559336 bk Hovhaness US 14/4/08 22:27 Page 5 Royal Scottish National Orchestra AMERICAN CLASSICS Photo: Peter Devlin Formed in 1891 as the Scottish Orchestra, and subsequently known as the Scottish National Orchestra before being granted the title Royal at its centenary celebrations in 1991, the Royal Alan Scottish National Orchestra is one of Europe’s leading ensembles. Distinguished conductors who have contributed to the success of the HOVHANESS orchestra include Sir John Barbirolli, Karl Rankl, Hans Swarowsky, Walter Susskind, Sir Alexander Gibson, Bryden Thomson, Neeme Guitar Concerto No. 2 Järvi, now Conductor Laureate, and Walter Weller who is now Conductor Emeritus. Alexander Lazarev, who served as Principal Symphony No. 63 ‘Loon Lake’ • Fanfare for the New Atlantis Conductor from 1997 to 2005, was recently appointed Conductor Emeritus. Stéphane Javier Calderón, Guitar Denève was appointed Music Director in 2005. Denève’s first recording with the RSNO, Albert Roussel’s Symphony No. 3 and the complete ballet Bacchus et Ariane (Naxos 8.570245) was released in May 2007, and in November received the Diapason d’Or de l’Année for Symphonic Music. The orchestra made an important Royal Scottish National Orchestra • Stewart Robertson contribution to the authoritative Naxos series of Bruckner Symphonies under the late Georg Tintner, and recorded a complete cycle of the orchestral works of Samuel Barber under former Principal Guest Conductor Marin Alsop. The orchestra performs a busy schedule of concerts across Scotland with annual appearances at the Edinburgh International Festival and regular performances in the BBC Promenade Concerts in London. Stewart Robertson A native of Glasgow, Stewart Robertson is a graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music. He studied piano with Denis Matthews, conducting with Otmar Suitner at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and with Hans Swarowsky in Vienna. He gained his early experience in opera and ballet at the opera houses of Cologne and Zurich and at Scottish Opera, where he was Music Director of the touring company. Subsequently he became Music Director of the San Bernardino Symphony and the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, where he was a champion of new music and a frequent broadcaster on National Public Radio. His international career has brought engagements throughout the world in concert-halls and opera houses, with performances that demonstrate his wide range of musical interests. In addition to his position as Music Director and Principal Conductor of Florida Grand Opera, he is Music Director of the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Artistic Director of Opera Omaha, and has been named Music Director Emeritus of Alan Hovhaness and Javier Calderón working on the Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, 1979. Glimmerglass Opera. 8.559336 5 6 8.559336 559336 bk Hovhaness US 14/4/08 22:27 Page 2 Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000) because I was attracted by the title. Atlantis is the do much with the concerto. This première recording is not drink or smoke. He loved a good old-fashioned a cluster of sounds which describes the lake’s activities Fanfare for the New Atlantis • Guitar Concerto No. 2 • Symphony No. 63 ‘Loon Lake’ legendary island that supposedly existed west of performed by Javier Calderón, the virtuoso Bolivian- breakfast of orange juice, scrambled eggs, and toast, so and its surroundings. The harp and percussion (timpani, Gibraltar and was sunk into the ocean by an earthquake. born guitarist. He had commissioned Hovhaness’s first his music is never heavy, but grand, as nature’s large chimes, and glockenspiel) are the ripples and composers of the past, Handel, Mozart, Schubert, This subject was of interest to the composer and he guitar concerto but could not make its première contrasting changes, wind, rain, and storm. movement of the water on the lake. The piccolo imitates Sibelius, and Verdi. (Hovhaness had some objection to often talked about it. His interest in Atlantis could have recording because of our lost communication, but we The symphony was written in two movements and the birds’ cries. Verdi’s early orchestrations; but in some respects he been from Francis Bacon’s The New Atlantis. He was a later restored our contact and he is the soloist for the contains two distinct bird-song themes, a loon and a Loon Lake had its première on 18th August, 1988, was like Verdi, since both had an abundance of member of the Bacon Society and believed that second concerto instead. hermit thrush, played by the piccolo, one after the other. with the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, melody.) Shakespeare was Bacon’s pen name. I heard the piece The concerto begins mysteriously, with the solo This occurs in two different sections of the symphony. conducted by Thomas Nee. Hovhaness later revised the Hovhaness, then, stood alone, as did his concept of for the first time at the recording session in Scotland – I guitar accompanied by the murmuring sound of strings; Even though the subject of the symphony was the loon, ending of the symphony (by my request) with a brilliant contemporary music. To him it meant bringing back the visualized Atlantis rising from the depths of the ocean then comes a lively dance in an Arabic or Moorish Hovhaness’s interest was the hermit thrush, a bird that trumpet obbligato based on the hermit thrush song, music of the past, going all the way back to the original and knew I had made the right choice. This fanfare is a mood (but it is a Hovhaness original). The second and lives in the New England countryside. He had heard together with the full orchestra reaching a climactic sources and then adding his own originality and new celebration of the rebirth of Atlantis – it is Hovhaness’s fourth movements are like the first – lively dance-like their calls in his childhood and was fascinated by them. ending. The new version of the symphony was voice. Throughout his long composing career he sensed symphonic extravaganza. music and rhythmic patterns changing rapidly – 4/4, 6/4, They sang their song repeatedly in succession, but each performed in the New Hampshire Festival on 2nd July, the cosmic consciousness of the new directions that The Concerto No. 2 for Guitar and Strings, 2/4, 5/8, 3/8, and 7/8; the latter is often used by the time in different pitches. That interested him and he 1991, and this is the version recorded here. music would take, that music must take. In the late Op. 394, was commissioned by the famous Spanish composer, who specified putting the accent on the first never forgot them, so he took this opportunity to put As always, I would like to express my appreciation 1960s he had started writing “romantic” music with guitarist Narciso Yepes. Hovhaness completed the score and fourth beats of the measure. Pizzicato upper strings them in his symphony, along with the loon cry. The to Klaus Heymann for producing and releasing Symphony No. 22 ‘City of Light’ (Naxos 8.559158), in June 1985 but the première did not take place until over a bowed bass section create a percussive sound (to symphony is constructed around melodies which are Hovhaness’s music on his label Naxos. Symphony No. 24 ‘Majnun’ and other works. He was the 1990 at the Granada Festival; this was the only me, almost electronic) unique to Hovhaness’s music. played by solo instruments (flute, oboe, English horn, pioneer of neo-romantic music. performance of the piece I know of, and Yepes died This delightful dance-like music is partly written in horn, clarinet, trumpet, and trombone) one after another He once said, in a CBC interview in October, 1968, shortly after that. fugal form; as usual, the composer has a way to disguise and accompanied by the orchestra. The orchestra creates Hinako Fujihara Hovhaness Alan Hovhaness was one of the most prolific composers referring to the contemporary music of that time: Previously, in 1984, Alan and I had met Yepes at a these forms into appealing, easy-to-listen-to music. The of the twentieth century. He stood alone among performance of Spirit of Trees in Carnegie Hall. That third movement is the only slow movement. It is written composers who otherwise were writing according to the “A certain form of beauty has its place in the piece had been commissioned by the world-renowned in traditional Hovhaness symphonic style. The guitar Javier Calderón flow of modern thinking, opposed to melody and world. Naturally, ugliness is important, but Spanish harpist Nicanor Zabaleta. He and Yepes cadenza by Javier Calderón comes towards the end of emotion, and dismissing classical form and contrapuntal there should be a balance between beauty and performed the piece together all over the world. After the movement. Photo: Alan Mills At the age of seventeen Javier Calderón thrilled the audience of his native writing. ugliness. If everything is ugly, if I only hear the the performance, Zabaleta and Yepes invited us to a Symphony No. 63 ‘Loon Lake’, Op. 411, was city of La Paz, Bolivia when he played with the Bolivian National Symphony Hovhaness was born with melody. Even as young as noise in the street, the noise of traffic – this Spanish restaurant, along with their wives. Zabaleta and composed in 1988. Hovhaness was 76 years old at that Orchestra. He was then invited to the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, four years old, he was hearing melodies in his head, and certainly isn’t music. (Especially us today in his wife were tall and had a distinguished appearance time. The commission came in September 1987 from and soon after was awarded a scholarship for study with Andrés Segovia in thought everybody else did also.