: if you define it like that, yes, but I’d to say) – and I think it had to do with writing The band commission is what I’m working on rather not use the moniker because I find my one and only opera, because when you now. The band world is fantastic. Unlike a lot terms like that to be confusing, because there write opera all bets are off. You pull every- of what’s happening in the orchestral world, was a time when the music that would be thing out from what you know and you use it, which is the sense of fear and loathing, in the called conservative was actually more radical and it’s an utterly pragmatic experience. And band world there’s a real sense of developing than the music people would call radical. you start to realize that maybe you’ve been repertoire which is very welcoming to com- However, yes, my music is based on simple, too hard on yourself, maybe you’re trying posers – there’s real energy and positiveness. but unique elements, which develop in a too hard to be different. And it prompted It feels very healthy. narrative, teleological framework – I was not me to let things flow more, let myself speak interested in re-inventing that part of our more naturally, in the voice that I had been NMC: I wanted to ask you about the orches- musical tradition. developing over the past 33 years, and to tral world. You’re the Artistic Director of a understand that if it comes easily that’s not major orchestra, The American Composers NMC: You said earlier that by the early 1990s necessarily a bad thing. To allow myself that Orchestra, you’re in the middle of a big piece you felt you were totally in synch with what guilty pleasure was something I had to learn for orchestra – what’s your feeling about the you wanted to do and what the world wanted later in life. future of orchestras? to do. Now, 20 years later, do you find that RB: It’s probably one of the most difficult your musical concerns have changed, that NMC: So you mark your opera (The Food of questions to answer, and I’ve kind of come you’re after different things now than you Love) as a turning point? down on both sides of it, unfortunately. I’m were then? not sure how I feel about it. However, having RB: It was definitely a turning point, because said that, it seems that in every decade NMC talks with RB: When I first started off as a composer, I it required me to let go of certain preconcep- someone is predicting the demise of the never once wanted to repeat myself – I wanted tions – especially some of the preconcep- orchestra. There is truth to it. But somehow everything to happen uniquely and sui-generis tions I learned in the modernist era, which the orchestra still manages to thrive. So on its own, and so every piece was a new although I fought against they were very the question is how, why, and what’s going terrain, a new exploration. The underlying much a part of me – and they still are. And on. I think the orchestra unfortunately has values were consistent – I was working within that is, no matter what influences I bring become too much of a museum. And I think Robert Beaser orchestras are finally starting to realize this, the framework of values. I was exploring a lot into my own music, it must be fresh, it must of different things, but as I moved to what you be unique. I can’t simply bring something probably later than they should – because the would characterize as semi-maturity (that’s in and think that’s going to suffice; there traditional audience has traditionally been a scary thought) I started to recognize what must be some sort of chemical reaction that of a certain age, and orchestras have been was unique to my own voice and what sorts occurs when I combine elements and a hybrid trying to hold onto that audience, which It was well over a year ago that we first approached composer of predilections I had. I remember my first that results that is exciting and unusual and demographically is disappearing. That creates composition teacher Arnold Franchetti said that nobody’s ever heard before. That’s my a bit of a crisis: in the short term they want to Robert Beaser about doing an interview for this magazine. “you must find your own clichés”, and as usual standard. And at this point in my life I’m fill seats, but what’s needed is an infusion of when you’re young you don’t know what this starting to understand what’s really core to new music being written. I think if you were For a long time our schedules were simply out-of-synch, but we means – but what he meant is that an artist has my own sensibility. And I’m starting to accept to sit everybody down, even people who are to discover what his own unique strengths and that: this is a good thing, not something I adhering to the most conservative program- did finally get to sit down in February of this year. Some of the weaknesses are. As a matter of fact, that’s what constantly need to fight against, or that I ming would admit that that’s true; I think I would term as personality. Look at Stravinsky: need to get better at in another way because everybody understands this. The question issues we would have discussed twelve months ago were cogently he never thought he could write a melody, I can only do this. I’m starting to rely on is why isn’t everybody doing it? There are and as a result he wrote fantastic melodies; he those fields I’ve been mining for a long time., inherent problems with the way orchestras addressed in a recent article Mr. Beaser wrote for the New York turned a weakness into a strength. What we and to look for continuously new, fresh and have been set up historically and the need call personality in a composer is that composer interesting ways to do what I do. to fill seats. Some of the solutions, like the Times on-line “Opinionator” column. trying out of necessity to overcome what he or extreme crossover stuff which was very much she considers to be something that they can’t NMC: Is there something you can say about in vogue, hasn’t produced work of endur- do, struggling with their own inner demons, the piece you’re working on now? ing quality. I firmly believe that if enough (For those readers who missed that column, here’s the link: trying to come up with solutions to things that people are educated they will understand http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/robert-beaser/) they want but don’t yet have. But that’s also that in order for orchestras to pull themselves

Fall/Winter 2012 | 29 if the orchestras don’t play this music. It will forward they need to change and evolve – of the guitar and pluck the strings differently. dry up, and the quality of orchestral music they need to be different orchestras than they No, I like to dive right in and do the hard will drop. were in the 19th century. Over at ACO we’ve stuff, which is confront what makes these changed the duration of the orchestra, we’ve instruments really sing: what sounds good NMC: To get back to your music: earlier changed the instruments that are involved, on the instrument, why I love the instrument. today you alluded to borrowing from other we’ve changed the definition of the orchestra. When I write choral music I confront the music. I’m thinking about a piece I heard of It’s very exciting and it’s very energizing. And choral tradition. That doesn’t mean I want to yours a few years ago – it was at a concert when I see how many people are flocking imitate the choral tradition, it means I want to where Paul Sperry sang one of your songs, to just try to re-imagine the orchestra, and confront it, and figure out what I can bring to called a Martial Law Carol – your weaving in what sort of positive results we’ve been it that’s different, but yet use those qualities those few notes from Silent Night I thought getting – even though maybe all of the works which I love about it, viscerally, emotionally, was very masterful; you quoted just enough won’t be enduring masterpieces, there’s still a sound-wise. In ‘Phrygian Pick” I found myself for the listener to hear something familiar, but tremendous interest from composers to write taking these almost crazy clichés – Phrygian then immediately turned it into something for the orchestra. scales that come out of Flamenco – and a else, something fresh. rather whacky re- interpretation of some NMC: I recently heard a young composer play bluegrass picking—and I didn’t intentionally RB: Thank you. That’s a very good example. a piece for violin and electronics. The do this, these visions suddenly appeared to That piece is one of many that character- electronic sounds – generated from the me, and I said let me see what I can do with izes my approach. I always feel like I can composer’s Mac – provided lots of color, this. What if I matched them up, and I started re-contextualize things if I do it correctly. but not as much as I thought he could get to create this world where these two things If I don’t, then it just becomes a parody. If out of an orchestra. When I suggested he were bumping up against each other, and it there’s a reason for any of this material to orchestrate the work and turn it into a violin became this wonderful stew of something exist, aside from its original reason, that can concerto his response was that “it would be a which I never expected. And yet when you be re-defined by the nature of what I am lot of work.” As the chair of the composition hear it, it doesn’t sound like they don’t doing artistically, then there’s an opportunity department at Juilliard, you’re involved with belong together; it sounds like they’re work- there to create a hybrid that nobody has students on a daily basis. Are young compos- ing together in this strange dance that they heard before. I don’t always actively seek out ers – student composers – still interested in have. They manage to combine. That’s the existing tunes; sometimes the music starts to writing for orchestra? type of thing I get very excited about when I become something that sounds like another write. Finding these things – and I don’t know sort of music, has an influence maybe from RB: Composers have always been very where they come from – but when I find them a popular idiom or from somewhere else. pragmatic. They go where the opportunities and I feel I can do something with them, then It’s a matter of how you focus the material are. If you build it they will come. That’s why that really gets my creative juices going. and in what context you place it. I’m often I’ve worked so hard to get these orchestral driven by a very simple idea: I like to take two readings with ACO; it’s great what they’re NMC: Nicely said. things that usually you would think of as not doing in Minnesota and other places, because belonging together, and like an experiment, those opportunities are the only way compos- RB: Our jobs as we get older, I think, is to fo- you place them in a room and you see what ers are going to write for orchestra. You can’t cus in and make peace with what we are, and happens. I like to do that in my music. An write orchestral pieces in a vacuum. Having to focus in on what we do best, and really try example is the end of my guitar concerto, in a said that, a remarkable number of people I to make it better and better, as opposed to movement called ‘Phrygian Pick’. This comes encounter are writing orchestral music. You trying to do everything, which is what we do from many years of writing for the guitar, look around and say, gosh that’s an awful when we’re young. and understanding both its bluegrass origins lot of people writing orchestral music. There and its Flamenco origins -- two very powerful, must be something going on. What’s going II powerful things. If you know anything about on is that the orchestra is one of the most the instrument you realize as a composer powerful, magnetic forces ever created. And that you’ve got to confront this. Very much it draws people in, and for good reason. That like when I wrote my Piano Concerto I had to was one of my ways into music, just hearing confront the powerful influences that created that orchestra, and playing in it. That’s power- the great repertoire of piano concertos over ful and it doesn’t go away. So I do see lots of the centuries. I believe as a composer that people interested in writing for orchestra. But you can’t simply side-step that by saying, OK, if they increasingly feel like they won’t have a I’m going to write a piece that has nothing chance to hear the piece, then they will write to do with that and I’m going to hit the back smaller works. And I think that will happen

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