Opening Night features four West Coast Premieres and a World Premiere. Guggenheim Fellow Margaret Brouwer joins us for the West Coast Premiere of Pulse, a work that “builds from whispers to affirmation in the course of six minutes.” Alsop has long championed the work of Scottish composer James MacMillan and the West Coast premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 3 (The Mysteries of Light) features French pianist extraordinaire Jean-Yves Thibaudet. The Mysteries of Light is inspired by the Catholic Mysteries and revives the ancient practice of writing based on the structure of the rosary. Minneapolis' Star Tribune describes it as "a wild ride, overflowing with color and incident -- turbulent, incantatory and, at moments, luminous."
Composer Mason Bates is currently composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony and returns for the West Coast premiere of Desert Transport, a piece that contemplates the Arizona desert landscape from the high-flying perspective of a helicopter. Pulitzer and Grammy Award-winning composer Christopher Rouse returns for the West Coast Premiere of Odna Zhizn (A Life), a work he describes as an “homage to a person of Russian ancestry who is very dear to me.” This is the eighteenth of Rouse’s orchestral works featured by Alsop at the Cabrillo Festival. Of the piece the New York Times wrote, “Against a backdrop of haunting, pianissimo strings, which move at a glacial pace, Mr. Rouse imposes short bursts of fast, angular flute figures, darkly mysterious contributions from lower-lying woodwinds, and sudden bursts of fortissimo brass.” The evening closes with an anniversary “nightcap” by Philip Glass written in honor of Maestra Marin Alsop and titledBlack and White Scherzo.
The 2011 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 on KUSP radio and via webstream, starting at 7pm PST. Program Notes may be read below.
Program Notes
PULSE: a 50th Anniversary Fanfare (2003) - West Coast Premiere Margaret Brouwer (b. 1940)
Margaret Brouwer’s music has been critically acclaimed for its lyricism, musical imagery and emotional power. Recent works include commissions from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Women’s Symphony. She makes her Cabrillo Festival debut this season with her work Pulse.
Pulse was commissioned by Music Director David Wiley and the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra in honor of the RSO’s 50th Anniversary, and was supported by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Itwas introduced on April 14, 2003. Brouwer writes:
Rhythmic pulses of differing values exist over a steady grand pulse that is the same for all. The spirit motive emerges; mysterious, rustling, and whispery, flowing through with melody—and in the end becomes infused and strengthened by connections of differing values and pulses.
Suggested recording: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gerard Schwarz Naxos American B000CEVU6C
Desert Transport (2011) - West Coast Premiere Mason Bates (b. 1977)
Mason Bates is currently the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Mead Composer-in-Residence. He has enjoyed recent commissions from the San Francisco Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and last year was commissioned to write for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble made up of musicians from all over the world, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.
Mason Bates’ previous Cabrillo Festival appearances include the world premiere of his Rusty Air in Carolina (2006)and the West Coast premiere of Liquid Interface (composed in 2006) at the 2007 Festival.He returns this season with the West Coast premiere of Desert Transport, inspired by a recent trip to Arizona, commissioned and first performed by the Arizona MusicFest earlier this year. He has written the following note:
The piece considers the dynamic desert landscape from the high-flying perspective of a helicopter. The journey begins in the hubbub of an airport hangar but ultimately takes us to the colorful expanses of Sedona, Arizona, and the mystic heights of an Indian cliff dwelling.
Odna Zhizn (A Life) (2010) – West Coast Premiere Christopher Rouse(b. 1948)
For many years, Christopher Rouse was practically a fixture at the Cabrillo Festival. Since 1993, his works have been featured in numerous performances, and he has been a Festival guest composer a total of eight times.
Works by Rouse performed at the Festival, almost all of which have been West Coast premieres, include Iscariot (1989)in 1993, Rotae Passionis (1983) and the Trombone Concerto (1991) in 1994, Gorgon (1984) in 1995, the percussion pieces Ogoun Badagris (1976) and Ku-Ka-Ilimoku (1978) in 1997, the Symphony No. 2 (1994) in 1998, the Flute Concerto (1993) in 1999, Der gerettete Alberich (1997) and the Symphony No. 1 (1986) in 2000. The Festival performed Rouse’s Rapture (2000) and his Violin Concerto (1991) in 2001, and in 2002, devoted an entire concert to his works, including, Envoi (1995), Kabir Padavali (1997-98), Phaethon (1986) and Phantasma 1981/1985). Additional Festival performances include Rouse’s Concerto per Corde (1990) and his guitar concerto Concert de Gaudi (1999), both performed in 2004.
After a four-year hiatus, Rouse returned in 2008 with the world premiere of his Concerto for Orchestra, a work commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival in honor of Ellen Primack and Tom Fredericks, and dedicated to Marin Alsop. He returns this year with the West Coast premiere of Odna Zhizn.
Odna Zhizn received its world premiere on February 10, 2010 by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert.
Rouse has written the following note for Odna Zhizn:
In Russian, “odna zhizn” means “a life.” This fifteen-minute work has been composed in homage to a person of Russian ancestry who is very dear to me. Her life has not been an easy one, and the struggles she has faced are reflected in the sometimes-peripatetic nature of the music. While quite a few of my scores have symbolically translated various words into notes and rhythms, this process has been carried to an extreme degree in Odna Zhizn: virtually all of the music is focused on the spelling of names and other phrases, and it was an enormous challenge for me to fashion these materials into what I hoped would be a satisfying musical experience that functions both as the public portrayal of an extraordinary life as well as a private love letter.
In a review of the premiere, the New York Times described the piece:
“Against a backdrop of haunting, pianissimo strings, which move at a glacial pace, Mr. Rouse imposes short bursts of fast, angular flute figures, darkly mysterious contributions from lower-lying woodwinds, and sudden bursts of fortissimo brass. Eventually the strings abandon their Ivesian introspection and take up more vigorous themes of their own . . . the real action is in the huge percussion array, which not only contributes shimmering effects and underpins the brass bursts, but also provides the connective tissue between the string and wind writing.”
Piano Concerto No.3 (The Mysteries of Light) (2007-08) - West Coast Premiere James MacMillan (b. 1959)
Born in Ayrshire, Scotland, James MacMillan was educated at Edinburgh University and completed doctoral studies in composition at Durham University with John Casken. After serving as a lecturer in music at Manchester University, he returned to Scotland where he currently teaches at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. He was appointed affiliate composer of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in 1990 and also served as the visiting composer of the London Philharmonia and artistic director of its contemporary music series, Music of Today. He has been composer-in-residence for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and joined the BBC Philharmonic recently as its new composer/conductor.
MacMillan’s works include The Berserking, a piano concerto composed for Peter Donohoe and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Sinfonietta, commissioned by the London Sinfonietta; and Epiclesis, a trumpet concerto commissioned in 1992 by the Edinburgh Festival for John Wallace. Vocal works include the Seven Last Words from the Cross for chorus and strings, and MacMillan’s first opera, Inés de Castro, commissioned by the Scottish National Opera, which received its premiere in 1996.
MacMillan’s percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel (1992)was featured at the 1996 Cabrillo Festival and The Confessions of Isobel Gowdie (1990),the first of MacMillan’s works to draw attention, was performed at the Festival in 1999, while the following year saw the American premiere of his Triduum. In 2001 the Festival performed the American premiere of MacMillan’s Symphony No. 2 (1999), his Tryst (1989) in 2004 and the West Coast premiere of his violin concerto A Deep but Dazzling Darkness (2001-02) in 2005. In 2007 the Cabrillo Festival performed the American premiere of his Stomp (with Fate and Elvira), composed in 2006, and in 2009, the American premiere of Three Interludes from The Sacrifice (2005-06), MacMillan’s second opera.
The world premiere of James MacMillan’s Third Piano Concerto took place of April 14, 2011 at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, Minnesota with Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist, the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Music Director Osmo Vänskä. The composer writes:
My Third Piano Concerto, The Mysteries of Light, attempts to revive the ancient practice of writing music based on the structure of the Rosary. The most famous example of this is the collection of the Rosary (or Mystery) Sonatas for violin by Heinrich Biber, written in the late 17th century. These consist of fifteen movements based on the “Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries.” In 2002, another set of meditations was introduced by John Paul II, the “Luminous Mysteries,” and these are the basis of the five sections of this concerto.
However, the music here is in no way geared towards liturgy, or devotional in any accepted, traditional sense. Rather, each image or event becomes the springboard for a subjective reflection, and proceeds in quasi-dramatic fashion, not too distant in concept from the musical tone poem. The fusion of symphonic poem with concerto forms has long been a favorite pursuit of mine in earlier works. The music is in one single, continuous span, comprising five distinct portions:
Baptisma Iesu Christi: A snatch of plainsong acts as a refrain around which the piano plays fast, virtuosic episodes accompanied by a tolling bell and an ominous cantus firmus.
Miraculum in Cana: Speeds fluctuate here, but the general mood is celebratory and dance-inspired. A more solemn chorale theme is heard intermittently on lower instruments.
Proclamatio Regni Dei: After an initial flourish and trumpet proclamation, the general tone is serene and intimate, with a cantabile melody on the piano, decorated with upper ornamentation and resonance. Momentarily the mood darkens more boisterously before subsiding.
Transfiguratio Domini Nostri: This fast movement begins in the lower orchestral registers and gradually rises, adding more layers and activity before a climax. Only then does the piano appear, with music contrasted and mysterious, accompanied by tuned percussion and harp.
Institutio Eucharestiae: The finale is joyous and rhythmic, framed by syncopated “dance” refrains. This is interrupted by a more declamatory, incantatory episode, where the piano writing is more ruminative, freer and cadenza-like. In the final moments the opening plainsong idea makes a last appearance.
