Zaimont
Symphony
Premieres
in Ukraine
|
Chief
Conductor and Artistic Director Vakhtang Jordania of the Kharkov Philharmonic
Orchestra.
Nowadays
even composers are taking their business offshore. Judith Lang Zaimont's
Symphony No. 2 “Remember Me” for Orchestral Strings received its World
Premiere last Friday by the Kharkov Philharmonic Orchestra under
the direction
of
resident conductor Yuri Yanko at Philharmonic Hall in the city of Kharkov,
northeastern Ukraine.
Zaimont
says she wrote the new Symphony in response to the death of her aunt Mildred
Friedman who died in 1988 unexpectedly at the relatively early age of 63.
"In
response to her death, I conceived the idea of a very personal, three-
movement work for string orchestra, Remember Me, in which I would contemplate
lineage and the influence of previous generations on future ones. The symphony
was written in 1999
and
2000.
"While
truly symphonic in its scope and length (30 minutes), “Remember Me” does
not conform to the traditional forms for its constituent movements, although
they follow a rough symphonic plan of Essay - Song - Dance // Fast - Slow
- Fast.
"The
second movement ‘Elegy’ was written first -- a long, songful lament. Then
I turned
to
the opening movement, ‘Ghosts’, in which I embed six composer ‘ghosts’
via references to their works. In three cases the references are
clear and unambiguous - Britten, Ravel, Scriabin -- while the other three
are briefer, and more beclouded - Laurie Anderson, Alban Berg, Christopher
Rouse. The music
of
all six composers is vital and interesting
to
me, so I organized the movement in a way that all the musics interpenetrate
and overlap, ‘bleeding’ into one another in novel, yet reasonable manners.
Naturally, the interpretation of these ‘ghosts’ is highly idiosyncratic,
and the total effect is to visit with influential fragments within a conception
that is wholly original.
"The
final movement, ‘Dancin’ over
my
grave’ is a passacaglia - but a demonic, jazzed-up one. Here, ghostly spirits
thumb their noses at death, cavorting about, though in a dark tone. There
is an American country-type fiddle-tune built from a minor third that passes
around the orchestra, transmutes, and periodically returns. The entire
orchestra dances madly, and a bit off-kilter. The movement ends wildly.
There
are many solo moments throughout Remember Me, and the concert-master reads
a completely independent part - albeit not a true center-stage solo - during
the entire work.”
Our
friend Jeffrey James, the classical music publicist, assumes us that the
Kharkov
Philharmonic is a superb orchestra whose illustrious history dates
from the early 19th Century, and includes concerts conducted
by
Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Koussevitsky, Kondrashin
and Rozhdestvensky. Soloists who have appeared with the orchestra have
included Wieniawski, Richter, Rostropovich, Sarasate, Chaliapin and many
other legends. Concert are given at the lovely and intimate Philharmonic
Hall.
Judith
Lang Zaimont teaches at the University of Minnesota and is an internationally
recognized composer whose music is characterized by its expressive strength,
dynamism, and rhythmic vitality. You can read our Electronic Dialogues
interview with her by clicking here.
JB
| Record
companies, artists and publicists are invited to submit CDs to be considered
for our Editor's Pick's of the month. Send to: Jerry Bowles, Editor,
Sequenza 21, 340 W. 57th Street, 12B, NY, NY 10019 Also, feel free
to nominate your favorite composer-- even if it's you--for Spotlight of
the Week. |
|
|
|
| BOMBS
COME IN MANY GUISES: A recent production of Mozart's Idomeneo at
the Paris Opera was a bit unconventional. It featured an "Act I ballet
with a dancing jellyfish attacked by Greek soldiers and then being comforted
by nuzzles from a seahorse. Idomeneo's sacrifice of his son, Idamante,
was foreshadowed by the simulated slaughter of a goat while dancing mermaids
provided levity." And the critics? "Critical reaction was, in some quarters,
incredulous. How could this happen in a major opera house? How could a
conductor of Ivan Fischer's caliber have such judgment lapses as a stage
director? Didn't anybody try to tell him?" Andante 05/07/02
MURRAY
ADASKIN, 96: Murray Adaskin, one of Canada's most prominent composers,
has died in Victoria at the age of of 96. "Adaskin, born in Toronto to
a musical family on March 26, 1906, had a distinguished and varied career
that spanned most of the 20th century. One constant was a passion for Canadian
culture." The Times-Colonist (Victoria) 05/08/02
FOR
THE JOY OF MUSIC: "Adaskin was a complete musician. He worked as
a violinist, composer, teacher and mentor, and served as an unfailingly
good comrade to five generations of colleagues." The Globe & Mail (Canada)
05/08/02
THE
PROGRESSIVE: "Does music (or any other art) really move forward?
Yes, it changes, as time moves on. But can we really call those changes
progress? What would progress be, anyway? Which aspect of art would be
progressing?" If you allow for the idea of progress, "then why won't sophisticates
lose interest in anything earlier? Why won't Mozart sound too simple, once
you've heard Brahms? Why won't Brahms himself sound too simple after we've
heard Schoenberg?" NewMusicBox 05/02
DIGITAL
DOWNLOADING HELPS MUSIC SALES: A new report says that experienced
digital music downloaders are 75 percent more inclined to buy music than
the average online music fan. "This shows that while the RIAA (Recording
Industry Association of America) and IFPI (International Federation of
the Phonographic Industry) continue to scapegoat file sharing for their
problems, all reasonable analysis shows that file sharing is a net positive
for the music industry." Wired 05/05/02
WE'RE
LISTENING: A new study of who listens to classical music shows
a broad listenership. "Nearly 60 percent of 2,200 adults polled at random
said they have some interest in classical music, and about 27 percent make
classical music a part of their lives 'pretty regularly,' according to
a study commissioned by the foundation. Nationally, 17 percent said they
attended some kind of classical-music concert in the previous year. About
18 percent listen to classical music on the radio daily or several times
each week." Philadelphia Inquirer 05/07/02
GOT
THE BUZZ: Software writers have developed a program that performs
improvised jazz that musicians can use to accompany themselves. "A team
at University College London has written a program that mimics insect swarming
to 'fly around' the sequence of notes the musician is playing and improvise
a related tune of its own. Their software works by treating music as a
type of 3D space, in which the dimensions are pitch, loudness and note
duration. As the musician plays, a swarm of digital 'particles' immediately
starts to buzz around the notes being played in this space - in the same
way that bees behave when they are seeking out pollen." New Scientist 05/07/02
WHY
NO ONE SINGS ALONG AT SYMPHONY HALL: "Classical music's advocates
in the cultural marketplace must contend with the fact that the clichés
of the concert hall are much more familiar than the content of the music
itself. Everybody knows them: the pianist's tails draped over the piano
bench, the conductor's flipping forelock, the orchestra tuning, etc. But
when the music starts, I would contend that only a handful of members of
the audience have any idea what to expect — or, in the case of Beethoven's
Fifth, know what's coming after the first few bars." Is this a failure
on the part of educators and performers, or does it speak to the enduringly
complex quality of the music? Andante 05/10/02
THE
MAHLER MOUNTIES: Early-music puritans drove audiences away with
their picky academic concerns about being "authentic," writes Norman Lebrecht.
But new adaptations of Mahler's unfinished 10th Symphony are something
else. "The Mahler Mounties are frontiersmen, pushing out horizons. Rather
than bemusing us, their Pooterish proliferation of Mahler Tenths undermines
the academic notion of authenticity. It suggests that there is no correct
way of reading a dying man's intentions - and that, in these politically
correct times, is no small victory for freedom of thought." London Evening
Standard 05/08/02
SVETLANOV,
DEAD AT 73: Yevgeny Svetlanov, one of Soviet Russia's most-enduring
conductors, has died at the age of 73. Russian president Vladimir Putin
"wrote in a message to Svetlanov's wife, Nina, that the musician's death
was an 'irreplacable loss for all of our culture'." Two years ago Svetlanov
was "dismissed from his post conducting the State Symphony Orchestra after
Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi said he was spending too much time conducting
overseas." Yahoo News (AP) 05/05/02 |
Last
Week's News
|
The
Critically-Acclaimed Pocket Opera Players makes its New York Debut with
the World Premiere of the opera “…inasmuch” by John Eaton on May 21 &
22
Tuesday,
May 21 & Wednesday, May 22
Symphony
Space at 8PM
95th and
Broadway
The Pocket
Opera Players
New York
New Music Ensemble
James Baker,
conductor Nicholas Ruddall, director
Carmen
Tellez, conductor Michael Phillips, director
John Eaton
“Peer Gynt”
John Eaton
& Estela Eaton (libretto) “..inasmuch” (World Premiere)
Tickets
are $20 and $12 (students and seniors) and can be purchased by calling
the Symphony Space Box office at (212) 864-5400, or visit their website
at www.symphonyspace.org
|
|
Meet
The Composer’s COMMISSIONING MUSIC/USA 2002 program—the nation’s preeminent
supporter of new musical works—has awarded new commissioning grants to
an eclectic group of 17 composers who will team with a diverse group of
performing/presenting organizations around the country to create new works
in a variety of forms, styles, and musical traditions.
Now
in its l4th year, Meet The Composer’s commissioning program has facilitated
the creation and multiple performances of over 700 works by many of America’s
most exciting contemporary composers. Some well-known works that MTC has
commissioned include John Adams’s controversial opera Death of Klinghoffer;
orchestral works such as John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1, Philip Glass’s
Timpani Concerto, and John Harbison’s Flute Concerto; multimedia pieces
such as Paul Dresher’s Sound Stage, Meredith Monk’s The Politics of Quiet,
and Steve Reich’s The Cave; and ensemble works such as Tan Dun’s Concerto
for Six Players, Oliver Lake’s Flirtation Blue, and Steve Reich’s Drumming.
This
year’s awards draw on classical, jazz, world, and electronic idioms. In
addition, a number of works will be created for multi-disciplinary projects
with dance and theatre companies; others feature twists on traditional
chamber music settings, with unusual instrumentation and daring new repertoire.
The composers range from major classical figures like Bernard Rands, to
jazz and crossover musicians like Leroy Jenkins and Bill Frisell, to experimentalists
like Meredith Monk, to younger cutting-edge sound pioneers like Dan Becker
and Sebastian Currier, to gifted emerging talents such as klezmer innovator
Daniel Hoffman, composer/performer David Dzubay, and dance and theatre
composer Guy Yarden.
Some
hightlights include:
• a
new 90-minute multimedia suite by composer/guitarist Bill Frisell for guitar,
trumpet, violin, and charcoal in which the trio of Frisell, trumpeter Ron
Miles, and violinist Jenny Scheinman perform live to
video-projected
animation by “alternative” cartoonist Jim Woodring. Arts at St. Aim’s
in Brooklyn will premiere the work in Summer 2003;
• a
new 25-minute piece by classical tabla virtuoso/composer/multi-percussionist
Zakir Hussain to be premiered on October 17, 2002 at the Painted Bride
Art Center in Philadelphia. The piece is part of an evening length music
and dance suite titled Flammable Contents. ZH/RH/SH, which brings Hussain
together for the first time with the foremost practitioner of hip-hop dance
Rennie Harris, and Spoken Hand—a hand drumming orchestra that combines
Afro-Cuban bata, Brazilian samba, North Indian tabla, and West African
djembe;
• a
new 15-minute work for solo voice and piano by Meredith Monk that continues
Monk’s groundbreaking exploration of the voice. This work will be premiered
in New York during the 2002-2003 season at such venues as Joe’s Pub and
the Knitting Factory;
• a
new 25-minute concerto for guitar and chamber orchestra by Bernard Rands
that will be premiered by the Boston Modem Orchestra Project, the Cleveland
Chamber Symphony, and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra throughout the 2003-2004
season (Rands’ 70th birthday year);
• a
new 80-minute music theatre work written by Daniel Hoffman for San Francisco’s
A Traveling Jewish Theatre Company. Entitled Opening to You, the work will
be based on Norman Fischer’s new translations of the Psalms, and will draw
on five musical styles:20th Century Western classical music, Yiddish Folk
music, Jewish liturgical music, classical Arabic music, and American jazz
and popular music. It will premiere in January 2003;
• a
new 20-25 minute work by Havana-born composer Tania Leon for the ensemble
MOSAIC that involves the collaboration of choreographer Donald Byrd, composer
Steven Mackey, and video artist Star Reese. The premiere will take place
at New York’s Symphony Space in March 2003.
Meet
The Composer is a national organization that has been rewarding the best
musical minds since 1974. Its mission is to increase opportunities for
composers by fostering the creation, performance, dissemination, and appreciation
of their music. Meet The Composer encourages the composition of works representing
the full spectrum of contemporary American culture, and has supported works
encompassing classical, jazz, folk, ethnic, choral, and electronic music,
among many other genres. Meet The Composer’s core programs include Commissioning
Music/USA, Meet The Composer Fund, New Residencies, Music Alive, Compose
Yourself and Fund for Small Ensembles
The
submission deadline for the next round of COMMISSIONING MUSIC/USA is January
15, 2003. For further information, visit Meet
The Composert or contact Mark Treviflo at (212)787-3601, ext. 101 or
mtrevino@meetthecomposer.org.
Lincoln
Center Festival schedule
|
Classical
Grammy Winners
Previous
Interviews/Profiles
Simon
Rattle, Michael Gordon,Benjamin
Lees, Scott Lindroth,
David
Felder, Mark-Anthony
Turnage, Erkki-Sven
Tüür, John
Luther Adams, Brett Dean,
Judith
Lang Zaimont,
Meyer
Kupferman, Evan Chambers, Poul
Ruders, Steven R. Gerber, Gloria
Coates
Previous
Articles/
Busoni
The Visionary
The
Composer of the Moment: Mark-Anthony Turnage
Electronic
Music
Voices:
Henze at 75
Henze
Meets Emenim
On
Finding Kurtag
Charles
Ruggles: When Men Were Men
Ballet
Mécanique
The
Adams Chronicles
|
|
