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MELINDA WAGNER Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra Four Settings Wick
www.Br idgeRecords .com
MELINDA WAGNERConcerto forTrombone and Orchestra
Four Settings
Wick
Producer: Lawrence Rock (Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra) and Adam Abeshouse (Four Settings and Wick)Engineers: Lawrence Rock (Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra) and Adam Abeshouse (Four Settings and Wick) Editors: Lawrence Rock (Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra); Charlie Post (Four Settings) and Adam Abeshouse (Wick) Mastering Engineer: Adam AbeshouseExecutive Producers: Becky and David StarobinGraphic Design: Douglas H. HollyAssociate Graphic Design: Sandra WoodruffPhotographs: Alex Fedorov (fedorovfoto.com)
Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra was recorded on February 22-24, 2007 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Wick and Four Settings were recorded on March 22, 2008 at the Theater C, SUNY College at Purchase, Purchase, NY.
Melinda Wagner's music is published by Theodore Presser Co. (ASCAP)
The commissioning of Melinda Wagner’s Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra was made possible with generous support from the Francis Goelet Fund and the New York State Music Fund.
Programs of the New York Philharmonic are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, The New York State Music Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts. These concerts are made possible, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Steinway is the Official Piano of the New York Philharmonic and Avery Fisher Hall.
“The Wings” by Denise Levertov from POEMS (1960-1967), copyright © 1966 by Denise Levertov. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
This recording is made possible with support of The Aaron Copland Fund for Recorded Music, The Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, The Jerome Foundation, New Jersey Arts Collective, The Edwards Instrument Co. (edwards-instruments.com), The Argosy Foundation: Contemporary Music Fund, and the Classical Recording Foundation.
For My Parents — M.W.
Special thanks to Adam Abeshouse, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, Douglas Beck, Kimberly Burja, Louis Conti, Darren Gage, Christian Griego, Guy Gsell, Judith Ilika, Monica Parks, Jayn Rosenfeld, Miki Takebe, and The Two River Theater Company.
For Bridge Records: Barbara Bersito Douglas Holly, Paige Freeman Hoover
Charlie Post, Doron Schächter, Robert StarobinAllegra Starobin, and Sandra Woodruff
Brad Napoliello, webmasterE-mail: [email protected]
Bridge Records, Inc.200 Clinton Ave. • New Rochelle, NY • 10801
www.BridgeRecords.com
MELINDA WAGNER(b. 1957)
Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra (2006) (23:54)
1 I. Satyr (10:03)
2 II. Elemental Things (8:16)
III. Litany (Interlude)
3 IV. Catch (5:28)
New York Philharmonic Lorin Maazel, conductor Joseph Alessi, trombone
Four Settings (2004) (21:29)
4 I. Last Poem (5:59) [Robert Desnos; trans. by X. J. Kennedy]
5 II. The Wings (8:22)
[Denise Levertov]
6 III. Safe In Their Alabaster Chambers (3:36) [Emily Dickinson]
7 IV. Wild Nights---Wild Nights! (3:32) [Emily Dickinson]
(ThisrecordingisforKarla)
Karla Lemon, conductor Christine Brandes, soprano Laura Gilbert, flute; Alan Kay, clarinet Curtis Macomber, violin; Richard O'Neill, viola Fred Sherry, cello, John Feeney, contrabass Stephen Gosling, piano
Follow Bridge Records on
at @BridgeRecords
8 Wick (2000) (15:51)
(inonemovement)
New York New Music Ensemble Jeffrey Milarsky, conductor Jayn Rosenfeld, flute Jean Kopperud, clarinet Linda Quan, violin; Chris Finckel, cello Stephen Gosling, piano Daniel Druckman, percussion
π and © 2011, Bridge Records, Inc. All Rights Reserved Total Time: 61:29
James Markey*David Finlayson
BASS TROMBONEDonald Harwood
TUBAAlan Baer Principal
TIMPANIMarkus Rhoten Principal TheCarlosMoseleyChairJoseph Pereira**
PERCUSSIONChristopher S. Lamb PrincipalTheConstanceR.HoguetFriendsofthePhilharmonicChairDaniel Druckman* TheMr.andMrs.RonaldJ. UlrichChairJoseph Pereira
HARPNancy Allen Principal TheMr.andMrs.WilliamT. KnightIIIChair
KEYBOARDInMemoryofPaulJacobs
HARPSICHORDLionel Party
PIANO TheKarenandRichardS. LeFrakChairHarriet WingreenJonathan Feldman
ORGANKent Tritle
LIBRARIANSLawrence TarlowPrincipalSandra Pearson**Thad Marciniak
ORCHESTRA PERSONNELMANAGERCarl R. Schiebler
STAGE REPRESENTATIVELouis J. Patalano
AUDIO DIRECTORLawrence Rock
*Associate Principal**Assistant Principal+On Leave++Replacement/Extra
The New York Philharmonic uses the revolving seating method for section string players who are listed alphabetically in the roster.
"MelindaWagner'sworksuggestswhatthepainterHenriRousseaumighthave
createdhadhewrittenmusic—thebright,deepcolors;thesenseoffantasy
thatisbothexplicitandsomewhatmysterious.Itismusicthatisjustassmartas
itissensual,asbrainyasitisbeautiful.Wagnerisoneofmyfavoritecomposers,
andmyadmirationgrowswitheverynewwork." —Tim Page
We composers engage in a double endeavor: developing a language–
distinctive, vital, appealing – then finding compelling things to say in that
language. We make a double request of the listener as well: respond to what we
say at the same time that you learn our language. With some composers, for
whom newness of language is itself the compelling thing, a rejection of tradition
– a manifesto – may be all that reaches the listener. With others, who engage
the musical canon by putting new wine into old bottles, the trappings of tradition
instead can be traps that limit creative possibilities. It amazes me then, as a
listener, to confront this superbly imaginative music of Melinda Wagner without
being burdened by issues of language acquisition. Her art is so fluid, her rhetoric
so assured that the listener is conducted straight to the expressive center of the
music. There are innumerable carefully plotted weavings of counterpoint, but
they don’t draw attention to themselves; instead they embolden the lines to reach
their goals more convincingly. There are myriad noisy, teeming textures, but they
don’t sound fussy; instead they unleash powerful flows of energy. The listener is
buoyed continually on waves that eddy, crest, and ebb, that make even chamber
and vocal music seem orchestral and panoramic in scope, that make the still points
OBOESLiang Wang Principal TheAliceTullyChairSherry Sylar*Robert Botti
ENGLISH HORNThomas Stacy TheJoanandJoelSmilowChair
CLARINETSStanley Drucker Principal TheEdnaandW.VanAlan ClarkChairMark Nuccio*Pascual Martinez FortezaStephen Freeman
E-FLAT CLARINETMark Nuccio
BASS CLARINETStephen Freeman
BASSOONSJudith LeClair Principal ThePelsFamilyChairKim Laskowski*
Roger NyeArlen Fast
CONTRABASSOONArlen Fast
HORNSPhilip Myers Principal TheRuthF.andAlanJ.BroderChairJerome Ashby*L. William Kuyper**+R. Allen SpanjerErik RalskeHoward WallPatrick Milando++
TRUMPETSPhilip Smith Principal ThePaulaLevinChairMatthew Muckey*James RossThomas V. Smith
TROMBONESJoseph Alessi Principal TheGurneeF.andMarjorieL.HartChair
so much more eerily quiet. Yet it is because this music communicates its goals
effortlessly, because it eclipses issues of language so easily, that one wants
to discover how it is made. And it turns out that this fresh, prismatic music is
constructed according to principles that are centuries old. One such principle
is the organic relationship between large and small, the flowering of an idea
from an initial musical seed. Compare the opening idea, or flowering, of the
music in Robert Desnos’ “Last Poem,” the first of the FourSettings(2004)
with that of “Satyr,” the first movement of the Concerto for Trombone and
Orchestra (2006). The two are so different in their color worlds and in their
emotional casts. But each begins with a melodic seed that fulfills its promise,
its larger trajectory, exactly ninety seconds later! In “Last Poem,” the soprano
intones the initial line, “I have so fiercely dreamed of you,” descending from
a high E natural by five steps, only to rise by step on the last syllable. This
musical seed – a downward trajectory but with an upward move at the end
– flowers in repetitions of the text, the vocal line descending continually, only
to leap upward to an F natural, a step higher than the initial E, as the final
utterance of the line concludes. In “Satyr,” the trombone soloist is from the
outset alienated from the orchestra, unable to match the orchestra’s pedal
pitch of C natural; instead his opening phrase begins on C# and ends on B.
As the soloist’s long line unwinds over the orchestral backdrop, he sounds
C natural only occasionally and incidentally; but a minute and a half into the
piece he and the orchestra reconcile at last, the trombone scaling upward to
complete the opening section on its high C.
VIOLASCynthia Phelps Principal TheMr.andMrs.Frederick P.RoseChairRebecca Young*Irene Breslaw** TheNormaandLloyd ChazenChairDorian Rence
Katherine GreeneDawn HannayVivek KamathPeter KenoteBarry LehrKenneth MirkinJudith NelsonRobert Rinehart
CELLOSCarter Brey Principal TheFanFoxandLeslieR. SamuelsChairHai-Ye Ni*+Qiang Tu ActingAssociatePrincipal TheShirleyandJonBrodsky FoundationChairEvangeline Benedetti
Eric BartlettNancy DonarumaElizabeth DysonValentin HirsuMaria KitsopoulosSumire KudoEileen MoonRu-Pei YehFrederick Zlotkin++
BASSESEugene LevinsonPrincipalTheRedfieldD.BeckwithChairJon Deak*Orin O’Brien
William BlossomRandall ButlerSatoshi OkamotoMichele Saxon
FLUTESRobert Langevin Principal TheLilaAchesonWallace ChairSandra Church*Renée SiebertMindy Kaufman
PICCOLOMindy Kaufman
The harmonies underlying these waves of sound are built often from two
overlapping octatonic scales – that alternate whole and half steps – each of
which includes the pitch to be reached at the moment of climax. From these
scales, Wagner artfully encircles such a pitch, like the trombone’s high C in
“Satyr,” so that it lies frequently in the middle of two-note chords. At times,
Wagner likes to proceed outward, like a wedge, from a central pitch, as the
contrabass does from an initial F natural in “The Wings,” the Denise Levertov
poem that is the second of the FourSettings. At others she likes to isolate
these symmetrically determined intervals, particularly the major third. This
interval figures prominently, like a bright primary color, in all the works on this
recording, but particularly in “The Wings,” when the contrabass plucks and
slides strikingly through a series of them, the major third is similarly featured
a little more than halfway through Wick, in which a repeated melodic cell of
A-C# lies at the sublime heart of the piece. Wind chimes outside Wagner’s
house tolled these two pitches persistently as she began to write Wick –
only when refining the percussion scoring, and adding wind chimes, was
the composer aware that the tolling had permeated her creative process.
And the waves are built from small melodic contours that rise and fall in
equal measure, perhaps informed by centuries–old contrapuntal practice
that, after proceeding in one direction for several notes, one must reverse
course; in particular one must step in one direction just after one has leapt
in the other. Wick begins with just a gesture, marked “sneaky tiptoe,” the rise
matched by a fall, the small leap upward filled in immediately by the passed
over pitch.
VIOLINSGlenn Dicterow ConcertmasterTheCharlesE.CulpeperChairSheryl Staples PrincipalAssociateConcertmaster TheElizabethG.Beinecke ChairMichelle Kim AssistantConcertmaster TheWilliamPetschekFamily ChairEnrico Di CeccoCarol WebbYoko Takebe
Kenneth Gordon+Hae-Young HamLisa GiHae KimNewton MansfieldKerry McDermottAnna RabinovaCharles RexFiona Simon
Sharon YamadaElizabeth ZeltserYulia Ziskel
Marc Ginsberg PrincipalLisa Kim* InMemoryofLauraMitchellSoohyun KwonDuoming Ba
Minyoung ChangMarilyn DubowMartin EshelmanJudith GinsbergMei Ching HuangMyung-Hi KimHanna LachertKuan-Cheng LuSarah O’BoyleDaniel ReedMark SchmoocklerNa SunVladimir Tsypin
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
2006–2007 SEASON
LORIN MAAZEL Music Director
Xian Zhang, AssociateConductor,TheArturoToscaniniChairLeonardBernstein,LaureateConductor,1943–1990KurtMasur,MusicDirectorEmeritus
It seems just as strange, just as marvelous, that Wagner can develop a
singular language from sixteenth-century contrapuntal principles, as it does
that she can build her structures from this archetypal twentieth-century
scale – the octatonic – which so many Stravinsky imitators employ almost
reflexively, and find in it new possibilities. But most memorable is what she
does in this language: assemble soundscapes rich and vast, animate them
with characters that strive continually toward searing climaxes, reinvent the
possibilities of musical narrative.
—HaroldMeltzer
Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra (2006)
Premiere: 22nd, 23rd, 24th February, 2007. Joseph Alessi, Trombone, New
York Philharmonic, conducted by Lorin Maazel, Avery Fisher Hall, New York,
New York.
The composer writes: “I began work on myConcerto for Trombone
and Orchestra while serving as composer-in-residence at the Bravo! Vail
Valley Music Festival. During my free moments there, I found myself gazing
— in disbelief really — at the jagged, youthful beauty of the Rockies. By
comparison, “my” mountains — the old Endless, Allegheny, and Pocono
ranges of Pennsylvania — seemed to be no more than a set of soft wrinkles
in the skin of the earth!
Looking back, I see how fortuitous it was that I should begin
composing for trombone in such a setting. Nobility and power, hallmarks of
the trombone sound, are indeed words that come to mind in the presence
doubling as actors and singers) and adventuresome electronic, interactive
new technologies.
Conductor Jeffrey Milarsky is highly acclaimed for his musicianship
and innovative programming. His repertoire, which spans from Bach to
Xenakis, has brought him to lead groups including the American Composers
Orchestra, MET Chamber Ensemble, the Milwaukee Symphony, Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York New Music Ensemble, Manhattan
Sinfonietta, Speculum Musicae, Cygnus Ensemble, Fromm Players at
Harvard University, and the New York Philharmonic chamber music series.
He has premiered and recorded works by groundbreaking contemporary
composers, including Charles Wuorinen, Fred Lerdahl, Milton Babbitt, Elliott
Carter, Gerard Grisey, Jonathan Dawe, Tristan Murail, Ralph Shapey, Luigi
Nono, Mario Davidovsky and Wolfgang Rihm. Mr. Milarsky is Professor in
Music at Columbia University, is on the faculty of The Manhattan School of
Music, and is on the conducting faculty of the Juilliard School. Mr. Milarsky
made his debut at the New York City Opera during the 2008-09 season. In
the summer of 2008 he was called to Tanglewood to substitute for Maestro
James Levine in an all Elliott Carter program in honor of the composer’s
100th birthday. Mr. Milarsky is the regular guest conductor of The BIT20
Ensemble, having performed with them in Paris, Estonia, Latvia, Norway and
Italy. He has recorded extensively for Angel, BRIDGE, Teldec, Telarc, New
World, CRI, MusicMasters, EMI, KOCH, and London records.
of mountains, old and new. And a truly great musician, as I learned while
hearing Joseph Alessi play, can coax so much more out of the trombone:
aching tenderness, sadness, lyricism, mirth.
With so many choices, the task of deciding how to begin any piece
can be a daunting one. Should the opening be fast, slow, swashbuckling, or
intimate — or something else altogether? It is a decision that affects all the
myriad decisions to follow, and I find this stage of the creative process to be
the scariest, erasers notwithstanding!
I decided to begin my concerto with a quiet, dark introduction. The
opening trombone melody is somewhat sad, and, much like an increasingly
impassioned prayer, full of speech-like peaks and valleys, sighs, and quiet
outbursts. I tried throughout to imbue the orchestral writing with a sense of
three dimensions — of space and the presence of a vanishing point. There
are many subtle echoes in the ensemble, and sometimes the trombone
melody leaves behind a kind of “trail” that is taken up by other instruments.
The quietude is brief, though, for much of the rest of the first movement
is fast and stinging. As in the finale, the trombone line is full of feints and
punches and jaunty syncopation; the orchestra keeps up with its many sharp
jabs, upward whooshes of sound, and spilling cascades. Marked “lush and
dangerous” in the score, the mood of the second movement is one of lost
love and yearning.
It has been a joy to create music for Joe and the New York
Philharmonic. This winning combination has offered me a wide, expansive
landscape in which to explore the ‘life story’ of a musical idea.”
for ten years. In addition to highly acclaimed performances of the standard
repertoire, Ms. Lemon’s name is associated with innovative programming and
presenting works by living composers. As such she has conducted the San
Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the “Works and Process Series" in
New York City, the “Fresh Ink” series at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, the
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (midwest tour), Pittsburgh’s Music
from the Edge, the Empyrean Ensemble, the Oberlin Dance Collective, and
the Scotia Festival in Halifax. She has premiered over one hundred works by
composers including Pulitzer Prize winners Melinda Wagner, Wayne Peterson,
and Ellen Taffe Zwilich, as well as Chen Yi, Libby Larsen, John Corigliano, Philip
Glass, Joan Tower, Peter Lieberson, and Eric Moe.
Since 1976, the New York New Music Ensemble has commissioned,
performed and recorded the important and upcoming composers of our time.
They have in fact been the means by which many of these have become more
known and appreciated. NYNME has been recognized and supported by all
the significant American foundations, including the Jerome Foundation, the
Fromm Foundation at Harvard, the Mary Flagler Cary Foundation, the Mellon
Foundation, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the NEA and NYSCA, among
others. They have performed innumerable college residencies (Long Beach,
UW Madison, Univ. of Pittsburgh, etc.), appeared at major festivals (Ravinia,
Santa Fe, June in Buffalo, Pacific Rim, The Thailand International Composers
Festival, etc.), and have recorded a huge discography of important chamber
works. They have traveled to Europe, Asia, and South America to perform,
teach and record, and have branched out into theatre music (instrumentalists
Four Settings (2004)
Premiere: 10th February, 2005. Christine Brandes, soprano, Chamber Music
Society of Lincoln Center, Wharton Center for the Performing Arts, East
Lansing, Michigan.
“Poetry-driven music” is how Wagner characterizes her Four
Settings, commissioned for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center by
The Wharton Center for the Performing Arts. While the poems are diverse in
style and subject, and not joined together by any narrative thread, they are
all related in their embodiment of dichotomy. Shade and darkness are held
against light in the verses by Robert Desnos and Denise Levertov; the eternal
verities of time and space are held against the passing of earthly things in
Emily Dickinson’s “Safe In Their Alabaster Chambers”; and tempest is held
against safe harbor in Dickinson’s “Wild Nights”. Wagner says that she largely
avoided obvious “text-painting” in favor of creating an expressive tension,
sometimes even an irony, between words and music, and gave the poems
a high profile to suggest their rich resonances of emotion and experience,
a process she compares to turning a gemstone in a shaft of light to behold
its varied, multihued facets. “Last Poem”, the first of the Settings, is literally
that — the final verse that the French poet Robert Desnos (1900-1945) wrote
before his death in the concentration camp at Terezín — and Wagner has
given it a sparse setting that suggests its longing, its sadness, and, at the
end, its desperation. Denise Levertov (1923 – 1997) was born in England and
became one of America’s most respected poets and teachers of creative
writing (at Brandeis, MIT, Tufts, and Stanford) after immigrating to this country
York Philharmonic Special Editions, and George Crumb’s Star-Child, which
received a Grammy Award (BRIDGE 9095).
Noted for her crystalline voice and superb musicianship, soprano
Christine Brandes brings her committed artistry to repertoire ranging from
the 17th century to newly-composed works. She has appeared with many
of the finest orchestras, including those of Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles,
Philadelphia, San Francisco, New York, Houston, Tokyo, Detroit, Minnesota,
Baltimore, Milwaukee, Toronto, St. Louis and the National Symphony, with
such conductors as Esa Peka Salonen, Sir Simon Rattle, Pierre Boulez, Sir
Charles Mackerras, Hans Graf, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Nicholas McGegan,
Kent Nagano and Peter Oundjian among many others. On the operatic stage
Ms. Brandes has appeared with the SF Opera, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand
Opera, Washington National Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, NY City
Opera, Minnesota, San Diego Opera, Montreal, Glimmerglass Opera and the
Opera Theatre of St. Louis in the operas of Handel, Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi,
Britten and Bolcom. She has recorded for EMI/Virgin, BMG, harmonia mundi,
KOCH, BRIDGE and Dorian.
Karla Lemon has appeared as a guest conductor with numerous
orchestras including the Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Oakland, and Nashua
Symphonies, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, the Spokane Symphony, the
Women’s Philharmonic and the Berkeley Symphony. Recently, Ms. Lemon
made her New York debut in Alice Tully Hall as conductor with the Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center. She was Director of Orchestras and Music
Director of the Alea II Ensemble for Contemporary Music at Stanford University
in 1948. The setting of Levertov’s “The Wings” is a breathless soliloquy that
parallels the poem’s quick rhythms and suggests the flight implicit in its title.
Wagner found “Safe In Their Alabaster Chambers” by Emily Dickinson (1830
– 1886) to be a “cold” poem, evoking for her the chilling silence that Ovid
in his Metamorphoses attributes to Morpheus, the shaper of the dreams of
mortals as he sleeps in his cave, or the airless silence of limitless space, or the
eternal silence of the closed coffin. There is nothing safe about Dickinson’s
passionate “Wild Nights”, according to Wagner’s reading of the poem, and
her setting closes not with an affirmation but with a dying whisper.
—RichardRodda
Texts for Four Settings
I. Last Poem by Robert Desnos (trans. X.J. Kennedy)
I have so fiercely dreamed of you,
And walked so far and spoken of you so,
Loved a shade of you so hard
That now I’ve no more left of you.
I’m left to be a shade among the shades
A hundred times more shade than shade
To be shade cast time and time again into your sun-transfigured life.
Joseph Alessi was appointed Principal Trombone of the New
York Philharmonic in 1985. He began musical studies in his native California
with Joseph Alessi, Sr., his father. As a high school student in San Rafael,
California, he was a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony; he then studied
at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music. Prior to joining the Philharmonic,
Mr. Alessi was second trombone of the Philadelphia Orchestra and principal
trombone of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Alessi’s many New York Philharmonic solo appearances have
included the 1992 premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Pulitzer Prize–winning
Trombone Concerto, commissioned for the Orchestra’s 150th anniversary. He
has also performed as soloist with orchestras from Colorado to The Hague.
He has participated in numerous festivals, including Italy’s Festivale Musica
di Camera, Cabrillo Music Festival, Swiss Brass Week, and Finland’s Lieksa
Brass Week. He is a founding member of the Summit Brass ensemble at the
Rafael Mendez Brass Institute in Tempe, Arizona. Currently on the faculty
of The Juilliard School, Joseph Alessi has taught at Temple University in
Philadelphia and the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming. As a clinician
for the Edwards Instrument Co., he has given master classes throughout the
world and has toured Europe extensively as a master teacher and recitalist.
Mr. Alessi has performed on numerous occasions as soloist with local concert
bands including the West Point Army Band, Hanover Wind Symphony, and
the Ridgewood (New Jersey) Concert Band.
Mr. Alessi’s discography includes the Rouse Concerto with the
New York Philharmonic, available on An American Celebration on New
II. The Wings by Denise Levertov
Something hangs in back of me, I can't see it, can't move it.
I know it's black, a hump on my back.
It's heavy. You can't see it.
What's in it? Don't tell me you don't know. It's
what you told me about— black
inimical power, coldwhirling out of it and
around me and sweeping you flat.
But what if, like a camel, it's
pure energy I store, and carry humped and heavy?
Not black, not that terror, stupidity
of cold rage; or black only for being pent there?What if released in air it became a white
source of light, a fountain of light? Could all that weight
be the power of flight? Look inward: see me
with embryo wings, one feathered in soot, the other
blazing ciliations of ember, pale flare-pinions. Well—
could I go on one wing,
the white one?
has held positions as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
(1988–96); general manager and chief conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper
(1982–84); music director of The Cleveland Orchestra (1972–82); and artistic
director and chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1965–71). In 2004
Mr. Maazel was named music director of the Symphonica Toscanini in Italy
— an orchestra comprising leading young professional European players. A
second-generation American, born in Paris, Mr. Maazel was raised in the United
States. He took his first violin lesson at age five and first conducting lesson at
seven. He studied with Vladimir Bakaleinikoff and appeared publicly for the
first time at age eight, leading a university orchestra. He made his New York
debut at the 1939 World’s Fair at nine, leading the Interlochen Orchestra, and
in the same year conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood
Bowl, sharing a program with Leopold Stokowski. Between ages 9 and 15 Lorin
Maazel conducted most of the major American orchestras. At 17 he entered
the University of Pittsburgh to study languages, mathematics, and philosophy.
While a student, he was a violinist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and
served as apprentice conductor during the 1949–50 season. In 1951 he won a Fulbright Fellowship to Italy, and two years later
made his European conducting debut in Catania, Italy. Mr. Maazel is also an
accomplished composer. His opera, 1984, received its world premiere in 2005
at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In 2006 the MIDEM festival
— the international market of music publishers and recording companies —
honored him with a Special MIDEM Award to recognize his achievements as a
conductor, recording artist, composer, and violinist.
III. Safe In Their Alabaster Chambers by Emily Dickinson
original:
Safe in their alabaster chambers,
Untouched by morning and untouched by noon,
Sleep the meek members of the resurrection,
Rafter of satin, and roof of stone. Light laughs the breeze in her castle of
sunshine;
Babbles the bee in a stolid ear;
Pipe the sweet birds in ignorant cadence,—
Ah, what sagacity perished here!
Grand go the years in the crescent above them;
Worlds scoop their arcs, and firmaments row,
Diadems drop and Doges surrender,
Soundless as dots on a disk of snow.
text in Four Settings:
Safe in their alabaster chambers,
Untouched by morning and untouched by noon,
Lie the meek members of the resurrection,
Rafter of satin, and roof of stone.
Grand go the years, grand in the crescent above them;
Worlds scoop their arcs, and firmaments row,
Diadems drop and Doges surrender,
Soundless as dots on a disk of snow.
concerts, recorded live, available either as a subscription or as 12 individual
releases. Famous for the long-running Young People’s Concerts, the
Philharmonic has developed a wide range of education programs, among
them the School Partnership Program that enriches music education in New
York City, and Learning Overtures, which fosters international exchange
among educators. Credit Suisse is the exclusive Global Sponsor of the New
York Philharmonic.
Lorin Maazel, who has led more than 150 orchestras in more than
5,000 opera and concert performances, became Music Director of the New
York Philharmonic in 2002. His appointment came 60 years after his debut
with the Orchestra at Lewisohn Stadium, then the Orchestra’s summer
venue. As Music Director, he has conducted four World Premiere–New York
Philharmonic Commissions, including the Pulitzer Prize– and Grammy Award–
winningOntheTransmigrationofSouls by John Adams, and all of Beethoven’s
symphonies and piano concertos over a three week period. In autumn 2005
he led the Philharmonic’s two-part 75th Anniversary European Tour to
thirteen cities in five countries, including concerts in Dresden, Germany, as
part of the reconsecration of the historic Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady).
In June 2006 he led the New York Philharmonic Tour of Italy, sponsored by
Generali, and in November 2006, the Orchestra’s visit to Japan and Korea.
Previously, he conducted the Philharmonic’s tours to Asia, three southern
U.S. states, the American Midwest, and in residencies in Cagliari, Sardinia,
and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado. Mr. Maazel served as
music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (1993–2002), and
IV. Wild Nights — Wild Nights! by Emily Dickinson
Wild nights! Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile the winds
To a heart in port,
Done with the compass,
Done with the chart.
Rowing in Eden!
Ah! the sea!
Might I but moor
To-night in thee!
Wick (2000)
Premiere: 27th October 2000. The New York New Music Ensemble; Jeffrey
Milarsky, conductor. Sonic Boom Festival, Cooper Union, New York City.
The composer writes that “Wick was composed for the New York
New Music Ensemble during the spring of 2000. I came upon this title
primarily because I like the clipped, sharp sound of the word “wick”. But it
also has several interesting facets; it can refer both to something that is lit,
and to the action of drawing up — energy perhaps? Ultimately, “wick”, and
University, Swarthmore College, Syracuse University, and Hunter College.
She has lectured at schools including Yale, Cornell, Juilliard, and Mannes,
and has served as Composer-in-Residence at the Yellow Barn Music Festival,
Monadnock Music Festival, Wellesley Composers Conference and the
Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. She lives in New Jersey with her husband,
percussionist James Saporito, and their children. Next year, she will assume
the Karel Husa Visiting Professorship at Ithaca College.
Founded in 1842, the New York Philharmonic is the oldest symphony
orchestra in the United States and one of the oldest in the world; on May 5,
2010, it performed its 15,000th concert. Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko
Nagae Ceschina Chair, began his tenure in September 2009, succeeding a
distinguished line of 20th-century musical giants that goes back to Gustav
Mahler and Arturo Toscanini. The Orchestra has always played a leading
role in American musical life, commissioning and premiering works by each
era’s leading composers. Renowned around the globe, the Philharmonic
has appeared in 430 cities in 63 countries — including the February 2008
historic visit to Pyongyang, DPRK, for which the Philharmonic earned the
2008 Common Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy.
The Philharmonic, which appears annually on PBS’sLiveFromLincoln
Center, is the only American orchestra to have a 52 week per year nationally
syndicated radio series —TheNewYorkPhilharmonicThisWeek — also
streamed on nyphil.org. The Philharmonic has made nearly 2,000 recordings
since 1917, with more than 500 currently available. The most recent initiative is
AlanGilbertandtheNewYorkPhilharmonic:2010–11Season— downloadable
its similarity to the Old English word wicca, meaning “witch”, makes a fitting
title for a piece of music that is at times just a little bit naughty…
Cast in one movement, the piece unfolds quite simply into three
parts. First we hear a fast and furious introduction leading to a “big tune”; a
quiet, more meditative section follows, then finally, a return to the drama and
break-neck speed of the opening. That Wick fell neatly into this tripartite
configuration came as a surprise to me, as I did not view the piece as a
ternary structure as I was going along. Actually, the process of composing
became one of gathering up increasing amounts of energy, then finding ways
to “release” the music at certain points – to let off steam. Sometimes this
energy splinters into fanciful cadenza-like solos; at other times it is absorbed
or disguised by overlapping descending waves, moving in slow motion. At
the end of the work, tension is released through the performers’ own voices
as the entire ensemble and conductor together intone the pitch D.”
Melinda Wagner was born in Philadelphia, in 1957, and received
her graduate degrees in Music Composition from the University of Chicago
and the University of Pennsylvania, where her principal composition teachers
were Richard Wernick, George Crumb, Shulamit Ran and Jay Reise. Wagner
achieved widespread attention when her Concerto for Flute, Strings, and
Percussion was awarded the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Since then,
major compositions have included Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra,
for Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic, and a piano concerto,
Extremity of Sky, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony for Emanuel
Ax, who has also performed it with the National Symphony Orchestra, the
Toronto Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, and the Staatskapelle Berlin.
In all, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has commissioned three works by
Wagner: FallingAngels (1992), ExtremityofSky, and a forthcoming work.
Other recent commissions include Scamp for the United States Marine Band,
Little Moonhead, for the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, and Pan Journal,
performed by harpist Elizabeth Hainen and the Juilliard String Quartet.
Ms. Wagner’s chamber works have been performed by the New York New
Music Ensemble, the Network for New Music, Orchestra 2001, the Empyrean
Ensemble, and many other leading organizations. She is the recipient of a
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, an award from the American
Academy of Arts and Letters, three ASCAP Young Composer Awards,
resident fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo, an honorary
degree from Hamilton College, and a Distinguished Alumni Award from
the University of Pennsylvania. Melinda Wagner has taught at Brandeis
its similarity to the Old English word wicca, meaning “witch”, makes a fitting
title for a piece of music that is at times just a little bit naughty…
Cast in one movement, the piece unfolds quite simply into three
parts. First we hear a fast and furious introduction leading to a “big tune”; a
quiet, more meditative section follows, then finally, a return to the drama and
break-neck speed of the opening. That Wick fell neatly into this tripartite
configuration came as a surprise to me, as I did not view the piece as a
ternary structure as I was going along. Actually, the process of composing
became one of gathering up increasing amounts of energy, then finding ways
to “release” the music at certain points – to let off steam. Sometimes this
energy splinters into fanciful cadenza-like solos; at other times it is absorbed
or disguised by overlapping descending waves, moving in slow motion. At
the end of the work, tension is released through the performers’ own voices
as the entire ensemble and conductor together intone the pitch D.”
Melinda Wagner was born in Philadelphia, in 1957, and received
her graduate degrees in Music Composition from the University of Chicago
and the University of Pennsylvania, where her principal composition teachers
were Richard Wernick, George Crumb, Shulamit Ran and Jay Reise. Wagner
achieved widespread attention when her Concerto for Flute, Strings, and
Percussion was awarded the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Since then,
major compositions have included Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra,
for Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic, and a piano concerto,
Extremity of Sky, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony for Emanuel
Ax, who has also performed it with the National Symphony Orchestra, the
Toronto Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, and the Staatskapelle Berlin.
In all, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has commissioned three works by
Wagner: FallingAngels (1992), ExtremityofSky, and a forthcoming work.
Other recent commissions include Scamp for the United States Marine Band,
Little Moonhead, for the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, and Pan Journal,
performed by harpist Elizabeth Hainen and the Juilliard String Quartet.
Ms. Wagner’s chamber works have been performed by the New York New
Music Ensemble, the Network for New Music, Orchestra 2001, the Empyrean
Ensemble, and many other leading organizations. She is the recipient of a
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, an award from the American
Academy of Arts and Letters, three ASCAP Young Composer Awards,
resident fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo, an honorary
degree from Hamilton College, and a Distinguished Alumni Award from
the University of Pennsylvania. Melinda Wagner has taught at Brandeis
IV. Wild Nights — Wild Nights! by Emily Dickinson
Wild nights! Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile the winds
To a heart in port,
Done with the compass,
Done with the chart.
Rowing in Eden!
Ah! the sea!
Might I but moor
To-night in thee!
Wick (2000)
Premiere: 27th October 2000. The New York New Music Ensemble; Jeffrey
Milarsky, conductor. Sonic Boom Festival, Cooper Union, New York City.
The composer writes that “Wick was composed for the New York
New Music Ensemble during the spring of 2000. I came upon this title
primarily because I like the clipped, sharp sound of the word “wick”. But it
also has several interesting facets; it can refer both to something that is lit,
and to the action of drawing up — energy perhaps? Ultimately, “wick”, and
University, Swarthmore College, Syracuse University, and Hunter College.
She has lectured at schools including Yale, Cornell, Juilliard, and Mannes,
and has served as Composer-in-Residence at the Yellow Barn Music Festival,
Monadnock Music Festival, Wellesley Composers Conference and the
Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. She lives in New Jersey with her husband,
percussionist James Saporito, and their children. Next year, she will assume
the Karel Husa Visiting Professorship at Ithaca College.
Founded in 1842, the New York Philharmonic is the oldest symphony
orchestra in the United States and one of the oldest in the world; on May 5,
2010, it performed its 15,000th concert. Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko
Nagae Ceschina Chair, began his tenure in September 2009, succeeding a
distinguished line of 20th-century musical giants that goes back to Gustav
Mahler and Arturo Toscanini. The Orchestra has always played a leading
role in American musical life, commissioning and premiering works by each
era’s leading composers. Renowned around the globe, the Philharmonic
has appeared in 430 cities in 63 countries — including the February 2008
historic visit to Pyongyang, DPRK, for which the Philharmonic earned the
2008 Common Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy.
The Philharmonic, which appears annually on PBS’sLiveFromLincoln
Center, is the only American orchestra to have a 52 week per year nationally
syndicated radio series —TheNewYorkPhilharmonicThisWeek — also
streamed on nyphil.org. The Philharmonic has made nearly 2,000 recordings
since 1917, with more than 500 currently available. The most recent initiative is
AlanGilbertandtheNewYorkPhilharmonic:2010–11Season— downloadable
III. Safe In Their Alabaster Chambers by Emily Dickinson
original:
Safe in their alabaster chambers,
Untouched by morning and untouched by noon,
Sleep the meek members of the resurrection,
Rafter of satin, and roof of stone. Light laughs the breeze in her castle of
sunshine;
Babbles the bee in a stolid ear;
Pipe the sweet birds in ignorant cadence,—
Ah, what sagacity perished here!
Grand go the years in the crescent above them;
Worlds scoop their arcs, and firmaments row,
Diadems drop and Doges surrender,
Soundless as dots on a disk of snow.
text in Four Settings:
Safe in their alabaster chambers,
Untouched by morning and untouched by noon,
Lie the meek members of the resurrection,
Rafter of satin, and roof of stone.
Grand go the years, grand in the crescent above them;
Worlds scoop their arcs, and firmaments row,
Diadems drop and Doges surrender,
Soundless as dots on a disk of snow.
concerts, recorded live, available either as a subscription or as 12 individual
releases. Famous for the long-running Young People’s Concerts, the
Philharmonic has developed a wide range of education programs, among
them the School Partnership Program that enriches music education in New
York City, and Learning Overtures, which fosters international exchange
among educators. Credit Suisse is the exclusive Global Sponsor of the New
York Philharmonic.
Lorin Maazel, who has led more than 150 orchestras in more than
5,000 opera and concert performances, became Music Director of the New
York Philharmonic in 2002. His appointment came 60 years after his debut
with the Orchestra at Lewisohn Stadium, then the Orchestra’s summer
venue. As Music Director, he has conducted four World Premiere–New York
Philharmonic Commissions, including the Pulitzer Prize– and Grammy Award–
winningOntheTransmigrationofSouls by John Adams, and all of Beethoven’s
symphonies and piano concertos over a three week period. In autumn 2005
he led the Philharmonic’s two-part 75th Anniversary European Tour to
thirteen cities in five countries, including concerts in Dresden, Germany, as
part of the reconsecration of the historic Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady).
In June 2006 he led the New York Philharmonic Tour of Italy, sponsored by
Generali, and in November 2006, the Orchestra’s visit to Japan and Korea.
Previously, he conducted the Philharmonic’s tours to Asia, three southern
U.S. states, the American Midwest, and in residencies in Cagliari, Sardinia,
and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado. Mr. Maazel served as
music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (1993–2002), and
II. The Wings by Denise Levertov
Something hangs in back of me, I can't see it, can't move it.
I know it's black, a hump on my back.
It's heavy. You can't see it.
What's in it? Don't tell me you don't know. It's
what you told me about— black
inimical power, coldwhirling out of it and
around me and sweeping you flat.
But what if, like a camel, it's
pure energy I store, and carry humped and heavy?
Not black, not that terror, stupidity
of cold rage; or black only for being pent there?What if released in air it became a white
source of light, a fountain of light? Could all that weight
be the power of flight? Look inward: see me
with embryo wings, one feathered in soot, the other
blazing ciliations of ember, pale flare-pinions. Well—
could I go on one wing,
the white one?
has held positions as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
(1988–96); general manager and chief conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper
(1982–84); music director of The Cleveland Orchestra (1972–82); and artistic
director and chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1965–71). In 2004
Mr. Maazel was named music director of the Symphonica Toscanini in Italy
— an orchestra comprising leading young professional European players. A
second-generation American, born in Paris, Mr. Maazel was raised in the United
States. He took his first violin lesson at age five and first conducting lesson at
seven. He studied with Vladimir Bakaleinikoff and appeared publicly for the
first time at age eight, leading a university orchestra. He made his New York
debut at the 1939 World’s Fair at nine, leading the Interlochen Orchestra, and
in the same year conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood
Bowl, sharing a program with Leopold Stokowski. Between ages 9 and 15 Lorin
Maazel conducted most of the major American orchestras. At 17 he entered
the University of Pittsburgh to study languages, mathematics, and philosophy.
While a student, he was a violinist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and
served as apprentice conductor during the 1949–50 season. In 1951 he won a Fulbright Fellowship to Italy, and two years later
made his European conducting debut in Catania, Italy. Mr. Maazel is also an
accomplished composer. His opera, 1984, received its world premiere in 2005
at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In 2006 the MIDEM festival
— the international market of music publishers and recording companies —
honored him with a Special MIDEM Award to recognize his achievements as a
conductor, recording artist, composer, and violinist.
in 1948. The setting of Levertov’s “The Wings” is a breathless soliloquy that
parallels the poem’s quick rhythms and suggests the flight implicit in its title.
Wagner found “Safe In Their Alabaster Chambers” by Emily Dickinson (1830
– 1886) to be a “cold” poem, evoking for her the chilling silence that Ovid
in his Metamorphoses attributes to Morpheus, the shaper of the dreams of
mortals as he sleeps in his cave, or the airless silence of limitless space, or the
eternal silence of the closed coffin. There is nothing safe about Dickinson’s
passionate “Wild Nights”, according to Wagner’s reading of the poem, and
her setting closes not with an affirmation but with a dying whisper.
—RichardRodda
Texts for Four Settings
I. Last Poem by Robert Desnos (trans. X.J. Kennedy)
I have so fiercely dreamed of you,
And walked so far and spoken of you so,
Loved a shade of you so hard
That now I’ve no more left of you.
I’m left to be a shade among the shades
A hundred times more shade than shade
To be shade cast time and time again into your sun-transfigured life.
Joseph Alessi was appointed Principal Trombone of the New
York Philharmonic in 1985. He began musical studies in his native California
with Joseph Alessi, Sr., his father. As a high school student in San Rafael,
California, he was a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony; he then studied
at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music. Prior to joining the Philharmonic,
Mr. Alessi was second trombone of the Philadelphia Orchestra and principal
trombone of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Alessi’s many New York Philharmonic solo appearances have
included the 1992 premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Pulitzer Prize–winning
Trombone Concerto, commissioned for the Orchestra’s 150th anniversary. He
has also performed as soloist with orchestras from Colorado to The Hague.
He has participated in numerous festivals, including Italy’s Festivale Musica
di Camera, Cabrillo Music Festival, Swiss Brass Week, and Finland’s Lieksa
Brass Week. He is a founding member of the Summit Brass ensemble at the
Rafael Mendez Brass Institute in Tempe, Arizona. Currently on the faculty
of The Juilliard School, Joseph Alessi has taught at Temple University in
Philadelphia and the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming. As a clinician
for the Edwards Instrument Co., he has given master classes throughout the
world and has toured Europe extensively as a master teacher and recitalist.
Mr. Alessi has performed on numerous occasions as soloist with local concert
bands including the West Point Army Band, Hanover Wind Symphony, and
the Ridgewood (New Jersey) Concert Band.
Mr. Alessi’s discography includes the Rouse Concerto with the
New York Philharmonic, available on An American Celebration on New
Four Settings (2004)
Premiere: 10th February, 2005. Christine Brandes, soprano, Chamber Music
Society of Lincoln Center, Wharton Center for the Performing Arts, East
Lansing, Michigan.
“Poetry-driven music” is how Wagner characterizes her Four
Settings, commissioned for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center by
The Wharton Center for the Performing Arts. While the poems are diverse in
style and subject, and not joined together by any narrative thread, they are
all related in their embodiment of dichotomy. Shade and darkness are held
against light in the verses by Robert Desnos and Denise Levertov; the eternal
verities of time and space are held against the passing of earthly things in
Emily Dickinson’s “Safe In Their Alabaster Chambers”; and tempest is held
against safe harbor in Dickinson’s “Wild Nights”. Wagner says that she largely
avoided obvious “text-painting” in favor of creating an expressive tension,
sometimes even an irony, between words and music, and gave the poems
a high profile to suggest their rich resonances of emotion and experience,
a process she compares to turning a gemstone in a shaft of light to behold
its varied, multihued facets. “Last Poem”, the first of the Settings, is literally
that — the final verse that the French poet Robert Desnos (1900-1945) wrote
before his death in the concentration camp at Terezín — and Wagner has
given it a sparse setting that suggests its longing, its sadness, and, at the
end, its desperation. Denise Levertov (1923 – 1997) was born in England and
became one of America’s most respected poets and teachers of creative
writing (at Brandeis, MIT, Tufts, and Stanford) after immigrating to this country
York Philharmonic Special Editions, and George Crumb’s Star-Child, which
received a Grammy Award (BRIDGE 9095).
Noted for her crystalline voice and superb musicianship, soprano
Christine Brandes brings her committed artistry to repertoire ranging from
the 17th century to newly-composed works. She has appeared with many
of the finest orchestras, including those of Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles,
Philadelphia, San Francisco, New York, Houston, Tokyo, Detroit, Minnesota,
Baltimore, Milwaukee, Toronto, St. Louis and the National Symphony, with
such conductors as Esa Peka Salonen, Sir Simon Rattle, Pierre Boulez, Sir
Charles Mackerras, Hans Graf, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Nicholas McGegan,
Kent Nagano and Peter Oundjian among many others. On the operatic stage
Ms. Brandes has appeared with the SF Opera, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand
Opera, Washington National Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, NY City
Opera, Minnesota, San Diego Opera, Montreal, Glimmerglass Opera and the
Opera Theatre of St. Louis in the operas of Handel, Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi,
Britten and Bolcom. She has recorded for EMI/Virgin, BMG, harmonia mundi,
KOCH, BRIDGE and Dorian.
Karla Lemon has appeared as a guest conductor with numerous
orchestras including the Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Oakland, and Nashua
Symphonies, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, the Spokane Symphony, the
Women’s Philharmonic and the Berkeley Symphony. Recently, Ms. Lemon
made her New York debut in Alice Tully Hall as conductor with the Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center. She was Director of Orchestras and Music
Director of the Alea II Ensemble for Contemporary Music at Stanford University
of mountains, old and new. And a truly great musician, as I learned while
hearing Joseph Alessi play, can coax so much more out of the trombone:
aching tenderness, sadness, lyricism, mirth.
With so many choices, the task of deciding how to begin any piece
can be a daunting one. Should the opening be fast, slow, swashbuckling, or
intimate — or something else altogether? It is a decision that affects all the
myriad decisions to follow, and I find this stage of the creative process to be
the scariest, erasers notwithstanding!
I decided to begin my concerto with a quiet, dark introduction. The
opening trombone melody is somewhat sad, and, much like an increasingly
impassioned prayer, full of speech-like peaks and valleys, sighs, and quiet
outbursts. I tried throughout to imbue the orchestral writing with a sense of
three dimensions — of space and the presence of a vanishing point. There
are many subtle echoes in the ensemble, and sometimes the trombone
melody leaves behind a kind of “trail” that is taken up by other instruments.
The quietude is brief, though, for much of the rest of the first movement
is fast and stinging. As in the finale, the trombone line is full of feints and
punches and jaunty syncopation; the orchestra keeps up with its many sharp
jabs, upward whooshes of sound, and spilling cascades. Marked “lush and
dangerous” in the score, the mood of the second movement is one of lost
love and yearning.
It has been a joy to create music for Joe and the New York
Philharmonic. This winning combination has offered me a wide, expansive
landscape in which to explore the ‘life story’ of a musical idea.”
for ten years. In addition to highly acclaimed performances of the standard
repertoire, Ms. Lemon’s name is associated with innovative programming and
presenting works by living composers. As such she has conducted the San
Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the “Works and Process Series" in
New York City, the “Fresh Ink” series at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, the
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (midwest tour), Pittsburgh’s Music
from the Edge, the Empyrean Ensemble, the Oberlin Dance Collective, and
the Scotia Festival in Halifax. She has premiered over one hundred works by
composers including Pulitzer Prize winners Melinda Wagner, Wayne Peterson,
and Ellen Taffe Zwilich, as well as Chen Yi, Libby Larsen, John Corigliano, Philip
Glass, Joan Tower, Peter Lieberson, and Eric Moe.
Since 1976, the New York New Music Ensemble has commissioned,
performed and recorded the important and upcoming composers of our time.
They have in fact been the means by which many of these have become more
known and appreciated. NYNME has been recognized and supported by all
the significant American foundations, including the Jerome Foundation, the
Fromm Foundation at Harvard, the Mary Flagler Cary Foundation, the Mellon
Foundation, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the NEA and NYSCA, among
others. They have performed innumerable college residencies (Long Beach,
UW Madison, Univ. of Pittsburgh, etc.), appeared at major festivals (Ravinia,
Santa Fe, June in Buffalo, Pacific Rim, The Thailand International Composers
Festival, etc.), and have recorded a huge discography of important chamber
works. They have traveled to Europe, Asia, and South America to perform,
teach and record, and have branched out into theatre music (instrumentalists
It seems just as strange, just as marvelous, that Wagner can develop a
singular language from sixteenth-century contrapuntal principles, as it does
that she can build her structures from this archetypal twentieth-century
scale – the octatonic – which so many Stravinsky imitators employ almost
reflexively, and find in it new possibilities. But most memorable is what she
does in this language: assemble soundscapes rich and vast, animate them
with characters that strive continually toward searing climaxes, reinvent the
possibilities of musical narrative.
—HaroldMeltzer
Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra (2006)
Premiere: 22nd, 23rd, 24th February, 2007. Joseph Alessi, Trombone, New
York Philharmonic, conducted by Lorin Maazel, Avery Fisher Hall, New York,
New York.
The composer writes: “I began work on myConcerto for Trombone
and Orchestra while serving as composer-in-residence at the Bravo! Vail
Valley Music Festival. During my free moments there, I found myself gazing
— in disbelief really — at the jagged, youthful beauty of the Rockies. By
comparison, “my” mountains — the old Endless, Allegheny, and Pocono
ranges of Pennsylvania — seemed to be no more than a set of soft wrinkles
in the skin of the earth!
Looking back, I see how fortuitous it was that I should begin
composing for trombone in such a setting. Nobility and power, hallmarks of
the trombone sound, are indeed words that come to mind in the presence
doubling as actors and singers) and adventuresome electronic, interactive
new technologies.
Conductor Jeffrey Milarsky is highly acclaimed for his musicianship
and innovative programming. His repertoire, which spans from Bach to
Xenakis, has brought him to lead groups including the American Composers
Orchestra, MET Chamber Ensemble, the Milwaukee Symphony, Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York New Music Ensemble, Manhattan
Sinfonietta, Speculum Musicae, Cygnus Ensemble, Fromm Players at
Harvard University, and the New York Philharmonic chamber music series.
He has premiered and recorded works by groundbreaking contemporary
composers, including Charles Wuorinen, Fred Lerdahl, Milton Babbitt, Elliott
Carter, Gerard Grisey, Jonathan Dawe, Tristan Murail, Ralph Shapey, Luigi
Nono, Mario Davidovsky and Wolfgang Rihm. Mr. Milarsky is Professor in
Music at Columbia University, is on the faculty of The Manhattan School of
Music, and is on the conducting faculty of the Juilliard School. Mr. Milarsky
made his debut at the New York City Opera during the 2008-09 season. In
the summer of 2008 he was called to Tanglewood to substitute for Maestro
James Levine in an all Elliott Carter program in honor of the composer’s
100th birthday. Mr. Milarsky is the regular guest conductor of The BIT20
Ensemble, having performed with them in Paris, Estonia, Latvia, Norway and
Italy. He has recorded extensively for Angel, BRIDGE, Teldec, Telarc, New
World, CRI, MusicMasters, EMI, KOCH, and London records.
The harmonies underlying these waves of sound are built often from two
overlapping octatonic scales – that alternate whole and half steps – each of
which includes the pitch to be reached at the moment of climax. From these
scales, Wagner artfully encircles such a pitch, like the trombone’s high C in
“Satyr,” so that it lies frequently in the middle of two-note chords. At times,
Wagner likes to proceed outward, like a wedge, from a central pitch, as the
contrabass does from an initial F natural in “The Wings,” the Denise Levertov
poem that is the second of the FourSettings. At others she likes to isolate
these symmetrically determined intervals, particularly the major third. This
interval figures prominently, like a bright primary color, in all the works on this
recording, but particularly in “The Wings,” when the contrabass plucks and
slides strikingly through a series of them, the major third is similarly featured
a little more than halfway through Wick, in which a repeated melodic cell of
A-C# lies at the sublime heart of the piece. Wind chimes outside Wagner’s
house tolled these two pitches persistently as she began to write Wick –
only when refining the percussion scoring, and adding wind chimes, was
the composer aware that the tolling had permeated her creative process.
And the waves are built from small melodic contours that rise and fall in
equal measure, perhaps informed by centuries–old contrapuntal practice
that, after proceeding in one direction for several notes, one must reverse
course; in particular one must step in one direction just after one has leapt
in the other. Wick begins with just a gesture, marked “sneaky tiptoe,” the rise
matched by a fall, the small leap upward filled in immediately by the passed
over pitch.
VIOLINSGlenn Dicterow ConcertmasterTheCharlesE.CulpeperChairSheryl Staples PrincipalAssociateConcertmaster TheElizabethG.Beinecke ChairMichelle Kim AssistantConcertmaster TheWilliamPetschekFamily ChairEnrico Di CeccoCarol WebbYoko Takebe
Kenneth Gordon+Hae-Young HamLisa GiHae KimNewton MansfieldKerry McDermottAnna RabinovaCharles RexFiona Simon
Sharon YamadaElizabeth ZeltserYulia Ziskel
Marc Ginsberg PrincipalLisa Kim* InMemoryofLauraMitchellSoohyun KwonDuoming Ba
Minyoung ChangMarilyn DubowMartin EshelmanJudith GinsbergMei Ching HuangMyung-Hi KimHanna LachertKuan-Cheng LuSarah O’BoyleDaniel ReedMark SchmoocklerNa SunVladimir Tsypin
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
2006–2007 SEASON
LORIN MAAZEL Music Director
Xian Zhang, AssociateConductor,TheArturoToscaniniChairLeonardBernstein,LaureateConductor,1943–1990KurtMasur,MusicDirectorEmeritus
so much more eerily quiet. Yet it is because this music communicates its goals
effortlessly, because it eclipses issues of language so easily, that one wants
to discover how it is made. And it turns out that this fresh, prismatic music is
constructed according to principles that are centuries old. One such principle
is the organic relationship between large and small, the flowering of an idea
from an initial musical seed. Compare the opening idea, or flowering, of the
music in Robert Desnos’ “Last Poem,” the first of the FourSettings(2004)
with that of “Satyr,” the first movement of the Concerto for Trombone and
Orchestra (2006). The two are so different in their color worlds and in their
emotional casts. But each begins with a melodic seed that fulfills its promise,
its larger trajectory, exactly ninety seconds later! In “Last Poem,” the soprano
intones the initial line, “I have so fiercely dreamed of you,” descending from
a high E natural by five steps, only to rise by step on the last syllable. This
musical seed – a downward trajectory but with an upward move at the end
– flowers in repetitions of the text, the vocal line descending continually, only
to leap upward to an F natural, a step higher than the initial E, as the final
utterance of the line concludes. In “Satyr,” the trombone soloist is from the
outset alienated from the orchestra, unable to match the orchestra’s pedal
pitch of C natural; instead his opening phrase begins on C# and ends on B.
As the soloist’s long line unwinds over the orchestral backdrop, he sounds
C natural only occasionally and incidentally; but a minute and a half into the
piece he and the orchestra reconcile at last, the trombone scaling upward to
complete the opening section on its high C.
VIOLASCynthia Phelps Principal TheMr.andMrs.Frederick P.RoseChairRebecca Young*Irene Breslaw** TheNormaandLloyd ChazenChairDorian Rence
Katherine GreeneDawn HannayVivek KamathPeter KenoteBarry LehrKenneth MirkinJudith NelsonRobert Rinehart
CELLOSCarter Brey Principal TheFanFoxandLeslieR. SamuelsChairHai-Ye Ni*+Qiang Tu ActingAssociatePrincipal TheShirleyandJonBrodsky FoundationChairEvangeline Benedetti
Eric BartlettNancy DonarumaElizabeth DysonValentin HirsuMaria KitsopoulosSumire KudoEileen MoonRu-Pei YehFrederick Zlotkin++
BASSESEugene LevinsonPrincipalTheRedfieldD.BeckwithChairJon Deak*Orin O’Brien
William BlossomRandall ButlerSatoshi OkamotoMichele Saxon
FLUTESRobert Langevin Principal TheLilaAchesonWallace ChairSandra Church*Renée SiebertMindy Kaufman
PICCOLOMindy Kaufman
"MelindaWagner'sworksuggestswhatthepainterHenriRousseaumighthave
createdhadhewrittenmusic—thebright,deepcolors;thesenseoffantasy
thatisbothexplicitandsomewhatmysterious.Itismusicthatisjustassmartas
itissensual,asbrainyasitisbeautiful.Wagnerisoneofmyfavoritecomposers,
andmyadmirationgrowswitheverynewwork." —Tim Page
We composers engage in a double endeavor: developing a language–
distinctive, vital, appealing – then finding compelling things to say in that
language. We make a double request of the listener as well: respond to what we
say at the same time that you learn our language. With some composers, for
whom newness of language is itself the compelling thing, a rejection of tradition
– a manifesto – may be all that reaches the listener. With others, who engage
the musical canon by putting new wine into old bottles, the trappings of tradition
instead can be traps that limit creative possibilities. It amazes me then, as a
listener, to confront this superbly imaginative music of Melinda Wagner without
being burdened by issues of language acquisition. Her art is so fluid, her rhetoric
so assured that the listener is conducted straight to the expressive center of the
music. There are innumerable carefully plotted weavings of counterpoint, but
they don’t draw attention to themselves; instead they embolden the lines to reach
their goals more convincingly. There are myriad noisy, teeming textures, but they
don’t sound fussy; instead they unleash powerful flows of energy. The listener is
buoyed continually on waves that eddy, crest, and ebb, that make even chamber
and vocal music seem orchestral and panoramic in scope, that make the still points
OBOESLiang Wang Principal TheAliceTullyChairSherry Sylar*Robert Botti
ENGLISH HORNThomas Stacy TheJoanandJoelSmilowChair
CLARINETSStanley Drucker Principal TheEdnaandW.VanAlan ClarkChairMark Nuccio*Pascual Martinez FortezaStephen Freeman
E-FLAT CLARINETMark Nuccio
BASS CLARINETStephen Freeman
BASSOONSJudith LeClair Principal ThePelsFamilyChairKim Laskowski*
Roger NyeArlen Fast
CONTRABASSOONArlen Fast
HORNSPhilip Myers Principal TheRuthF.andAlanJ.BroderChairJerome Ashby*L. William Kuyper**+R. Allen SpanjerErik RalskeHoward WallPatrick Milando++
TRUMPETSPhilip Smith Principal ThePaulaLevinChairMatthew Muckey*James RossThomas V. Smith
TROMBONESJoseph Alessi Principal TheGurneeF.andMarjorieL.HartChair
8 Wick (2000) (15:51)
(inonemovement)
New York New Music Ensemble Jeffrey Milarsky, conductor Jayn Rosenfeld, flute Jean Kopperud, clarinet Linda Quan, violin; Chris Finckel, cello Stephen Gosling, piano Daniel Druckman, percussion
π and © 2011, Bridge Records, Inc. All Rights Reserved Total Time: 61:29
James Markey*David Finlayson
BASS TROMBONEDonald Harwood
TUBAAlan Baer Principal
TIMPANIMarkus Rhoten Principal TheCarlosMoseleyChairJoseph Pereira**
PERCUSSIONChristopher S. Lamb PrincipalTheConstanceR.HoguetFriendsofthePhilharmonicChairDaniel Druckman* TheMr.andMrs.RonaldJ. UlrichChairJoseph Pereira
HARPNancy Allen Principal TheMr.andMrs.WilliamT. KnightIIIChair
KEYBOARDInMemoryofPaulJacobs
HARPSICHORDLionel Party
PIANO TheKarenandRichardS. LeFrakChairHarriet WingreenJonathan Feldman
ORGANKent Tritle
LIBRARIANSLawrence TarlowPrincipalSandra Pearson**Thad Marciniak
ORCHESTRA PERSONNELMANAGERCarl R. Schiebler
STAGE REPRESENTATIVELouis J. Patalano
AUDIO DIRECTORLawrence Rock
*Associate Principal**Assistant Principal+On Leave++Replacement/Extra
The New York Philharmonic uses the revolving seating method for section string players who are listed alphabetically in the roster.
Producer: Lawrence Rock (Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra) and Adam Abeshouse (Four Settings and Wick)Engineers: Lawrence Rock (Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra) and Adam Abeshouse (Four Settings and Wick) Editors: Lawrence Rock (Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra); Charlie Post (Four Settings) and Adam Abeshouse (Wick) Mastering Engineer: Adam AbeshouseExecutive Producers: Becky and David StarobinGraphic Design: Douglas H. HollyAssociate Graphic Design: Sandra WoodruffPhotographs: Alex Fedorov (fedorovfoto.com)
Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra was recorded on February 22-24, 2007 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Wick and Four Settings were recorded on March 22, 2008 at the Theater C, SUNY College at Purchase, Purchase, NY.
Melinda Wagner's music is published by Theodore Presser Co. (ASCAP)
The commissioning of Melinda Wagner’s Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra was made possible with generous support from the Francis Goelet Fund and the New York State Music Fund.
Programs of the New York Philharmonic are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, The New York State Music Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts. These concerts are made possible, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Steinway is the Official Piano of the New York Philharmonic and Avery Fisher Hall.
“The Wings” by Denise Levertov from POEMS (1960-1967), copyright © 1966 by Denise Levertov. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
This recording is made possible with support of The Aaron Copland Fund for Recorded Music, The Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, The Jerome Foundation, New Jersey Arts Collective, The Edwards Instrument Co. (edwards-instruments.com), The Argosy Foundation: Contemporary Music Fund, and the Classical Recording Foundation.
For My Parents — M.W.
Special thanks to Adam Abeshouse, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, Douglas Beck, Kimberly Burja, Louis Conti, Darren Gage, Christian Griego, Guy Gsell, Judith Ilika, Monica Parks, Jayn Rosenfeld, Miki Takebe, and The Two River Theater Company.
For Bridge Records: Barbara Bersito Douglas Holly, Paige Freeman Hoover
Charlie Post, Doron Schächter, Robert StarobinAllegra Starobin, and Sandra Woodruff
Brad Napoliello, webmasterE-mail: [email protected]
Bridge Records, Inc.200 Clinton Ave. • New Rochelle, NY • 10801
www.BridgeRecords.com
MELINDA WAGNER(b. 1957)
Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra (2006) (23:54)
1 I. Satyr (10:03)
2 II. Elemental Things (8:16)
III. Litany (Interlude)
3 IV. Catch (5:28)
New York Philharmonic Lorin Maazel, conductor Joseph Alessi, trombone
Four Settings (2004) (21:29)
4 I. Last Poem (5:59) [Robert Desnos; trans. by X. J. Kennedy]
5 II. The Wings (8:22)
[Denise Levertov]
6 III. Safe In Their Alabaster Chambers (3:36) [Emily Dickinson]
7 IV. Wild Nights---Wild Nights! (3:32) [Emily Dickinson]
(ThisrecordingisforKarla)
Karla Lemon, conductor Christine Brandes, soprano Laura Gilbert, flute; Alan Kay, clarinet Curtis Macomber, violin; Richard O'Neill, viola Fred Sherry, cello, John Feeney, contrabass Stephen Gosling, piano
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MELINDA WAGNERConcerto forTrombone and Orchestra
Four Settings
Wick
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π and © 2011, Bridge Records, Inc. • All Rights Reserved • Total Time: 61:29
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1-3 Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra (2006) (23:54)
New York Philharmonic Lorin Maazel, conductor Joseph Alessi, trombone
4-7 Four Settings (2004) (21:29) Poems by Robert Desnos (trans. by X.J. Kennedy)
Denise Levertov and Emily Dickinson
Karla Lemon, conductor Christine Brandes, soprano Laura Gilbert, Alan Kay Curtis Macomber, Richard O’Neill Fred Sherry, John Feeney, Stephen Gosling
8 Wick (2000) (15:51) (in one movement)
New York New Music Ensemble Jeffrey Milarsky, conductor
