April 2006 - Music Sales Classical

April ’06
G.Schirmer
257 Park Avenue South, 20th Floor
New York, NY 10010
tel 212 254 2100
fax 212 254 2013
News from G. Schirmer, Inc.
and Associated Music Publishers, Inc.
Members of the Music Sales Group
www.schirmer.com
Avner Dorman (center) with PercaDu members
Tomer Yariv (left) and Adi Morag (left).
Boundary Busting
As the April showers fall this month and replenish
the earth, we’re having our own unusual “greening”
with an abundance of concertos for instruments not
normally on the front of the stage and musical forms
that break the rules. Read on.
“Requiem for a Magical America”
No texts. No voices. Yet, it’s still a requiem. Did
we miss something?
Requiem for a Magical America:
El Día de los Muertos 30'
4(2pic)+afl.3(ca).6+Ebcl+bcl.
ssx+asx+tsx+barsx+bsx.2+cbn/
4.3+3Ctpt.3.1/6perc/pf/db
No, not according to Gabriela Lena Frank,
whose Requiem for a Magical America: El Día de
los Muertos premieres on 21 April by the Kansas
University Wind Ensemble and Dance Company, with choreography by
Muriel Cohan and Patrick Suzeau. “This baby’s an ‘instrumental’ requiem, and
can work strictly as a concert piece or as a ballet,” Frank enthuses. The twopart, 30-minute work is based on the folklore of El Día de Los Muertos (The
Day of the Dead), which melds pre-Columbian indigenous beliefs with Spanish
Catholicism. Frank notes, “I’m culling traditions from the various countries in
Central and South America that celebrate it. While there’s a bit of a scary tinge
to the holiday, it’s really mostly humorous and fun as people fondly remember
their loved ones who have died.”
continues on page 2
credit: Jennifer Sherman, courtesy Avner Dorman
Appealing, Yet Filled with Danger
“Spices delight the palate, but can
Spices, Perfumes, Toxins! c.25'
cause illness; perfumes seduce, but can (Concerto for Duo Percussion and Orchestra)
also betray; toxins bring ecstasy, but
Percussion Duo; 3(afl:pic,bfl).3.3(Ebcl:bcl).
3(cbn)/4331/timp+perc/pf.hp/str
are deadly.” Avner Dorman lures us
into his cauldron with the ingredients
for his new concerto for percussion duo, Spices, Perfumes, Toxins!
Commissioned by the Israel Philharmonic, the work premieres in Tel Aviv on
4 April and features the PercaDu percussion duo. Zubin Mehta conducts.
“Spices, Perfumes and Toxins!,” Dorman cites, “refers to three substances that
are appealing, yet filled with danger.” The work is the result of years of
collaboration between Dorman and PercaDu members Adi Morag and Tomer
Yariv, who met during their undergraduate studies in Tel Aviv. “While we were
still students,” Dorman explains, “Tomer and Adi asked me to write a piece for
them. All three of us aimed at a piece that would be markedly Israeli and
would reflect young Israeli culture... The piece, Udacrep Akubrad became one
of PercaDu’s signature pieces and my most performed composition and is the
basis for the first movement of this concerto... It combines Middle-Eastern
drums, orchestral percussion, and rock drums with orchestral forces — a
unique sound both enticing and dangerous.”
“Happy dance and wild party of all the skeletons.”
credit: Calaveras by Jose Guadalupe Posada, Dover Pictorial Archive Series
Dorman’s April calendar also showcases the Jerusalem Quartet’s US premiere
of his String Quartet No. 2 (“Mirage”) at New York’s 92nd Street Y.
Pick a Tuning
“I love the sound of the bass playing a
Concerto for Bass Viol c.25'
solo line.” So states John Harbison on
Doublebass; 2(pic,afl).2(ca).2(bcl).2(cbn)/
the eve of the Toronto Symphony’s “New
2200/timp.1perc/pf/str (max 12.12.8.8.6)
Creations Festival,” which highlights the
1 April premiere of his Concerto for Bass Viol conducted by Hugh Wolff. The
concert features Toronto’s own principal bassist Joel Quarrington. The threemovement work was commissioned by the International Society of Double
Bassists in a consortium of 15 North American orchestras who are presenting the
work in a series of “rolling
Joel Quarrington
premieres,” with each
orchestra spotlighting its
own principal bassist.
ISB general manager
Madeleine Crouch
comments, “The
International Society of
Bassists has long dreamed
of commissioning a new
concerto for double bass
by a major composer.
When John Harbison
accepted our invitation to
write a new work [for us],
credit: courtesy Joel Quarrington
we were elated...music lovers from coast to coast will have an opportunity to hear
John’s [piece]. For many, it will be the first time they’ve heard the double bass in
the role of solo instrument...I think everyone’s in for a real treat.”
“[The double bass],” Harbison reflects, “has a very unusual quality that I think
makes it particularly appealing...” Having previously composed concerti for the
violin, viola, and cello, Harbison found this concerto posed one unique
challenge. “The only way it
affected the actual
“I’ve very much enjoyed working on this piece
composition is the factor of
and I’ve never been as excited about playing a
the tuning of the bass. The
new work... It’s written so well, and it perfectly
standard issue of the ‘solo
suits the instrument in its melodic, singing
tuning’ that a number of
quality. It’s technically challenging in all the
bassists choose for their
right ways. I’m certain it is a colossal addition
instrument (with the entire
to the repertoire and it will be popular not
orchestra then playing up a
only with players but audiences as well.”
whole step) means that there
— Joel Quarrington
is a pre-thinking involved for
the orchestral part — so as to make sure it will work in both key areas. This
particularly affects string harmonics and the upper registers of instruments. Then,
an added and quite interesting tuning issue is that some very fine players...are
playing with an entirely different tuning from either of the two normal ones.
This other tuning uses the instrument in fifths rather than the normal fourths. It
means, of course, an entirely different set of harmonics and a different range both
on top and below. So, while I was composing the work, I was really thinking of
three different tunings at once. I wrote only one solo part but [made] sure in
[my] mind that it would work in all of these contexts...” *
Next month, on 5 May, Harbison’s concerto receives its US premiere at the
Houston Symphony (led by Hans Graf), with principal player Timothy Pitts.
Performances continue over the next two years in Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati,
Florida, Greenville, Houston, Knoxville, Los Angeles, Minnesota, New Mexico,
Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, Toronto, and the University of Iowa.
* As told to Carson Cooman for Music & Vision
2
“Requiem for a Magical America”
continued from page 1
PART ONE: PREPARACIONES
“Any-Pueblo, Latin America” begins their annual celebratory
preparations to welcome the return of their deceased loved ones.
The opening features church bells, clarinets, and humming that
emulate a church service. Suddenly, mayhem ensues with clanging
pots and pans as the villagers begin driving out the bad spirits
from their homes. A “Calaveras” section offers humorous and
saucy lighthearted verses that the living make about their deceased
loved ones, which is followed by a widows’ prayer to Santisima
Muerte, a figure representing both the Virgin Mary and
Michtecacihuatl, the Aztec queen of the underworld. The
villagers then evoke the dead.
PART TWO: LOS MUERTOS
The villagers’ nighttime cemetery vigil is complete, having cleaned
and decorated the graveyard. They hear the swish of bats leaving
the underworld, which signals the impending arrival of the
deceased. The dead begin to stream in — first, the children
(angelitos) and then the adults, who are followed by the old men
— who are last as usual. Next follow the un-baptized spirits who
are without direction and can’t find their loved ones. Then the
“espiritus malevolentes” appear — those who died violently. The
angriest one is a single warrior who represents those killed by the
Spanish at the time of the Conquest. The villagers hotly drive
him out with pots and pans. The music quickly returns to the
solemn sounds of church bells, clarinets and humming.
The Glory of Young Voices
“Transient Glory” returns this season on 29
April, when Francisco Nuñez and the Young
People’s Chorus of New York City gather at the
Ethical Culture Society to premiere new works
by Mark Adamo, John Corigliano and Thea
Musgrave.
Mark Adamo
Garland 5'
English texts by Emily Dickinson
SSAA; 2cl, vn, pf
John Corigliano
One Sweet Morning c.3'
English texts by Yip Harburg
SSAA; pf
“Transient Glory,” Nuñez notes, “is a project we
Thea Musgrave
undertook to celebrate the glorious, though
Going North 7'
fleeting sound of a children’s choir, a sound that
English texts by John Keats
SSAA; 2cl
imbues music with a particular poignancy and
innocence.” The choral series honors young
voices by commissioning new music by major international composers; this
concert features the premieres of
Transient Glory Commissions Adamo’s Garland, Corigliano’s One
Sweet Morning and Musgrave’s Going
Richard Rodney Bennett The Ballad of
North. These new choral pieces join
Sweet William
previous “Transient Glory”
Geoffrey Burgon Shirtless Stephen (and
commissions composed by Music Sales
the Children’s Crusade)
Michael Nyman A Child’s View of Colour Group composers Richard Rodney
Bennett, Geoffrey Burgon, Michael
Bright Sheng The Boatman’s Song
Nyman, Bright Sheng, John Tavener
John Tavener Glory to God for this
and Judith Weir; each work will be
Transient Life
added to the ongoing Transient Glory
Judith Weir Little Tree
Publishing Series.
“Florencia” in Heidelberg
Alexander Nevsky Reconstructed
“Five centuries have passed since the discovery
Florencia en el Amazonas 140'
of the Americas, and still we are amazed at the
Opera in Two Acts
wonders of the New World.” So proclaims
Spanish libretto by
Marcela Fuentes-Berain
Heidelberg Theatre director Bernd Feuchtner
2S, Mz, T, 2Bar, B; SATB
on the eve of the European premiere of Daniel
2(2pic).22+bcl.2(cbn)/3221.timp.
Catán’s opera Florencia en el Amazonas. With
4perc/hp.pf/str (4.4.4.4.3)
stage direction by Michael Beyer and
conducted by Noam Zur, the production showcases soprano Larissa Krokhina
in the title role.
On 16 October 2003, Sergei Prokofiev’s 1938
film score to Sergei Eisenstein’s masterpiece
Alexander Nevsky was performed live in concert,
with the film, at the Berlin Konzerthaus. This
screening featured the first performance of a newly
reconstructed score that closely follows Prokofiev’s
original intentions. Now, Capriccio Records has
released a world premiere recording from that
historic concert, featuring mezzo-soprano Marina
Domaschenko, the Ernst-Sonff-Chor, and the
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin conducted by
Frank Strobel (who edited the reconstruction).
Feuchtner continues,
“...while opera in old Europe
seems dead as a doornail,
over there it is giving birth to
magnificent things... At the
1996 [premiere] of Florencia
en al Amazonas at the
Houston Grand Opera, a
new singular and very
powerful aroma began to
filter through from the
stage... Grand, easily
memorable phrases, with
dramatically effective high
notes, catch the listener by
surprise. [His] instrumental
palette [possesses] powerful
melodic writing [that]
shimmers with all the colors
of an exotic butterfly...”
Capriccio SACD 71014
Alexander Nevsky 50'
Mezzo-soprano; SATB
3(pic).3(ca).5(Ebcl, 2bcl).
4sx.3(cbn)/6+shofar.7+flg.
4(btbn).2/timp.3[+]perc/
2hp.pf/str
There have been numerous attempts to present
Alexander Nevsky with live orchestra. However, the
only published music available was the 35-minute
Alexander Nevsky Cantata, a concert adaptation that differs greatly from the
film score. Based on extensive analysis of the film’s soundtrack and
examination of the composer’s manuscript, short score and sketches, the new
reconstruction reliably reproduces Prokofiev’s original scoring for the film.
“Mozartiana” à la Rodriguez
credit: Ken Howard; courtesy, Houston Grand Opera
Feuchtner observes that the old and new worlds meet in story and music. “Old
realism [was] replaced by the magic realism of Latin America. [And] Florencia
is an opera about a journey — the journey of life.” The story follows the
Amazonian trip of the steamship El Dorado, as diva Florencia Grimaldi travels
to Columbia to take the stage after a 20-year absence. During the journey she
also grapples with her longing for Cristobal, the lover she abandoned for the
sake of her career. Feuchtner adds, “Stravinsky was the stimulus for [Catán’s]
forming of sounds and instrumentation. Also Ravel. But [Florencia’s] great,
impassioned vocal lines would have been unthinkable without Puccini...” And
within Catán’s conjuring of the Amazon, Feuchtner views the river as “none
other than the river of love, and it is the waves of love that inspire the music.”
Florencia opens a week-long festival of Mexican art and culture, during which
time Catán also participates in lectures and seminars at the University of
Heidelberg. The production runs through July for a total of nine performances.
Last December, Joan Tower conducted the Civic Orchestra of
Tucson in the Arizona premiere of her trail-blazing work Made
in America. With 65 orchestras representing all 50 states, this
collaborative commission — sponsored by the Ford Foundation
and partnered with the American Symphony Orchestra League
and Meet The Composer — continues to course through the
land with four more performances this month. Tower’s
orchestral and chamber music is also featured this month at the
Tonhalle Orchestra and Music Academy in Zurich, Switzerland.
See our calendar for details.
A roll of the dice. An infinitesimal array of
Musical Dice Game 15'
permutations and combinations. This is the inspiration
2 str4t; 2 str orch
for Robert X. Rodriguez’s Musical Dice Game — his
homage to Mozart’s 250th birthday — which premieres
on 20 April with Andrew Litton and the Dallas Symphony. Commissioned by
the Dallas Symphony, Rodriguez based his
W.A. Mozart
score on Mozart’s Musikalisches Würfelspiel
Musikalisches Würfelspiel K.516f
(Musical Dice Game) K. 516. “Even though
K.516f consists of a 16-bar minuet
Mozart probably did not compose it,”
for keyboard with 11 harmonically
Rodriguez opines, “we know that Mozart was
interchangeable versions of each bar.
fascinated by games and that he wrote down
To construct minuets, one rolls a
instructions for creating such a composition.”
pair of dice 16 times in order to
determine which version of each bar Mozart’s instructions to create quadrillions of
to play. There are potentially
minuets led the composer to consider the
45,949,729,863,572,161 (45
quadrillion, 949 trillion, 729 billion, “staggering multiplicity of possibilities”
involved in creating the game. Rodriguez notes,
863 million, 572 thousand, 161)
minuets, which would take 100
“I considered Pascal’s phrase, “Le silence éternal
billion years to perform.
de ces espaces infinis m’effraie” (The eternal
silence of the infinite spaces terrifies me.)... I set out to depict those quadrillions
of minuets filling Pascal’s ‘eternal silence’... Einstein rejected Heisenberg’s
uncertainty principle by saying that ‘God does not play dice with the universe.’
My Musical Dice Game depicts an ordered universe and an unpredictable one...”
Joan Tower
credit: David Sanders, Arizona Daily Star
3
1
Joan Tower
Stepping Stones premiered 1993
3
Daniel Catán born 1949
4
Henryk Mikolaj Górecki
Symphony No. 3 “Symphony of Sorrowful
Songs” premiered 1977
Henryk Mikolaj Górecki born 1933
5
Charles Ives
Symphony No. 3 premiered 1946
6
Andrew Imbrie born 1921
André Previn born 1930
7
Augusta Read Thomas
Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour
premiered 2005
Yehudi Wyner
Commedia premiered 2003
8
Aaron Jay Kernis
New Era Dance premiered 1994
Bright Sheng
Three Songs premiered 1999
9
Samuel Barber
Knoxville Summer of 1915 premiered 1948
Aullis Sallinen born 1935
10 Gabriela Lena Frank
Ghosts in the Dream Machine premiered 2005
11 Peter Lieberson
Ah premiered 2002
Sergei Prokofiev born 1891
13 Morton Gould
Symphony No. 4 (Symphony for Band)
premiered 1952
Richard Danielpour
A Child's Reliquary premiered 2000
14 Avner Dorman born 1975
Leon Kirchner
Lily premiered 1977
17 Sofia Gubaidulina
The Light of the End premiered 2003
18 Miklós Rózsa born 1907
21 John Harbison
Four Psalms premiered 1999
John McCabe born 1939
23 Augusta Read Thomas born 1964
Joan Tower
Violin Concerto premiered 1992
21 Peter Maxwell Davies
Naxos Quartet No. 6 premiered 2005
25 Giya Kancheli
Night Prayers premiered 1992
26 Robert Kapilow
City Piece: Shuttlecocks premiered 1996
Bright Sheng
Tibetan Swing premiered 2002
29 Duke Ellington born 1899
Sofia Gubaidulina
Two Paths premiered 1999
30 Ellen Taaffe Zwilich born 1939
G. Schirmer Selected Performances April ’06
From 18 – 20
April, the
University of
Central Arkansas
honors Karel Husa
with an honorary
doctorate as he
serves as
composer-inresidence.
Made In America
Tower (AMP)
April 22, 23:
Central Wisconsin Symphony
Stevens Point, WI
Since its 1950 world
premiere, The Consul
— Gian Carlo Menotti’s
socio-political opera —
continues to provoke
thought; two
productions take place
this month at the
Chamber Opera
Chicago and the
Orchestra del Teatro
Regio in Turin, Italy.
Harbison (AMP)
Concerto for
Bass Viol ★★★
Joel Quarrington,
doublebass
Toronto Symphony/
Hugh Wolff
Menotti (GS)
The Consul
(April 2)
Chamber Opera Chicago/
Victoria Bond
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
29
23 24 25 26 27 28 30
April 1:
Wartburg Community Symphony
Wartburg, WI
April 2:
Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra/
Isiah Jackson
Cambridge, MA
April 25:
Grand Junction Symphony
Grand Junction, CO
Waukesha Symphony
Waukesha, WI
April 11, May 7:
St. Louis Youth Orchestra
St. Louis, MO
On 3 April, Oliver Knussen conducts members of the
Chicago Symphony’s MusicNow Ensemble in the world
premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s Carillon Sky.
Consul poster courtesy: Chamber Opera Chicago
Credit: Clive Barda, courtesy Harrison/Parrott Ltd.
Dorman (GS)
Spices, Perfumes,
Toxins! ★★★
(April 6)
Percadu
Israel Philharmonic/
Zubin Mehta
Tel Aviv, Israel
Adams (AMP)
Shaker Loops
Vancouver Symphony/
Bramwell Tovey
Adamo (GS)
Lysistrata, or The Nude
Goddess
(April 5)
Michael Kahn, stage
director
New York City Opera/
George Manahan
New York State Theatre
Glass (DUN)
Company
Vancouver Symphony/
Bramwell Tovey
SUNDAY
Rodríguez (GS)
Con Flor y Canto from
“Adoración Ambulante”
University of Texas at San
Antonio/Silantium
Shostakovich arr. by
Viktor Derevianko and
Mark Petarsk (GSR)
Symphony No. 15
(Chamber version)
Seattle Chamber
Players/Paul Taub
Shostakovich (GSR)
Symphony No. 3 ("The
First of May")
Symphony No. 4
Rotterdam Philharmonic
Orchestra/Valery Bergiev
Lincoln Center
New York City
SUNDAY
SUNDAY
Carter (AMP)
A Mirror on Which to
Dwell
MET Chamber Ensemble
Carnegie Hall
New York City
Saariaho (CH)
Adriana Mater
(April 7, 10, 12, 15, 18)
Peter Sellars, stage
director; Bastille Opera/
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Paris, France
Corigliano (GS)
Promenade Overture
Grossmont Symphony/
Randall Tweed
El Cajon, CA
Sheng (GS)
Boatman’s Song
Michigan State
University/Winkler
East Lansing, MI
MONDAY
Thomas (GS)
Carillon Sky
Orchestra 2001/Freeman
Swarthmore, PA
MONDAY
Sun Songs
New England Conservatory
Percussion Ensemble
Boston, MA
Antheil (GS)
Ballet mécanique (revised)
Goteborg Symphony
Orchestra/Carlsson
Sweden
SUNDAY
Schwartz (MG)
Rainbow
Concordia College
Moorehead, MN
MONDAY
German Tour
Adams (AMP)
Harmonielehre
Bundesjugendorchester
Bonn/Steven Sloane
Heidelberg, Germany
Dorman (GS)
Spices, Perfumes, Toxins!
Percadu
Israel Philharmonic/
Zubin Mehta
Haifa, Israel
Tan Dun (GS)
Paper Concerto for Paper
Percussion and Orchestra
Secret Land
Orchestre Natoinal de
Lyon/Tan Dun
Paris, France
MONDAY
Lang (RP)
Cheating, Lying, Stealing
Grand Valley State
University/Bill Ryan
Allendale, MI
Lieberson (AMP)
Piano Concerto No. 3 ★★
Peter Serkin, piano
Toronto Symphony/
Peter Oundjian
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Kernis (AMP)
Musica Celestis
Buffalo Philharmonic/
Joann Falletta
Buffalo, NY
TUESDAY
Menotti (GS)
The Consul
(April 13, 19, 22, 23)
Mark Stringer, stage
director
Orchestra del Teatro
Regio/Walter Le Moli
Turin, Italy
Shostakovich (GSR)
Symphony No. 5
Symphony No. 15
Rotterdam Philharmonic
Orchestra/Valery Gergiev
Lincoln Center
New York City
Dorman (GS)
Azerbaijani Dance
Yoni Levyatov, piano
Alice Tully Hall
New York City
Schnittke (GSR)
Concerto For Piano And
Strings
Eastman School Of
Music/Martin Seggelke
Rochester, NY
German Tour
Adams (AMP)
Harmonielehre
Bundesjugendorchester
Bonn/Steven Sloane
Waiblingen, Germany
MusicNOW
Thomas (GS)
Carillon Sky ★★★
Ensemble members of the
Chicago Symphony/
Oliver Knussen
Chicago, IL
Shostakovich (GSR)
String Quartet No. 15
Ensemble members of
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gubaidulina (GS)
Two Paths (A Dedication
to Mary and Martha)
Ural Philharmonic/
Dmitri Liss
Holland
TUESDAY
German Tour
Adams (AMP)
Harmonielehre
Bundesjugendorchester
Bonn/Steven Sloane
Leipzig, Germany
Harbison (AMP)
Canonical American
Songbook
Indiana University/
John Harbison
Bloomington, IN
Husa (AMP)
Les Couleurs Fauve
University of Wisconsin at
Madison/R. Winther
Thomas (GS)
Final Soliloquy of the
Interior Paramour
North Carolina School
of Arts
Winston-Salem, NC
TUESDAY
German Tour
Adams (AMP)
Harmonielehre
Bundesjugendorchester
Bonn/Steven Sloane
Essen, German
Harbison (AMP)
San Antonio
Boston University/
David Martins
TUESDAY
90th Birthday Celebration
Babbitt (AMP)
Composition for 12
Instruments (Original
version)
Cygnus Ensemble/
Jeffrey Milarsky
New York City
Laderman (GS)
Nonet of the Night
Contemporary Ensemble/
David Stock
Pittsburgh, PA
WEDNESDAY
Tower (AMP)
April 28
Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 1 ★★
Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 5 ★★
Tres Lent ★★
Wild Purple ★★
Tonhalle Orchestra/Marin Alsop
Zurich, Switzerland
WEDNESDAY
Saariaho (CH)
Nymphea Reflections
(April 20 - 22, 25)
Boston Symphony/
Robert Spano
Wyner (AMP)
(April 20)
Dances of Atonement
Brigitte Sulem, violin
Yehudi Wyner, piano
Menton, France
Shostakovich (GSR)
Symphony No. 10
Violin Concerto No. 1
(April 20 - 22)
Maxim Vengerov, violin
New York Philharmonic/
Mstislav Rostropovich
Lincoln Center
Violin Concerto No. 2
(April 20, 21)
Ilya Gringolts, violin
Montreal Symphony/
Eliahu Inbal
WEDNESDAY
Transient Glory
April 30
Adamo (GS)
Garland ★★★
Adams (AMP)
Harmonielehre
Ellington (GS)
Harlem
BBC National Orchestra of
Wales/Kristjan Jarvi
Cardiff, Wales
Falla (CH)
Nights in the Gardens of
Spain
(April 7)
Memphis Symphony/
David Loebel
Prokofiev (GSR)
Symphony No. 5
Shostakovich (GSR)
Festive Overture
Symphony No. 1
(April 7 - 9)
Seattle Symphony/
Mstislav Rostropovich
Corigliano (GS)
Piano Concerto
(April 7-9)
Atlanta Symphony
Orchestra/Robert Spano
THURSDAY
Gubaidulina (GSR)
Introitus — Concerto for
Piano and Chamber
Orchestra
Eastman School of
Music/Martin Seggelke
Rochester, NY
Harbison (AMP)
Confinement
Indiana University/
Claude Baker
Bloomington, IN
Gruenberg (GM)
Jazz Suite
(April 14, 15)
Utah Symphony/
Keith Lockhart
Salt Lake City, UT
Ives (AMP)
Fourth of July
Washington's Birthday
(April 14, 15)
San Francisco Symphony/
Michael Tilson Thomas
THURSDAY
Rodríguez (ALH)
Musical Dice Game ★★★
(April 21 - 22)
Dallas Symphony/
Andrew Litton
Danielpour (AMP)
Margaret Garner
(April 22, 23)
Toni Morrison, libretto
Opera Carolina/
Stefan Lano
Charlotte, NC
Tan Dun
Paper Concerto
Secret Land
Orchestre National de
Lyon/Tan Dun
Lyon, France
Ives (AMP)
Fourth of July
Washington’s Birthday
San Francisco Symphony/
Michael Tilson Thomas
New York City
THURSDAY
Corigliano (GS)
Gazebo Dances
University of Nebraska
Lincoln, NE
Shostakovich (GSR)
Symphony No. 9
(April 28, 29)
Pittsburgh Symphony/
Andrew Davis
Corigliano (GS)
One Sweet Morning ★★★
Young People's Chorus of New York/
Francisco Nunez
Society for Ethical Culture
New York City
WEDNESDAY
Malcolm Arnold (PAT)
A Grand, Grand Overture
Rochester Orchestra and
Chorale/Jere Lantz
Rochester, MN
THURSDAY
Adamo (GS)
Little Women
(April 9)
University of Arizona
Opera Theatre
Tucson, AZ
Husa (AMP)
Les Couleurs Fauves
Bemidgi State University
Wind Ensemble/
R. Winther
Bemidgi, MN
Corigliano (GS)
Symphony No. 1
National Symphony
Orchestra/Leonard Slatkin
New York City
To Music
(April 8)
Hartford Symphony/
Edward Cumming
Hartford, CT
FRIDAY
Corigliano (GS)
Concerto for Violin and
Orchestra “The Red
Violin”
(April 15)
Maria Bachman, violin
Omaha Symphony/
Victor Yampolsky
Omaha, NE
Mahler / completed by
Remo Mazzetti (AMP)
Symphony No. 10
Danubia Symphony
Orchestra/Stephen
Guzenhauser
Hungary
FRIDAY
Frank (GS)
Requiem for a Magical
America: El Día de los
Muertos ★★★
Kansas University Wind
Ensemble/John Lynch
Lawrence, KS
German Tour
Adams (AMP)
Harmonielehre
Bundesjugendorchester
Bonn/Steven Sloane
Cologne, Germany
The Beatles / arranged
by Jeff Tyzik (ATV)
Barber (GS)
Beatles Hits Medley
Violin Concerto
Orchestre Philharmonique (April 22)
Vancouver Symphony
Liege/Louis Langree
Orchestra/Jeff Tyzik
Brussels, Belgium
FRIDAY
Kapilow (GS)
Dr. Seuss’s Gertrude
McFuzz
Houston Symphony
Gubaidulina (GS)
Two Paths (A Dedication
to Mary and Martha)
(April 29)
Toledo Symphony
Lutoslawski (CH)
Symphony No. 4
(April 29 - May 17)
Los Angeles
Philharmonic/Salonen
Mechem (GS)
Tartuffe
(April 30, May 3, 6)
Brenda Nuckton, stage
director; Portland State
University/Steven
Crawford
Portland, OR
FRIDAY
Schnittke (GSR)
Moz-Art à la Haydn
Brooklyn Philharmonic/
Michael Christie
New York City
SATURDAY
Family Concert
Kapilow (GS)
Dr. Seuss’s Gertrude
McFuzz
Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs
and Ham
Boston Symphony
Orchestra/Keith Lockhart
Kernis (AMP)
Musica Celestis
Western Piedmont
Symphony/J.G. Ross
Hickory, NC
Menotti (GS)
The Boy Who Grew
Too Fast
Novaya Rossie State
Symphony Orchestra
Moscow, Russia
Corigliano (GS)
The Red Violin: Chaconne
for Violin and Orchestra
(April 9)
Cape Symphony
Orchestra/Royston Nash
Yarmouth Port, MA
SATURDAY
Kapilow
(GS) Year
70th Birthday
Dr.
Seuss’s(NOV)
Gertrude
Bennett
McFuzz
April 8
Houston Symphony/
A Contemplation
Upon Flowers; A Good-Night;
Carlos
Miguel Prieto
Calico Pie; Noctuary; Town and Country
Rolf Hind, piano; BBC Singers/Stephen Cleobury
Actaeon (Metamorphosis I)
David Pyatt, horn; BBC Symphony Chorus and
Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins
Anniversaries; Sea-Change; Symphony No. 3
BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra/
Martyn Brabbins
London, England
SATURDAY
Wolfe (RP)
Accordion
Concerto ★★★
Guy Klucevsek, accordion
Gotham Sinfonietta/
George Steel
Miller Theatre
New York City
Harbison (AMP)
Remembering Gatsby
Maryland Symphony/
Elizabeth Schultz
Hagerstown, MD
Husa (AMP)
Music for Prague 1968
Northwestern University/
V. Yampolsky
Chicago, IL
Kapilow (GS)
Dr. Seuss’s Gertrude
McFuzz (Orchestral
version)
(April 23, 24)
Utah Symphony/
Keith Lockhart
Salt Lake City, UT
SATURDAY
Catan (AMP)
Florencia En El
Amazonas ★★
(May 2, 4, 20, June 16,
July 2, 6, 10, 21)
Heidelberg Opera
Heidelberg, Germany
Dorman (GS)
String Quartet No. 2,
“Mirage” ★
Jerusalem Quartet
92nd Street Y
New York City
Glass (DUN)
Modern Love Waltz
Voices of Change
Dallas, TX
Harbison (AMP)
Songs America Loves
to Sing
Dinosaur Annex/John
Harbison
Newtonville, MA
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
★★★ World premiere / ★★ US or Country premiere / ★ New York City premiere / ALH Alhambra RXR / AMP Associated Music Publishers / ATV Sony/ATV Songs LLC / B&H Breitkopf & Härtel / CMC Carlanita Music / CDM Chant du Monde /
CH Chester Music / CUR J. Curwen & Sons / DUN Dunvagen / EMI EMI Music Publishing / EWM Weintraub Music / G&C Gould & Chappell / GM GunMar / GS G. Schirmer / GSA G. Schirmer Australia / GSR G. Schirmer Russian / HC Hansen-Chester NY /
HH Hansen-Helsinki / KON Kongcha / MAL Malcolm Music / MAR Margun / MGW Whelan / MS Music Sales / NOR Northlight Music / NOV Novello / NS Nordiska / PPI Parnassus/ PAT Paterson / POL Polygram / RP Red Poppy /
SHA Shawnee Press / SIK Sikorski / TEM Templeton / TPO Tempo / WH Wilhelm Hansen / UME Unión Musical Ediciones
Anni
ver
saries
Concerto for a Unique Beast
Lindberg at Harvard
“I love Julia’s music.” George Steel, director of
Accordion Concerto 20'
Columbia University’s Miller Theatre,
Solo Accordion; 111(bcl)1/
comments simply and directly in anticipation
1+Ctpt.11/perc/hp.pf/2vn.va.vn.db
of his conducting the Gotham Sinfonietta’s 22
April world premiere of Julia Wolfe’s Accordion Concerto, which features
soloist Guy Klucevsek.
15 April. The taxman
cometh...oh, the dreaded day.
But it’s not all death and taxes
this year — on this day —
because it also brings a
Magnus Lindberg portrait
concert at Harvard University,
where Lindberg is visiting this
spring and serving as Fromm
Professor of Music. The
concert features performances
of the Clarinet Quintet,
Steamboat Bill Jr., and Ur.
“I have been crazy about Julia’s music since I first heard it,” Steel enthuses.
“She is certainly a Miller Theatre favorite, in that we’ve presented her in a
Composer Portrait and performed a cycle of her complete string quartets.”
Wolfe’s Accordion Concerto was commissioned as part of a three-year project to
create and introduce new pocket concerti, and the work premieres during this
first year of the series. Steel continues, “I wanted to include Julia in this project
from its conception...I asked her what kind of concerto she would like to write,
and she chose the accordion — and it’s an ideal match of composer and
instrument, I think. She also chose the wonderful
At the end of April, Wolfe
Guy Klucevsek. He is, of course, an amazing
travels to Berlin to serve a
player, and he is the ideal partner in creating the
week-long residency with
world premiere of this wonderful work.”
the Berlin Komische Oper,
which will present the
Wolfe chose to write for the accordion because, as
German premiere of her
orchestral work Window of she describes, “It is a unique beast. It has ‘lived’ in
such great contexts. Guy’s been terrific at guiding
Vulnerability.
me through the terrain and it’s a kind of ecstatic
ballad with flying glissandos and pulsating chords. It’s a wild, crazy,
emotional, beautiful piece.” Steel adds, “I’ve had a sneak peek at the music —
it is amazing. I can’t wait for the rehearsals to begin!”
Guy Klucevsek
Since New Year’s, Lindberg’s
music has been au courant as
the International
Contemporary Ensemble (led
by Timothy Weiss) has
presented portrait concerts at
the University of California at
Berkeley and Columbia
University.
Magnus Lindberg
credit: Richard Haughton
Review
Magnus Lindberg
Clarinet Quintet
Related Rocks
A brief but intense album. Magnus Lindberg’s
Clarinet Quintet [is] complex and dissonant...but if
you focus on the timbral contrasts between
Takashi Yamane, clarinet; George
clarinet and strings and on the incessant, clever
van Dam and Igor Sememoff,
counterpoint, you will be rewarded... Opening
violin; Paul De Clerck, viola;
with ominous, deep piano sounds and distant,
Geert De Bievre, cello; Miguel
metallic ones, Related Rocks is fascinating and
Bernat and Georges-Elis Octors,
impressive...it is one of the most skillfully
percussion; Jean-Luc Fafchamps
and Jean-Luc Plouvier, piano
assembled electro-acoustic works I have heard...
Megadisc CD 7835
Barry Kilpatrick, American Record Guide
Review
Nikos Skalkottas
Piano Concerto No. 2
Here [is another] installment in BIS’s ambitious and
revelatory series of Nikos Skalkottas recordings...
Skalkottas’s Second Piano Concerto [is] a threemovement work from 1937 that recalls
Geoffrey Douglas Madge, piano
Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto in its union of 12BBC Symphony/Christodoulou
tone themes with neoclassical form. It comes as
BIS SACD 1484
something of a shock to realize Skalkottas’s
concerto predates Schoenberg’s by six years. This
is a demanding work that repays careful listening... this would make a fine
introduction to the composer’s music for hesitant first-timers...
Mark L. Lehman, American Record Guide
6
credit: Jack Vartoogian
Review
Richard Danielpour
David Lang
“Elevated”
...All of this music is...compelling when combined
with the associated films on the DVD. Wed, a brief
piano prelude where a slow, out-of-focus progression
supports a sinking, fractured melody...is used
Wed
as a background for William Wegman’s Treat
Lisa Moore, piano
Bottle... How to Pray seems to have inspired
How to Pray
the 2005 film of the same name by Bill
Mike Svoboda, trombone; Audrey
Morrison... Old footage of 1935 Midtown
Riley, cello and Hammond organ;
Andrew Zolinsky, piano; James
Manhattan and Coney Island offers material
Woodrow, electric guitar; Nick
for Matt Mullican’s Elevated...combined with
Album and Rob Allum, drums
Lang’s Men, the message of intractable
Men
cultural and physical deterioration couldn’t be
European Music Project/Grözinger
clearer. This turns out to be a useful and
Cantaloupe Music
CA 21029 (CD and DVD)
expressive interdisciplinary release.
Allen Gimbel, American Record Guide
Review
Peter Lieberson
Neruda Songs 30'
The great music of the afternoon came
Spanish texts by Pablo Neruda
with Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs for
Mezzo-soprano;
mezzo-soprano and orchestra. The soloist
2(pic).1+ca.2(bcl).2/2200/2perc.hp.pf/str
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano
was Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, the
Boston Symphony/Robertson
composer’s wife... The Neruda Songs — a
11 March 2006; Kennedy Center,
setting of five love poems on deep and
Washington, DC
wrenching subjects such as passing delight,
memory, fear of separation and transcendence beyond death — is one of the
most extraordinary affecting artistic gifts ever created by one lover to another...
The score is achingly lovely, a genuine mixture of modernism and romanticism
that has been sumptuously orchestrated and charged with the same appreciative
ripeness that pervades Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs... I hope the Neruda
Songs are recorded, for they are just as universal as they are shatteringly personal.
Tim Page, Washington Post
Review
John Harbison
Milosz Songs 30'
The challenge for a composer in
World Premiere
selecting texts for musical setting is to
Texts by Czeslaw Milosz
find words that are meaningful and
3(pic.afl).2(ca).2(bcl).2(cbn)/2.2.2(btbn).0/
timp.3perc/hp.cel/str (10.10.8.6.4 max)
intriguing on their own terms but
Dawn Upshaw, soprano
also invite music. John Harbison
New York Philharmonic/Spano
chose well in fashioning 10 poems by
20 February 2006; Avery Fisher Hall,
the Nobel Prize-winning writer
Lincoln Center, New York City
Czeslaw Milosz into a text for Milosz
Songs... Mr. Harbison was drawn to Milosz’s poetry not just for its content,
but also for its musical qualities... His lucid and precisely wrought music
complements Milosz’s gripping words...[with] its audible textures and
essentially tonal harmonic language, rather well mannered and softspoken...there are imaginative strokes in every phrase...
Anthony Tommasini, New York Times
credit: Mike Minehan
From 7-9 April, the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra (PA) performs
Richard Danielpour’s Adagietto and honors him with its Composer’s
Award, the oldest symphonic award in the country. Previous G.
Schirmer/AMP recipients include: Stephen Albert, John Corigliano,
Henry Cowell, Paul Creston, Norman Dello Joio, David Diamond,
Morton Gould, John Harbison, Alan Hovhaness, Ulysses Kay, Aaron Jay
Kernis, Gian Carlo Menotti, Walter Piston, Gunther Schuller, William
Schuman, Virgil Thomson, and Joan Tower.
Afterwards, Danielpour heads south to Charlotte for Opera Carolina’s
production of Margaret Garner, a remarkable fourth production since
the opera’s premiere less than a year ago.
New CDs
Leonardo Balada
Quasi un Pasadoble
Seville Radio Symphony/Alonso-Crespo
Naxos CD 8557749
Michael Gordon
AC/DC
David Lang
I Fought the Law
Sentieri Selvaggi
Cantaloupe Music CA 21030
Bright Sheng
World Premiere recording
Tibetan Dance
Verdehr Trio
Crystal Records CD 946
John Tavener
World Premiere recording
Lament for Jerusalem
Angharad Gruffydd Jones, soprano; Peter Crawford,
counter-tenor
Orchestra and Choir of London/Summerly
Naxos CD 8557826
7
G. Schirmer, Inc.
Associated Music Publishers, Inc.
257 Park Avenue South, 20th Floor
New York, NY 10010
Address Correction Requested
To receive Schirmer News
electronically, contact us at
[email protected]
On the Internet at
http://www.schirmer.com
Copyright © 2006 by G. Schirmer, Inc.
Articles from Schirmer News may be copied for
noncommercial educational and informational
purposes provided that credit is given to
G. Schirmer News as the source.
Deborah Horne, Editor
Shawn Feeney, Layout Editor
Review
Review
Sofia Gubaidulina
Feast During a Plague
John Harbison
Mottetti di Montale
25'
...Simon Rattle
World Premiere
came to town to
4(2pic).4.3(ebcl)+bcl/
lead the première
6431/timp.3perc/2hp.
pf(cel)/str; audio CD
of Sofia
Philadelphia
Gubaidulina’s Feast
Orchestra/Rattle
During a Plague,
15 Feburary 2006;
which had the
Philadelphia, PA
power of a
prophetic utterance. Gubaidulina
intended her work as an eagle-eyed view
of a riven world — abject misery on the
one hand, empty-headed pleasure-seeking
on the other — and she found a potent
metaphor for her vision. A mammoth
landscape of orchestral desolation, mixing
craggy fanfares and insectoid movement
up and down the chromatic scale, is
periodically disrupted by blasts of
prerecorded techno music. The piece
builds to a numbing polyrhythmic
climax, then shatters into silence...
Alex Ross, The New Yorker
This is an
updated and
completed
orchestration
of Harbison’s
1980 cycle of
songs on
poems by
contemporary
Janice Felty and Margaret
Italian
Lattimore, sopranos
symbolist
Collage New Music/Hose
Koch CD 8545
Eugenio
Montale... It’s
good to have these arresting songs in their
full form... Harbison’s wonderful
orchestration underlines the colorful tonepainting... The writing is atmospheric and
expressive, as are Montale’s texts (sung in
Italian), but those texts definitely express
the longings of a mail protagonist...
Anyone interested in contemporary vocal
repertoire should snap this up post haste.
Allen Gimbel, American Record Guide
Soloist excerpt from John Harbison’s Concerto for Bass Viol and Orchestra. World
premiere: 1 April 2006. Joel Quarrington, doublebass. Toronto Symphony,
conducted by Hugh Wolff. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Copyright 2006 by
Associated Music Publishers (BMI). New York, NY. International Copyright
Secured. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.