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michael hersch: symphony no. 2 (2001) The Symphony No. 2 is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two Bb clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns in F, three C trumpets, two tenor trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, bass drum, large tam tam, two large military snare drums, large suspended cymbal, two large crash cymbals, anvil, large slap-stick, three tom toms, two sets large chimes, xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, harp, piano, and strings. Approximate performance time is twenty minutes. The Pittsburgh Symphony commissioned Michael Hersch's Symphony No. 2, and presented the World Premiere in April 2002, Mariss Jansons conducting. It received its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall on April 20, 2002 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Jansons conducting. Cabrillo will present its West Coast Premiere The composer provided the following background on his Symphony No. 2: This work was completed in Berlin in October 2001. I had begun the music earlier that year in Rome. While I have written a fair amount of music during the past few years, it has been more than two and a half years since writing my last work for full orchestra, Ashes of Memory. This Symphony, unlike my First of 1998-written in one large unbroken movement-is in four movements. Similarly however, it unfolds without pause, thereby creating the sense of one large gesture. The Symphony opens with a violent passage (Prestissimo) that, according to the composer, provides "the music's fundamental materials." Ultimately, the furor subsides, with a brief Andante episode serving as a bridge to the second movement (Adagio). The composer directs that the opening of this slow movement be played delicatissimo. However, the somewhat uneasy repose soon yields to a shattering climax, leading to a sequence in which the strings play "with great ferocity." The turmoil finally resolves to a mysterious passage in which four desks of first violins bow freely, and without vibrato. The resulting sonic "haze" serves as the backdrop for the work's third movement (Largo), which opens with seven solo cellos. The cellos, each marking one note at a time, introduce a haunting theme, "hinted at through all the previous music." This theme is soon incorporated by the violas and second violins, slowly unfolding into a dense contrapuntal texture. Once again, the music gathers inexorable momentum, finally accelerating into a stormy Presto, notable for a series of swirling ascending and descending figures that will return once again toward the Symphony's conclusion. An expanded reprise of the Symphony's opening portion (Tempo Primo; Prestissimo) is finally truncated by a potent restatement of the first movement's concluding pages-now marked Moderato, and signifying the commencement of the Symphony's finale. This recapitulation is followed by an Adagio, featuring "a nightmarish sequence played by a much-reduced orchestra." Suddenly, the orchestra launches the Symphony's final major sequence (Presto), a frenetic synthesis of the work's opening and third movements. The violence subsides only in the work's last measures (Molto Adagio), featuring a pulsing figure in the harp and flutes, a clarinet solo, and a final, pianissimo statement by the lower strings. Reprinted by kind permission of the author Ken Meltzer and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
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