One World Premiere, two West Coast Premieres, and three composers-in-residence usher us into the Festival's 48th anniversary season. Maestra Marin Alsop leads her award-winning Festival Orchestra in the West Coast Premiere of British composer Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Scherzoid. One of the most admired and widely performed composers of his generation, Turnage is known for his skillful blend of classical and jazz idioms. Scherzoid has been described as “a kaleidoscopic riot of blue-hued harmonies and silvery tuned percussion...”
The spotlight then turns to the West Coast Premiere of a concerto for sextet and orchestra titled, On a Wire, written by 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon expressly for the acclaimed new music ensemble eighth blackbird. CityBeat raves that eighth blackbird's "sheer exuberance and affection for the music is as much a draw as the music itself." The evening concludes with the World Premiere of Michael Hersch’s Symphony No. 3. The Financial Times of London describes Hersch as "... one of the most fertile musical minds to emerge in the U.S. over the past generation." Festival audiences will fondly remember the premieres of Hersch's first and second highly acclaimed symphonies. After waiting almost ten years to return to composing for full orchestra, Hersch wanted his next symphony to be premiered by Marin and her Cabrillo Festival Orchestra. His return is a long awaited homecoming for a highly anticipated Festival commission. You can count on another Opening Night that puts you at the center of the creative process and brings the art of new music to stunning realization.
"...Higdon’s On a Wire—showy, exuberant, beautifully crafted.... At the climactic rush and the thwack of the bass drum at the end, the audience erupted, hollered, stood, smiled, laughed with communal euphoria and—this is key—gave the petite Higdon, when she walked to center stage, the loudest and lustiest ovation of all."—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Violinist Matt Albert of sextet eighth blackbird describes On a Wire.
Jennifer Higdon interviewed by John Clare at Meyerson Symphony Hall in Dallas, TX May 15th, 2010.
(The 2010 opening night begins with an outdoor Pre-Concert Talk by Marin Alsop and a special ticketed dinner prepared by Feast for a King and served alfresco at the Civic Auditorium. Reservations required.)
For those who cannot attend Opening Night, the concert will be broadcast live via webstream and on KUSP radio, starting at 7pm PST.
Program Notes
Scherzoid(2003-04) - West Coast Premiere Mark-Anthony Turnage (b. 1960)
Scherzoid was co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic with generous support from the Francis Goelet Fund, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra with generous support from the South Bank Centre, in collaboration with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Assistant Conductor Xian Zhang conducted the New York Philharmonic in the premiere on January 12, 2005.
Scherzoid is a continuous work consisting of three Scherzo sections alternating with two Trios, the first a little more relaxed and the second distinctly calmer. Anthony Burton, who wrote the program note for the London Philharmonic premiere on January 26, 2005, has graciously provided the following comment:
The piece alternates virtually throughout—not just from Scherzos to Trios but also within sections—between two tempos, the first fast, the second only a little slower; but also between compound time (mostly 6/8), with the pulse divided into three eighth- notes, and simple time (4/4, for example) with a quarter-note divided into two eighths, often “lightly swung.” The scoring is for the most part kaleidoscopically varied, with incisive rhythmic figures and little scraps of material tossed from section to section, but there are also episodes in which the textures coagulate into denser masses. There is also one sustained, simple melody that initially appears threading its way through the textures of Scherzo 1, and which recurs several times, most notably bursting into multiple flower in the calmer Trio 2. After this, Scherzo 3 includes some recapitulation of earlier passages before taking off in a forceful acceleration to a few bars at a very fast speed, then breaking up into huge glissandos and long-held chords which at last break free of the work’s constant pulsation.
Mark-Anthony Turnage wrote the following comment for the New York premiere: The original idea of Scherzoid, reflected in its jokey title, was that the work was to be a scherzo that changed personalities. After the New York Philharmonic played it through last March [2004], I decided that it needed restructuring, and now it is less changeable. In the work’s new form, much of its material is, in some ways, more unifying throughout. I still felt loyal to the original title because it does describe my original sketches of the piece; however, the title now refers less to the work’s structure than it does to its compositional process.
This piece posed a new challenge for me: it was almost a test of whether I could write continuous fast music, which I have never written before for such an extended duration. I find it more natural to write slow, lyrical music; even in relatively short works I have included about five minutes of really slow music. Scherzoid is faster throughout, even in its somewhat slower Trio sections.
Although much has been said of my non-musical or contemporary influences, funny enough, the music I have been writing recently is less connected to visual arts, poetry, and literature than was the music I had written earlier. I have become more obsessed with the music I grew up with—the works of composers such as Bach and Beethoven—so now there is often a “hidden piece” that lies behind my newer compositions. There are no direct quotations, but such a work may “peek through” sometimes, as in a time signature. Scherzoid’s hidden influence is what I would call the ghost of the Scherzo in Beethoven’s Ninth, which hovers in the background.
Suggested recording: London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jonathon Nott London Philharmonic B000865BO
On a Wire (2009) - West Coast Premiere Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962)
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Jennifer Higdon is active as a freelance composer. Winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize, she was named 1999 Pew Fellow in the Arts and is also a recipient of several awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and two awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her orchestral work, Shine, was named Best New Piece of the Year in USA Today's Top Picks in Classical Music for 1996.
Higdon’s works are recorded on ten discs, including recent releases on CRI and the Crystal label. Her pieces wissahickon poeTrees, My True Love's Hair, rapid.fire, Sing, Sing, and Deep In The Night have been released on separate labels. Recent commissions include works for the Minnesota Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the contemporary music group eighth blackbird, the Verdehr Trio, and the Van Cliburn Competition. Higdon currently teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
The Cabrillo Festival performed Higdon’s Fanfare Ritmico in 2001 and two pieces, her Concerto for Orchestra and blue cathedral, in 2004. The 2008 season saw the world premiere of the Saxophone Concerto, arranged from her earlier Oboe Concerto, and last season, a performance of her 2002 work Machine.
On a Wire was commissioned by the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Akron, Cincinnati, Toronto and West Michigan, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cabrillo Festival. It will be premiered on June 3, 2010 with eighth blackbird as soloists, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra conducted by Music Director Robert Spano. About On a Wire, Higdon writes:
Writing a concerto for one soloist and orchestra is a bit of a balancing act . . . so imagine throwing in five more soloists. On a Wire is eighth blackbird’s high-wire-act of a concerto. Having already written two chamber works for this group, I am familiar with their ability to do all sorts of cool things on their instruments, from extended techniques, to complex patterns, to exquisitely controlled lyrical lines. I also admire the pure joy that emanates from their playing, no matter what the repertoire.
Written as a one-movement work, On a Wire highlights the group as an ensemble, allows each member to solo, and utilizes some of their unique staging: the players move about and perform beyond their traditional instruments (the work begins with bowed piano). So imagine six blackbirds, sitting on a wire . . . To be recorded the same week as the premiere by eighth blackbird and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Spano. Recording has not yet been released.
Symphony No. 3 (2009) - World Premiere Michael Hersch (b. 1971)
Michael Hersch has made three previous appearances at the Cabrillo Festival, the first at the 1998 Festival for his Prelude and Fugue for Orchestra (1995). The 2000 Festival saw the West Coast premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (1999), and two years later the West Coast premiere of his Symphony No. 2 (2002). After an extended hiatus from composing large-orchestra works, the Festival welcomes Hersch’s return with the world premiere of his Symphony No. 3, commissioned in part by the Cabrillo Festival. He has written the following note:
Almost ten years has elapsed between the writing of my Symphony No. 2 and my Symphony No. 3. While I composed two small works for orchestra, Fracta in 2002, and Arraché in 2004, the Second Symphony was the last major work I wrote purely for large symphony orchestra. Soon after the Second Symphony's completion in 2001, I shifted my focus to a series of three large-scale solo and chamber works that have taken almost a decade now to complete. Each of these three pieces—The Vanishing Pavilions for solo piano, Last Autumn for horn and cello, and Cedar Apostles for solo piano—lasts well over two hours, and when completed this cycle will comprise approximately eight hours of music. It was not that I had lost interest in writing for orchestra over the past decade, but a desire to write the above-mentioned trilogy, coupled with the fact that I had written a relatively large number of pieces for orchestra over the ten-year period beginning in 1992 (the majority of which by the time I entered my thirties I was not happy with), led to an important realization. If I were to continue to grow in my capacities to compose for orchestra, I needed some distance. While the orchestra has always felt a natural source of inspiration for me, it was not until early 2009 that I felt compelled to re-engage and to commit to paper once again the music in my mind's ear; music requiring a large orchestral ensemble and a relatively broad canvas. This work is the result.
The Symphony No. 3 consists of seven movements. In duration, the first and last movements are the most substantial, occupying over half the work's approximate thirty-minute length. The inner movements function more as a series of intermezzi, although they are central to the work's overall structure. Within the interior of the piece, the second and sixth movements are quite dense and share much of the same emotional terrain as the opening and final movements (movement six moves without pause into the finale). Apart from the coda of the fifth movement, the third and fifth movements are identical, each lasting barely a minute. The fourth movement occupies its own space at the work's midpoint.
