SKVERASaturday, August 13 8:00pm Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium John Mackey: Redline Tango [West Coast Premiere] Redlining is pushing an engine to its power peak, where it simply can’t go any faster. Composer John Mackey asks the orchestra to do just that in his driving new work, Redline Tango, commissioned by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and performed at the BAM Opera House—just a straight shot down the New York subway “red line” from the composer’s home. Mackey, who writes extensively for dance, opens the work with a virtuosic “redlining” section for the orchestra, moves into a “tango” which is “rather light but demented,” and then leads us back to an even “redder” section for its finale. Mackey will join you for this West Coast Premiere, as will composer Stewart Wallace, best known for his operas Harvey Milk and Hopper’s Wife. Wallace is a musical storyteller of the first order, and tonight we’ll hear a tale of his grandparent’s old Ukrainian village, Skvera. Wallace’s electric guitar concerto, by the same name, features ‘guitar god’ Marc Ribot. It examines Wallace’s pre-Russian revolution roots from a contemporary vantage point, integrating industrial sounds with cantorial recordings, and painting musical portraits of old world cemeteries and synagogues. Commissioned by Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra at Kennedy Center, and written specifically for Ribot, Skvera will receive the World Premiere of its revised version this evening. And then, Pulitzer Prize winning composer John Adams' Harmonielehre will offer a monumental program finale. A 40-minute “towering landmark score,” Adams’ three-movement work marries the developmental techniques of minimalism with the harmonic and expressive world of the late Romantics. It begins with an earthbound and shady movement titled, “The Anfortas Wound,” which includes long, elegiac trumpet solos and an homage to Mahler; and concludes with an airy, serene and blissful final movement titled, “Meister Eckhardt and Quackie.” Harmonielehre is a thrilling success, destined to be a classic, and presented in a concert destined to be unforgettable! |
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