Fri.8.1 First Night

Friday, August 1, 8:00pm Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium

Eric Lindsay: Darkness Made Visible (World Premiere)
David W. Sanford: Scherzo Grosso (Matt Haimovitz , cello)
Christopher Rouse: Concerto for Orchestra (World Premiere/Cabrillo Festival Commission)

PROGRAM NOTES:

Sinfonia (2006) (US Premiere)
Stephen McNeff (b. 1951)

Sinfonia was commissioned by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra as part of the Composer in the House (the equivalent of our Composer-in-Residence) funded by the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Performing Right Society Foundation. It was introduced on March 20, 2007 by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop at the Anvil in Basingstoke and on BBC Radio 3. McNeff notes that “This work was written to be played at the start of a concert so breaks between movements are short and there is an overall feeling of forward momentum. It can obviously be played anywhere, but the first and third moments should be played briskly—though not excessively fast. The second moment (which may be played separately) should never drag.” He has written the following note:

My Sinfonia was written as part of my time as ‘Composer in the House’ with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra which commenced in 2005. The residency was funded by the Royal Philharmonic Society (the august body which commissioned Beethoven’s 9th Symphony) and the Performing Right Society Foundation (the UK equivalent of the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers). It was designed to put the composer ‘at the heart of the orchestra’ and to forge a meaningful three-way relationship between the audience, the orchestra and the composer.

Sinfonia was the third major work written for the BSO and was premiered in early 2007 under the baton of Marin Alsop. Marin had already given the premiere of Heiligenstadt and Secret Destinations, both very different works. Secret Destinations had no restrictions on time or size, Heiligenstadt was written to a particular brief- to be played before Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.

Sinfonia was similarly written for a specific—though less defined—place in the programme. In this case I was asked for a work that could open the evening. That position places particular requirements on a composer, especially when, as at the premiere, the work has to fit with a following programme of well-established romantic pieces. It not usually the place to write an extended essay, and I was given a time limit. There is also an implicit expectation that it will be a work that can introduce the evening, perhaps filling the function of an overture or similar work.

As resident composer with the BSO I was happy to accept this brief; after all I was there to serve the Orchestra’s needs and build bridges to new audiences.

At first I thought of an overture type of piece and came round to toying with the Italian Overture model of fast–slow–fast. The great exponent of this form in the seventeenth century was Allesandro Scarlatti, but it was adopted widely. It reached England and the ears of William Boyce, who—though rather neglected now—was an important composer in eighteenth century London, becoming Master of the King’s Music. Boyce helped develop the Italian Overture into the early form of the Symphony and left eight excellent examples (all recorded by the BSO, as it happens). It was these that served as my model for a number of reasons. They are proper musical excursions in miniature, but they are also straight-forward and direct, communicating their intention clearly with a minimum of extraneous material. I also liked Boyce’s uninhibited use of rhythm, his energy and momentum occasionally interrupted with more lyrical sections. They are compact and effective.

This seemed a good template on which to base my work and so my Sinfonia follows the pattern of the eighteenth century three movement fast-slow-fast opening work. Although quick in tempo, there is quietness about the first movement which opens with solo percussion before giving way to an extended string tune. I used a slightly reduced orchestra (only one trombone and just double wind, for instance,) because I wanted to preserve something of the lightness and flexibility of the eighteenth century model and avoid the romantic temptations of a heavy brass section. This movement develops briefly, but soon comes back to where it began– subtlety changed, but concise.

In the second movement I reduced the orchestra even more, with no auxiliary percussion and a limited role for woodwinds. The movement, which is highly lyrical, features expressive solos for the principal winds and horn and is an example of my attempt to speak very directly. I agree with composer Johns Adams’ philosophy of ‘shared cultural symbols’, a common language which allows us to communicate and comprehend without distance.

I mentioned that I liked Boyce’s use of 6/8 rhythms and the third movement is in this form. These rhythms end up going in curious directions with cross-current variations. The orchestra now employs additional winds like bass clarinet and double bassoon. With this expanded palette I was able to write episodes for brass and wind alone. Towards the end the whole orchestra raucously reiterates the main tune which contributes to the overall dance–like boisterousness of the movement, finishing on a bright note propelling us forward into the rest of the evening.

Not recorded

Darkness Made Visible (2003, rev. 2008) (World Premiere)
Eric Lindsay (b. 1980)
Santa Cruz native Eric Lindsay wrote the original version of Darkness Made Visible in 2003 and it was first performed in November of that year by the Thornton Symphony Orchestra at the University of Southern California, with Donald Crockett conducting. Marin Alsop heard a tape of the USC performance of Darkness Made Visible, sent to her by Lindsay’s publisher, and was interested enough to program it in this year’s Cabrillo Festival. Lindsay took the opportunity to revise the work for this performance, so this is a world premiere of the revised version. He has written the following notes:

Darkness Made Visible is the collision of two opposing musical forces: one angular, aggressive and disjointed; the other conservative, predictable and harkening back to Lisztian bravura. Though initially isolated from each other, these two uncompromising forces culminate near the middle of the piece in a climactic sonal blowout after several disastrous attempts to coalesce. Midway, the piece restarts from scratch—with all elements that make each musical style distinct from the other (harmonically, rhythmically, texturally, and melodically) stripped away—tasked with the challenge of rebuilding the disparate themes, this time merged into one. In this process, the melodic contour of one theme roughly conforms to the harmonic implications of the other; the rhythmic characteristics of one manipulate the metric regularity (or irregularity) of the other; and so on. As in any merger, the tenor of the rest of the piece is shaped by the high-stakes race between which type of music will retain the most identity in the ultimate synthesis. While containing recognizable characteristics of the original styles, the end result is a singular entity entirely different than the themes heard at the beginning of the work.

Not recorded

Scherzo Grosso (2005, orch. 2006)
David Sanford (b. 1963)

The original version of Scherzo Grosso was composed in 2005 for solo cellist Matt Haimovitz and big band (five saxophones, five trumpets, five trombones, piano, electric guitar, bass and drum set), as part of the cellist’s “Buck the Concerto” series of cello concerti with unconventional ensembles. It was introduced by Haimovitz and the Pittsburgh Collective in May of 2005 at the Knitting Factory in Manhattan and recorded for Oxingale Records, who released it on the disc Live at the Knitting Factory in January of 2007. Commissioning funds were provided in part by the Sergei Koussevitzky Foundation through the Library of Congress, and the work is dedicated to the memory of Sergei and Natalie Koussevitzky. The orchestral version was completed in 2006. David Sanford has provided the following note:

While the influences in the piece are numerous, the main underlying thread is the memory of Ed Nelson (1962-2004), a trumpet player with the Pittsburgh Collective and a close friend of several members of the band. A fundamental trait of Nelson’s character was his widely divergent and unpredictable nature; a possible musical genius who received straight A’s in college, dropped out only a few credits short of his degree, and often withdrew from public performance for long stretches at a time.

While a simple reading of the concerto’s pairing might suggest that the cello represents the more “sacred” and the big band/orchestra the “profane”, in actuality each explores aspects of both idioms, and the ground in between. The big band often veers closer to “European” than “jazz”, breaking down into chamber groups at certain points. At the same time, the cello often acts as a jazz or rock soloist (movements 1 and IV), or as part of a rhythm section as Deidre Murray and Abdul Wadud have with Henry Threadgill’s groups, or Hank Roberts with Tim Berne, among others. Those familiar with Mr. Haimovitz’s work won’t be surprised to hear him backed by drums, playing saxophone lines with the woodwind section, or imitating an electric guitar. Although the orchestral version is fully notated, there are improvised trumpet solos in the second and fourth movements of the big band original which are replaced by a notated trumpet solo in the second movement (several of the ideas taken from Dave Ballou’s 2005 performance with the Pittsburgh Collective), and written flute/woodwind soli in the fourth.

Suggested recording:
Live at the Knitting Factory
Matt Haimovitz, cello, with the Pittsburgh Collective
Oxingale Records B000KQF7O8

Concerto for Orchestra (2008) (World Premiere)
Christopher Rouse (b. 1949)

For many years, Christopher Rouse was practically a fixture at the Cabrillo Festival. Since 1993, his works were featured every year except 1996 and 2003, and he has been a guest composer in 1994, 1999 and 2004. Works by Rouse performed at the Festival, almost all of which have been West Coast premieres, include Iscariot in 1993, Rotae Passionis and the Trombone Concerto in 1994, Gorgon in 1995, the percussion pieces Ogoun Badagris and Ku-Ka-Ilimoku in 1997, the Symphony No. 2 in 1998, the Flute Concerto in 1999, Der gerettete Alberich and the Symphony No. 1 in 2000. The Festival performed Rouse’s Rapture and his Violin Concerto in 2001, and in 2002, devoted an entire concert to his works, including Envoi, Kabir Padavali, Phaethon and Phantasma. Additional Festival performances include Rouse’s Concerto per Corde and his guitar concerto Concert de Gaudi, both performed in 2004. After a four-year hiatus, Rouse returns this year with Concerto for Orchestra, a work commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival and dedicated to Marin Alsop in honor of the Festival’s longtime staff members Ellen Primack and Tom Fredericks. Completed on February 24, 2008 in Baltimore, Rouse has written the following program note:

As is typically the case with this genre, it is the members of the orchestra who are the soloists. Each is given passages requiring everything from singing lyricism to challenging virtuosity, and this work is essentially about allowing each player a chance to shine.

Having composed ten other concerti prior to this one, I have always had to wrestle with finding an effective form for the piece. Here I wanted to depart from the standard three- or four-movement concerto and construct something entirely different. I decided to divide the concerto into connected halves (the term being used loosely), The first half would be made up of five rather brief sections—fast, slow, fast, slow, fast—in which the fast parts would share and develop the same musical material, while the slow ones would share and explore different material. The second half would consist of two sections, a slow one and a fast one, each meant to represent a sort of “full blossoming” of the related ideas from their counterparts earlier on. My hope was to draw the listener in more and more as the work progressed, with the final allegro building to a frenzied—almost hysterical—climax.

 
Concerto for Orchestra is dedicated to Marin Alsop in honor of Ellen Primack and Tom Fredericks

It was commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
with generous support from the following patrons:
Marin Alsop
Bruce and Linda Nicholson
Leslie and Richard Andrews, in memory of Maxine E. Andrews
Richard Faggioli
Elisabeth & Thomas Jones
Wilmot J. Nicholson
Roland & Patricia Rebele
Claire Schneeberger & Joshua Salesin
Richard & Mary Solari
Birgit Weskamp & Robert Kilpatrick

Additional support was granted by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Concerto for Orchestra will receive its East Coast Premiere in November 2008 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop.


Not recorded