PROGRAM NOTES 10.21.13

ANDERS HILLBORG VAPORIZED TIVOLI (2010)

Duration: 9 minutes Instrumentation: Large Ensemble Commissioned by Ensemble Modern and dedicated to Franck Ollu Premiered by Ensemble Modern and conducted by Franck Ollu on September 14 2010 at the Sacrum Profanum Festival in Krakow, Poland. Copyright/Publisher Information: Edition Peters/Frankfurt

The writes:

“In the word tivoli is used in the same way as amusement park, funfair or carnival is used in America. A main idea for the first part of Vaporized Tivoli is the image of kids running around in a tivoli with the (for grown ups) incredible speed and energy only kids can have, trying out all the marvelous attractions that the tivoli offers— here's a rollercoaster, let’s try that!— now for a carousel, wow, and look here, a bunch of junk that we can bang on...

After about six minutes this ecstatically joyful character suddenly changes— it's as if a plug is pulled, and all the speed and energy is pouring out into a lush, strangely beautiful and much more ambiguous soundscape. Here, a more sinister association to tivoli was lurking in the back of my mind— in my teens I read Ray Bradbury's novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, a story combining elements of fantasy and horror, about a nightmarish traveling tivoli that comes to town and prey on the people there.

Finally, the music literary vaporizes, while accompanying an eerily sentimental melody line played by the double bass.”

About the composer:

Anders Hillborg was born in Stockholm in 1954. He gained his first musical experience singing in choirs and was also involved in various forms of improvised music. From 1976 to 1982 he studied counterpoint, composition and electronic music at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where his teachers included Gunnar Bucht, Lars-Erik Rosell, Arne Mellnäs and Pär Lindgren. Brian Ferneyhough, who was a guest lecturer at the College of Music on several occasions, was another important source of inspiration. Apart from occasional teaching positions Hillborg has been a full-time freelance composer since 1982. His sphere of activity is extensive, covering orchestral, choral and chamber music as well as film scores and pop music.

Anders Hillborg’s orchestral music has been performed by many major conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Alan Gilbert, Gustavo Dudamel, David Zinman, Andrey Boreyko, Yannick Nézet-Seguin, Michael Gielen, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Susanna Mälkki, Hannu Lintu and John Storgårds.

The following orchestras have performed or commissioned Hillborg’s works: Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Berliner Philharmoniker.

Other notable musicians he has worked with include clarinetist Martin Fröst, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and choir conductor, Eric Ericson.

For more information about Anders Hillborg visit hillborg.com.

PROGRAM NOTES 06.03.13 (continued)

DONNACHA DENNEHY STAINLESS STAINING (2007)

Duration: 14 minutes Instrumentation: and Soundtrack Commissioned by Lisa Moore (with funds by the Arts Council of Ireland) Premiered by Lisa Moore on March 28 2007 at Merkin Concert Hall in New York, NYCopyright/Publisher Information: Donnacha Dennehy Publications

The composer writes:

Commissioned by Lisa Moore with funds provided by the Arts Council of Ireland, Stainless Staining is for piano and soundtrack. The soundtrack is made up of samples of a piano (played both normally, and "inside") retuned to provide a massive harmonic spectrum of 100 overtones based on a fundamental low G#. This reflects an increasing recent concern of mine with a kind of pulsating, rhythmic use of the overtone series. That concern can range from a rather extreme concentration in this piece and Bulb (a piano trio where pulsing glissandos connect nodes in the harmonic series) to a more integrated approach in the large scale vocal and instrumental pieces, where that approach is used often in a looser fashion only in particular areas.

About the composer:

Born in Dublin in 1970, Donnacha Dennehy has received commissions from Dawn Upshaw, the Kronos Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Bang On A Can All-Stars, Electra, the Fidelio Trio, Icebreaker, Joanna MacGregor, Orkest de Ereprijs, Orkest de Volharding, Percussion Group of the Hague, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra (BBC Radio 3), Smith Quartet, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players among others. Collaborations include pieces with choreographers Yoshiko Chuma (To Herbert Brun) and Shobana Jeyasingh, (Hinterlands), the writer Enda Walsh (Misterman) and the visual artist John Gerrard (Composition for Percussion, Loops, Blips and Flesh).

His work has featured in festivals such as ISCM World Music Days, Bang On A Can in New York, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, WNYC’s New Sounds Live, Sonic Evolutions

Festival at Lincoln Center, EXPO, the Ultima Festival in Oslo, Fuse Leeds, the Saarbrucken Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the State of the Nation at the South Bank in London and the Gaudeamus Festival in Amsterdam. In 2010, his large single-movement orchestral piece, Crane, was 'recommended' by the International Rostrum of .

Returning to Ireland after studies abroad at the University of Illinois (USA), Ircam (France) and the Netherlands, Dennehy founded the Crash Ensemble, Dublin's now renowned new music group, in 1997. Crash Ensemble is very much associated with the performance of many of Dennehy's landmark works, including the pieces Grá Agus Bás (with the singer Iarla O' Lionaird) and That the Night Come (with Dawn Upshaw), which feature on Dennehy's 2011 release on Nonesuch Records (entitled Grá Agus Bás). The Guardian, in a 5-star review of that disc referred to the music's "startling freshness". NPR named the disc one of its "50 Favorite Albums" (in any genre) of 2011. It also featured in many other end-of-2011 lists including both the listener's poll and John Schaefer's top ten from WNYC.

Upcoming premieres include pieces for the Kronos Quartet, and Dawn Upshaw with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. At present, Dennehy is working on a new piece for Upshaw and Alarm Will Sound. Dennehy lectures in music composition at Trinity College Dublin, and was appointed a Global Scholar at Princeton University for 2012-13.

For more information about Donnacha Dennehy visit donnachadennehy.com.