Insider Interview with Molly Fillmore

Soprano Molly Fillmore brings the words of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Emily Dickinson, Carl Sandburg and others to life on Bold Beauty, a new recording of vocal works by Juliana Hall (Blue Griffin Recording, BGR559, released September 24, 2021). In this insider interview, she talks about the album, her love of poetry, discovering brilliant women artists, and the creative process.

How did you meet and get to know Juliana Hall? 

In 2016, Elvia Puccinelli and I were invited to do a benefit concert for the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts.  Our program included some songs from Juliana’s Syllables of Velvet, Sentences of Plush, which is music composed to letters written by Emily Dickinson.  When the time came to find a composer for the project, I sent Juliana a proposal which included my poems and samples of the visual artists’ work, and she accepted the project. 

What interests you about her work? 

I can tell that she spends considerable time considering texts – from her text choices, to the way she musically inflects words.  One can tell that each word is carefully considered in her compositions. 

Tell us about Cameos  - the six poems you wrote that highlight the works of 6 women painters. 
Were these artists you already knew about? How did you choose these artists as your inspiration?

These were all new artists to me.  I wanted to find artists who were not ‘household names’, like Georgia O’Keefe, but who were certainly worthy of being so.  

I went to a library and a used book store and searched through many artist’s catalogs, focusing on women.  I was not necessarily looking for American female artists, but it ended up that way.  

What’s your relationship with poetry? Do you write poetry often, or was this something new to you (to write the poems that became the lyrics in Cameos)? 

I love the freedom of structure that poetry offers, and yes, I have written other poems, but more personal rather than about people.  My initial thought was to hire a writer, but as I spent time with the work of these magnificent artists, the poems just came to me. 

How did you work with Juliana Hall to create these songs?

We worked independently;  I had written the poems when I approached her about the project, and she liked them in their form ‘as is’ and so she took them and composed from there. 

What do you hope people take away from the Cameos work, or the album as a whole? 

My goal for the Cameos cycle was to draw attention to these wonderful visual artists. If anyone looks up their artwork because they saw a name on the album, then I will be very happy about that. Also, there are so many other quality poems and musical gifts, courtesy of Juliana and the amazing writers she chose: Millay, Dickinson, Sandburg, Lowell… I think the album offers much, and I am grateful to have had a part in its creation.

Portland Press Herald: Victoria Bond on "Blue and Green Music"

Composer draws inspiration from Georgia O’Keeffe

One hundred years ago, O'Keeffe turned music into painting. Now composer Victoria Bond is doing the reverse. Bond's work is meant to evoke the painting's themes.

By Bob Keyes, Portland Press Herald

Victoria Bond carved time out of her musical obligations in 2019 to visit the Art Institute of Chicago. She was there to conduct a concert, and wanted to see the painting “Blue and Green Music” by Georgia O’Keeffe. She had a commission from the Cassatt String Quartet, and knowing the quartet was inspired by the painter Mary Cassatt, Bond thought it would be appropriate to write music inspired by a visual artist.

She intended to select multiple paintings to write multiple movements for a single piece, but settled on a single painting by O’Keeffe.

“I was so taken by the painting — its many details, its many implications, it ambiguity — it spoke to me so directly, I decided, ‘I am going to write the whole piece based on this painting,'” she said in a phone interview. “I think the security guard got a little annoyed with me. I was standing there and sitting there, taking pictures and moving around, for about an hour, just absorbing it. There is a huge difference between the original and the reproductions. I wanted to be able to absorb the actual colors and textures and the vibrancy of the original artwork. As I looked at it, ideas started to come to me.”

Maine audiences will have multiple opportunities to hear the manifestation of Bond’s musical ideas when the Cassatt String Quartet performs the piece three times in the weeks ahead as part of the Seal Bay Music Festival. The Cassatt is the resident quartet of the festival, and will perform it on Vinalhaven on Aug. 16, in Belfast on Aug. 18 and in Portland on Aug. 19. In addition, the quartet will perform movements from the piece privately at retirement homes and other residences across the state, as it has done several times already this summer.

“This piece brings so much joy to people,” said Muneko Otani, first violinist of the Cassatt. “My job doesn’t pay much, but it’s the best job because it brings such happiness.”

O’Keeffe made the painting around 1920, during a time when she experimented with oils to explore “the idea that music could be translated into something for the eye.” Her blue and green colors suggest the natural world, and her hard painted edges and soft, wavy lines of color evoke both a sense of sense of order and growing euphoria, simultaneous emotions consistent with music. With her piece, Bond is trying to do the opposite of O’Keeffe, by translating something for the eye into music.

The original inspiration was visual, but the musical composition is not a one-to-one relationship with the painting but an evocation of its themes, Bond said. “Georgia O’Keeffe said, ‘Because I cannot sing, I paint.’ With this painting, she set up two colors in dynamic with each other. I won’t say in opposition, but in dynamic. I wanted to set up that dynamic with two musical themes, so the whole piece is based on those themes,” she said.

Her musical themes stand in harmony and apart in four movements, titled “Blue and Green,” “Green,” “Blue” and “Dancing Colors.”

Bond has written operas (“Mrs. President” is among the notables), ballets and orchestral works. The New York City Opera, New York Philharmonic and American Ballet Theater are among the cultural institutions that have performed her music. She has been the principal guest conductor of Chamber Opera Chicago since 2005, and she founded the Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in New York in 1988 and still serves as its artistic director.

The Cassatt String Quartet commissioned Bond to write the piece after receiving a Chamber Music America commissioning grant. This is her second piece for the quartet, which is based in New York. Otani described the music as “imaginative. We have commissioned a thousand new works in the last 30 years, and her work always stands out because of its rhythm, harmony and the colors of her sounds.”

Bond will attend the performances in Maine and talk about the music before the quartet performs it. “I believe, and they believe, it is very important to have the presence of the composer. If the composer is at all articulate, it offers a way into the work. People are hearing it for the first time. It’s a new language. It’s unfamiliar. Talking about it is a way of bridging the gap,” she said. “People are so used to hearing music written by composers who are no longer alive, and mostly men.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Seal Bay Festival, featuring “Blue and Green Music” by Victoria Bond

WHEN, WHERE: 7 p.m. Aug. 16, Vinalhaven School, Smith Hokanson Memorial Hall,22 Arcola Lane, Vinalhaven, free with $10 suggested donation; 7 p.m. Aug. 18, Waterfall Arts, 256 High St., Belfast, $10; 7:30 p.m. Aug. 19, Mechanics’ Hall, 519 Congress St., Portland, $15

TICKETS & INFO: sealbayfestival.org/concerts and mechanicshallmaine.org/programming

Insider Interview with pianist Inna Faliks

Pianist Inna Faliks’ new album Reimagine: Beethoven and Ravel features her performance of Beethoven's Bagatelles, op. 126, alongside works she commissioned by Paola Prestini, Timo Andres, Billy Childs, Richard Danielpour, and half a dozen others to respond musically to Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit and the Bagatelles. In our insider interview, we spoke with her about the album, the commissioning process, and connecting the past with the future.

How did you get the idea to commission composers using these particular works as a jumping off point?

I wanted to create bridges between the past and the present, but without making it feel as though the composers were being asked to recreate something or to make something that exhibits particular reverence. The works I chose were meant to be used as a jumping-off point, an inspiration. The Beethoven year was around the corner, when I started planning this, four years ago – and nothing seemed more appropriate than the Bagatelles opus 126. They are his last masterpiece for the piano, and have so much richness, whimsy, transcendence, humor, experimentation – in tiny four minute works!

As the project expanded, I wanted to also include larger works, and turned towards Gaspard de la Nuit by Maurice Ravel. The triptych itself was based on three poems, so, with my Music/Words series background, it seemed like a natural fit for this project. Gaspard was on my first recording, Sound of Verse, on MSR Classics, and is one of the staples of my repertoire. I thought it would be a fantastic challenge and inspiration for the great composers whom I asked to take part of the project. There is so much in these poems and in this music, and I knew these composers would jump in and treat the material as seed of an idea. Indeed, I feel they created profound new works for the piano repertoire.

What fascinates you about this idea of connecting the past with the future via compositions that are inspired by other works?

I love the variation form. I also love to draw connections between different artforms and have done this for a big portion of my performance career – poetry with music, theatre with monologue, etc. To me, this type of connection feels inevitable. It helps the audience make aural, sensory, literary connections between then and now, and also hopefully erases this feeling of “old” music vs. “new” music. It’s all living, breathing music – and composers who write or wrote it were and are living, breathing human beings. Sometimes we tend to forget that.

How has your understanding of the original works been informed or changed by these new works? ie, did you gain a deeper insight after this process?

I tried not to impose my interpretation or view of Beethoven or Ravel onto the new pieces, but rather approach them with total freshness. This made for an interesting dialogue. It was fun finding clues, in character, form, color, to the originals but I wouldn’t say that I tried to play the new Bagatelles like the Beethoven Bagatelles. I tried to capture the individual voices of all the composers.

Both Timo Andres and Billy Childs found underlying themes surrounding race in the original works that informed their compositions. As the person who commissioned these works, how involved were you were throughout the process? What kinds of conversations were you having as the pieces were being written?

I let the composers do what they wanted and stayed out of the process, just waiting for the completed works. I didn’t want to influence or pressure them in any way. Only when the pieces were near finished did we meet and go through them, and sometimes changed small details.

The subject matter from Timo and Billy was coincidental and therefore much more moving than if we had actually planned it that way with both of them. Both just “went there{“, because they could not NOT go there. And I found that to be overwhelmingly powerful.

You commissioned six UCLA composers – in other words, six of your colleagues. Tell us about the similarities and/or differences of the composers in this group.

These are six phenomenal voices – and all are so different. Peter Golub writes for film, primarily, but also has lots of great stand along piano music. His Bagatelle had so much playfulness – a perfect opener for the album. The piece begins, then goes off course, then back on track, then changes its mind. It’s vivid and full of whimsy, just like the entire cycle of Bagatelles.

Tamir Hendelman’s Bagatelle is jagged and jazzy – he is a jazz pianist and composer! It’s also lyrical, and takes the Beethoven idea to far out places while keeping the buzzy energy alive.

Richard Danielpour and I have collaborated a lot. He has a special love for the piano, and is a wonderful pianist himself. I premiered his Bagatelle cycle two seasons ago, with this Bagatelle as part of the cycle, and had my UCLA students play all his Preludes. In the coming seasons, I will be recording his Bagatelle cycles, along with a premiere of a Variations set written for me. His writing is sensuous, rich, gorgeous, very pianistic – it feels so good to play. This particular piece delves into much more dark realms than the Beethoven but, like the Beethoven, has elements of transcendence.

Ian Krouse wrote probably the most difficult piece of the set – it is a Fugue and an Etude, masterfully crafted, and just really wild, jagged and cool. Like the Beethoven, there are two sections that alternate – energetic and driven; and cosmic, quiet, and dreamlike. Ian’s harmonies reminded me of his Armenian Requiem, an absolutely incredible choral work he wrote a few years ago.

Mark Carlson’s piece is dreamy, beautiful, shining – it’s such a pleasure to play. It seamlessly weaves into the Beethoven which is sweetly innocent.

Finally, David Lefkowitz kept the form of Beethoven’s original, but his harmonic language is so surprising and interesting that it feels entirely new. It works wonderfully as a pairing with the last Bagatelle, and the ending to the group.

What do you hope listeners will take away from this album?

I hope they will fall in love with the new works like I did. I also hope they can hear Beethoven, recorded many times already, in a new way. Finally, I hope they seek out my Gaspard de la Nuit recording and hear it as well!

Insider Interview with pianist Andrea Botticelli

For her debut album, “A Voice From the Distance,” the pianist Andrea Botticelli drew her inspiration from a predecessor of the modern keyboard, the fortepiano. Featuring works by Franz Schubert, Carl Czerny, and Robert and Clara Schumann, the album highlights many works from the Romantic period – both classics and lesser known gems – that are rarely performed on a historic instrument. In our insider interview with Ms. Botticelli, we spoke with her about this historic recording, all things early keyboards, the recording process, and more.

What first drew you to perform on period instruments?  

Most of my training in music school was as a modern pianist, but one summer as a doctoral student, I attended a Baroque music summer program and it was there that I tried a fortepiano for the first time. I was struck by how each historical instrument speaks in its own individual voice! I also thought it was refreshing and revelatory to hear music that I thought I knew well, played with a striking, fascinating, and ultimately convincing sound. I felt I understood more about the music and the composers’ intentions by playing on these instruments.  

How different is the technique between modern piano and earlier keyboards? 

Historical keyboards require an adjustment in the player’s touch to the shallower, lighter keys. The instruments respond to a very caressing touch that would be often too superficial on a modern piano. Along with the altered technique, you hear different sounds that present different possibilities and directions for interpretation. For instance, the excessively slow, ponderous tempi that are seductive on instruments with a thicker, deeper bass and more sustain don’t work on historical pianos; one must create an equally expressive interpretation using different means and differently paced musical gestures.  

Do you have any advice for pianists who are interested in a career in historically informed performance?  

My main advice would be to research and play as many different keyboard instruments as possible; learn to speak their diverse languages. Historical performance is a field of musical “pioneers” willing to go out on an artistic limb for what they believe. I would say that one needs an insatiable curiosity and the desire to find your own answers to musical questions. 

Tell me about the instrument that you recorded A Voice in the Distance on, at the Banff Centre in Canada.  

The fortepiano used in this recording, built by Rodney Regier in 2014, is a replica of a typical Viennese fortepiano from the 1830’s built by Conrad Graf. He was arguably the most accomplished and well-known builder in Vienna at the time and his instruments typify the 19th century Viennese piano ideal, an instrument whose sound and dimensions composers of the time would have known well.  

There are variations in sound quality between the different registers of a fortepiano, such as a speaking or singing middle register; a thin, reedy upper register; and a lighter, clearer bass. The Viennese fortepiano also features a lighter and shallower action, rendering it very responsive and capable of nuances of sound and shaping. Nineteenth century fortepianos often featured a wider selection of pedals, tone-modifying devices that added extra colours and effects to the fundamental piano sound. This fortepiano features a damper pedal, an una corda pedal, and a third pedal known as the moderator. When this pedal is depressed, a piece of felt is inserted between the hammers and strings to sweetly mute the sound and create an intimate whisper in soft passages. Finally, playing this repertoire on the 6.5-octave range of the instrument (newly expanded from the 5.5- and 6-octave instruments that were common in the early decades of the 19th century) restores the excitement of the rhetorical gesture that utilizes the very lowest to the very highest notes of the keyboard. As a performer, you can once again feel the enthusiasm and excitement of musicians using the instruments to their limit. In this debut fortepiano recording of Schumann's Novellette in F-sharp minor, Op. 21 No. 8, one feels the drama of challenging these new instrumental possibilities with music that exploits its full capabilities. 

What significance does the album title, A Voice in the Distance, have? Why do you use the German title, Stimme aus der Ferne? 

The title of the album, “Stimme aus der Ferne - A Voice From the Distance” refers to an indication written in the score of the Novellette, by Robert Schumann. Amid a tumultuous and highly varied movement, the music suddenly becomes tender and intimate. The lyrical melody from the Notturno by Clara Schumann becomes the “voice from the distance” that Robert quotes, as though the beloved theme drifts into his mind as he is composing: a poetic illustration of the presence of Clara, in thought and in music. 

How did you choose the album’s repertoire?  

The repertoire on the album was carefully chosen to highlight the Banff fortepiano’s unique expressive capabilities. First of all, I chose lyrical music that I really love! I also wanted to showcase the music of a range of composers; each piece reveals how they used the sonority of the instrument in their own way. The pairing of the last two pieces by Clara and Robert Schumann was my way of highlighting their deep human and artistic connection.   

What textures does the fortepiano add to the album’s repertoire that you wouldn’t hear when playing the same pieces on a modern piano?  What differences or nuances do you hope the listener picks up on? 

The registration and sound of the fortepiano add a clarity to the repertoire and a distinct character to musical themes written in different parts of the keyboard. For instance, in Variations on a Theme by Rode, Czerny highlights the transparent, sparkling upper register of the instrument by writing extended passages of virtuosity and brilliance. There is also an increased range of softer dynamic levels when using the full range of pedals on the fortepiano. In the second movement of the Schubert sonata, I interchange passages using the soft una corda pedal and the even softer moderator to create an added layer of intimacy. I have also used this pedal to create an extra quiet and ethereal effect in moments of Schumann’s Papillons and Novellette.  

Tell me about the special connection between the final two pieces on the album – Robert Schumann’s Novellette and Clara Schumann’s Notturno. 

Although Clara Schumann herself downplayed or doubted her compositional gifts during her life, her musical themes are often present in Robert Schumann’s music, quoted and used as a springboard for his imagination. In the structure of Robert Schumann’s Novellette, Clara’s theme is the only melodic link between the two main sections of the piece. Her theme surfaces as a private reverie and then returns transformed at the triumphant climax. I believe these two pieces by Clara and Robert Schumann are linked for the first time on this recording and I wanted to highlight this artistic connection between the two musicians. This concept of creative synergy is very much reflected in the repertoire of this disc. 

Insider Interview with Antioch Chamber Ensemble

On July 9, 2021, the Antioch Chamber Ensemble releases “Robert Kyr: In Praise of Music.” The choral ensemble's album touches on themes of conflict, celebration, peace-making, and music itself throughout the album's ten works, with texts by Kyr and a variety of other sources. We spoke to Antioch’s executive director Stephen Sands about the recording process, collaborating with composer Robert Kyr, and what makes his music so special. Pre-order the album on Amazon here.

What qualities make a choral ensemble great (generally speaking) and what makes the Antioch Chamber Ensemble stand out among other choirs?

Cohesiveness as an ensemble and ability to feel the music as a chamber ensemble. Antioch has the ability to very quickly learn a piece of music, internalize it and bring a blended, cohesive sound to a performance.

How did you get to know the composer Robert Kyr? What made you decide to devote an entire album to his music?

We met Robert when we had our residency at Harvard University in 2016. Robert coached all of the undergraduate composers whose music we workshopped that week. We also were introduced to his music and our joint venture was born from there! We decided to record Robert's music during another residency at Washington and Lee University in the fall of 2018. His music is so diverse and he is such a prolific composer, that it was quite easy to make a disk of one composer that doesn't all sound "the same".

 How involved was Kyr in the recording process?  

Robert has been involved from the start. He helped curate the music, sometimes rearranging it for our voicing. We really split the work 50/50 and have very much enjoyed working with him.

What challenges are you presented with in the recording studio vs. performing in front of a live audience?  

We recorded in the main hall at the Lenfest Center for the Arts at Washington and Lee University. The challenge with recording versus live performance is that singers will often prioritize being 100% correct over communicating with an audience. When you have an audience in front of you, it is easy to feel the reciprocal emotion that a piece creates. When recording, you need to do that as an ensemble and individual musician. No live performance is ever perfect, but when recording, you really do try to get as close as you can to perfection to make the editing process easier.

What do you hope listeners will take away after hearing “In Praise of Music”?

I hope listeners will enjoy Robert's music. He is such a gifted composer whose music deserves to be heard far and wide. 

City of Tomorrow Insider Interview

On June 25, 2021 City of Tomorrow releases their album “Blow” on New Focus Recordings and features works by Franco Donatoni, Esa Pekka-Salonen, and a commission by Hannah Lash. In our insider interview with the wind quintet, we talked to them about the apocalypse, their love for Italian composer Franco Donatoni, and how the album highlights the individual vs. ensemble in a variety of fascinating ways.

What made you choose these three pieces for the album?  

These works are all very integral to the identity of the quintet; they’re pieces that we’ve wanted to record for a very long time. Blow by Franco Donatoni was a huge part of the genesis of the ensemble. We formed in 2010, in part to have a group cohesive enough (and crazy enough!) to play it. Though some of us were still in graduate school at the time, we gave the North American premiere of the piece Donatoni considered his masterwork. 

Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Memoria is a piece the City of Tomorrow has performed many times over the years. We started learning it after meeting Maestro Salonen and talking with him about his teacher, Donatoni! He also gave us his blessing to play Memoria without contrabassoon on tour, which made it a much more portable piece of music. Memoria is luminescent, intricately detailed, and has an incredibly vital energy. As soon as we heard it, we were obsessed with it.  

Lastly, Hannah Lash’s Leander and Hero is one of the more major commissions that the City of Tomorrow has made. The ensemble encountered Lash and her work in 2013 at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival and shortly after, Hannah and our horn player Leander came up with the idea of Leander and Hero. We were lucky enough to receive funding for the commission from a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant in 2014 and this epic, emotional piece was born.      

Tell me more about this idea of the individual vs. ensemble - a theme that seems to unite all of the album’s works. What ties the works specifically to this idea? (Playing devil’s advocate… doesn’t all chamber music feature this element of the group vs. soloist?)  

You’re right! There tends to be a lot of soloistic playing in chamber music, especially in a mixed-consort-type group like a wind quintet; composers see the potential in featuring the distinct sounds of each instrument. We’ve always considered the City of Tomorrow as more of a flexible ensemble of soloists and chamber musicians; our concerts often feature members as true soloists or in smaller fractions of the quintet (a reed trio, for example.) We all have talent crushes on each other and love to hear our colleagues shred and captivate.  

The three pieces on Blow take distinctly different modes, when it comes to solo voice versus ensemble. Salonen is the most democratic; he rarely has a voice playing on it’s own. Almost every note in the piece is doubled. Sometimes, this is heard in a very straightforward way, like the horn and flute doubling at the beginning. Other times, it’s a roiling, shifting texture, where as soon as you join up with someone, you leave to join with another, like a lively square dance! 

Lash’s piece is soloistic in a very traditional way; the two main characters, Leander and Hero, are voiced by the E-flat (very high-pitched) clarinet and the piccolo, respectively. These two parts are incredibly lovely and virtuosic. The other three instruments represent the Greek chorus, commenting on the action, setting the scenes. This is in part because one of the ideas thrown around at the beginning of the composition process was that Leander and Hero could be performed in a more staged way, as a musical drama. 

Much of Donatoni’s Blow uses extended solos for each instrument as a way to distinguish each section of music as having a particular texture and style. In each of the solo sections, he pushes the soloist to the edge of possibility, with techniques that are particularly difficult for the instrument in question. (Low, short, accented flute notes, double tonguing on the oboe, rapid hand stopping in the horn, etc.) In doing so, the energy created is pretty intense! The soloist is often instructed to be quieter than the accompaniment so that there is a feeling of the accompaniment being the “in-group” with the audience, listening to the soloist who is at a distance. 

How did you settle on this theme of the apocalypse when choosing a “prompt” to give Hannah Lash for the commissioned Leander and Hero?  

At the time, the City of Tomorrow was deep in an exploration of the Sublime; first, as a nod to the Romantic Era (the sublime in nature), then in regard to industry and cities, and lastly the sublime fear of natural disaster caused by humanity, the combination of these two ideas. There is a cultural sadness and sense of overwhelming helplessness concerning climate change that we wanted to explore as the modern sublime.  

When we first floated the idea to Hannah Lash, we were imagining zombie waltzes and seed vault sequences but what Hannah came up with is so much better: an intimate story of personal tragedy. Because what is an apocalypse if not many, many personal tragedies?  

What connection is there between [City of Tomorrow horn player] Leander Star and Leander the Ancient Greek?  

It was Hannah Lash’s idea to use a myth to explore apocalyptic ideas. When she and Leander were coming up with myths that might work, Leander mentioned his namesake, who was swallowed by the sea. The idea stuck: it’s a beautiful story of faithfulness, and the corollary with rising sea levels is hopefully not too heavy-handed here. An interesting detail is that Leander’s wife is flutist Elise Blatchford, who portrays Hero in the piece. She often felt emotional toward the piccolo solos and entwined moments with the clarinet. 

You called your album Blow. Why? What does this piece mean to you, and what interests you about Donatoni?  

I think we are all pretty proud of the work that the City of Tomorrow has done (both in the recording and over the years) on this quintet by Franco Donatoni. Because it’s been with us from the beginning, and has been played by so few quintets, Blow has become highly emblematic of our ensemble. The original members included Andrew Nogal on oboe, Lauren Cook on clarinet, and Amanda Swain on bassoon, and other members Camila Barrientos Ossio (clarinet) and Laura Miller (bassoon) have also looked at the piece. It unites current and former members like no other work we have done. 

More topically, we have been keenly aware of the unfortunate transgressive nature of our wind instruments during a pandemic in which aerosols are making the news headlines. We have been sidelined to Zoom, contained with bell covers and flute masks, separated by great distances. Blow feels like a huge release, an explosion outward of this musical energy that has been contained for the last 18 months.   

How did you all meet each other and what inspired you to form a wind quintet? 

The original members met in Chicago, where some of us were in graduate school. The initial impetus was that there was so much good wind quintet music from the mid and late 20th century that wasn’t getting played, maybe because it was too much work for a casual gigging group or for a university or symphony runout quintet. I very much remember my teacher encouraging us to play Danzi and Taffanel (older, more conservative works that are lovely!) but instead we wanted to play a quintet by George Perle that had won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 and this insane-looking Donatoni piece (“Blow”) that had rental fees close to what I was paying to rent an apartment! We felt that we’d discovered a treasure trove, one that other musicians seemed to look right through or disregard out of hand. We believed in the quality and appeal of the repertoire and of the wind quintet in general and that belief was rewarded when a year later, we won first prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2011, launching our professional journey. As original members obtained jobs with symphonies and overseas, our new members were also musicians drawn to the challenges of these works and to the sonic potential of the wind quintet.  

How did you choose the ensemble’s name?

The City of Tomorrow is from the Billy Collins poem of the same name. The retro-futurist vibe of that work has always resonated with us, since we are trying to do something quite modern with a traditionally classical ensemble. We also love the idea that the music of tomorrow will be surprisingly more human and earthbound than most people expect.

Gramophone reviews "dwb"

If Susan Kander and Roberta Gumbel’s dwb (driving while black) had premiered as scheduled two months before the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, it might have been lost in the growing but still muted din of classical music responding to the country’s racial crisis. A year later, set against the graphic details of the trial in Minneapolis, the opera’s portrayal of a black mother’s journey into fear as her son grows up and approaches driving age provides a road map to living ‘handcuffed on the ground’. Its consoling lullaby is an iconically memorable ‘My beautiful brown boy … you are not who they see’. Its closing mantra is: ‘It’s not a question of if, my son, but when’.

dwb tells its story in 13 scenes and seven news ‘bulletins’ during which Gumbel and New Morse Code, the remarkably inventive and resourceful duo of cellist Hannah Collins and percussionist Michael Compitello, chronicle reality with unblinking intensity. One moment the son is playing innocently with his toys, the next moment the mother sings a painful anguished vocalise accompanied by Collins, rising ever higher without ever being able to scream, and Compitello gonging out.

dwb only begins to make its full impact in an audio recording because what Kander as the composer and Gumbel, both as librettist and performer, have expressed with such economical means in their recording of the virtual world premiere – presented in October by Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York City and Opera Omaha – really needs to be seen.

Transcentury Media Reviews Sahan Arzruni's "Hovhaness: Selected Piano Compositions"

To composers of the Classical era, the piano (that is, fortepiano) was an instrument allowing greater expressiveness than the harpsichord, or at least expressiveness of a different type. To Beethoven and the early Romantics, the steadily improving piano made possible increasing emotional communication in music, as well as substantial virtuosity, often for its own sake. To Liszt, one of the most-substantial virtuoso players of his era, the piano – which came into essentially its modern form during his lifetime – was an orchestra in miniature. To later composers, the piano took on expanded roles or very different ones, including some (such as “prepared piano”) that changed the instrument’s inherent sound and placed it even more firmly in the percussion realm than it had been before. And to some composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, the piano became, or has become, a newly expressive instrument, even to the point of connecting to realms beyond the musical.

That is how Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000) appears to have seen the piano, on the basis of a generous selection of his solo-piano music that was originally released in 2019 but is only now being made available in the United States. Pianist Şahan Arzruni, a longtime friend and colleague of Hovhaness, seems as finely attuned to the underlying mysticism of Hovhaness’ piano works (and, indeed, his works in general) as any performer can be. Arzruni’s extensive familiarity with Hovhaness’ oeuvre, and his personal possession of numerous hand-written manuscripts of Hovhaness’ music, make it possible for him to place the 10 works on this Kalan Music CD firmly within proper context. And Arzruni’s sheer pianistic skill helps him do something that is by no means straightforward in Hovhaness’ music: to make it colorful and convincing in and of itself, without requiring complete understanding of the philosophical trappings in which so much material from this Armenian-American composer is clothed. Arzruni presents these works in a way that he believes will help them communicate Hovhaness’ beliefs and intentions most effectively – not chronologically, and not arranged by length or other obvious methods. Furthermore, Arzruni offers pieces of piano music in combination with ones that Hovhaness originally conceptualized differently. Thus, Invocations to Vahakn (1945) was written for piano and percussion (Adam Rosenblatt is the percussionist); Yenovk (“The Troubadour,” 1947/1951) was created as seven movements for piano solo; Lalezar (1950-52) derives from a set of songs for bass voice and orchestra; and so forth.

These are the first three works on the disc, lasting, respectively, 13, 11 and four-and-a-half minutes. So in less than half an hour, Arzruni already gives listeners a portrait of Hovhaness presented at varying lengths. In terms of time span, it is true that most of the pieces date from the mid-1940s through the mid-1950s, but even within that period, there is considerable variety. Like many other prolific composers – and Hovhaness was quite prolific, although very little of his music is heard frequently – Hovhaness is said to have had “periods” of differing focus. Thus, some works here imitate the sound of Near Eastern and Middle Eastern string instruments. Some draw directly on specific nations’ music, not only that of Armenia but, for example, that of Greece in the three-movement Suite on Greek Tunes (1949), one of a number of world première recordings heard here, and that of the Orient in general in Mystic Flute (1937). Other pieces here are Journey into Dawn (1954), Laona (1956), Lake of Van Sonata (1946/1959), Vijag (1946), and Hakhpat (1946/1951, another piano-and-percussion piece).

Although there is much of interest to be heard by simply listening to this disc, the barriers to full enjoyment and understanding of Hovhaness are shown through the works’ titles: the references are often obscure and generally necessary for a listener to apprehend the mood fully – and, in many cases, to connect to the specific form of mysticism that the composer is expressing. Arzruni is an excellent interpreter of this rather rarefied repertoire, and this disc is as good a choice as any for listeners who would like to hear more of Hovhaness than his few works that are occasionally programmed in concerts and recitals. The CD is very much an acquired taste, although it will be to the taste of listeners wishing to acquire greater familiarity with an unusual, visionary 20th-century composer.

Lucid Culture reviews Zixiang Wang's "First Piano Sonatas"

High Romantic Angst and Insight From Pianist Zixiang Wang

Pianist Zixiang Wang has a passion for the Romantics. And who brews up more of an emotional storm than the Russians? Interestingly, Wang’s new album First Piano Sonatas: Scriabin and Rachmaninoff – streaming at Spotify – is hardly all fullblown angst, although there is some of that here. Rather, this is a very thoughtfully considered recording, bravely made in Michigan in the fall of 2020 despite grim lockdowner restrictions. This record is not the place to go to gear up for battle with demons, personal or otherwise. But if you want to hear Scriabin riffs that Rachmaninoff would later seemingly appropriate, or watch the stories in this music slowly unfold, Wang offers all that and plenty more in high definition.

He hits the first movement of Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 1 hard, and then backs away. A heroic, martial quality develops and recedes in waves, but Wang keeps a tight rein on the rubato until the end, where muting those staccato chords and then stretching out the rhythm really drives this troubled theme home.

He gives movement two a slightly hesitant, almost prayerful undercurrent anchored by a steely but supple lefthand. The aggressive, balletesque parts of the third movement are pure proto-Piazzolla; Wang’s choice of subsuming the righthand melody with lefthand murk suddenly makes perfect sense when he reaches the crushing false ending. Likewise, his restraint with the funereal lows in the dirge of a fourth movement – a requiem for the composer’s short-lived career as a virtuoso performer, derailed by a hand injury.Wang’s approach to Rachmaninoff’s first Piano Sonata is similar, opting for clarity and detail rather than the kind of opulence that, say, Karine Poghosyan would give this music. Amid the cascades in both the right and lefthand, those fleeting little Debussyesque curlicues, that aching reach for a tender moment and its subsequent, surprisingly irrepressible variations are strikingly vivid, even if the more animated interludes seem a little on the fast side.

The second movement gets a delightfully calm lilt. genteel glitter and a handful of devious references to Rachmaninoff’s very contemporaneous Symphony No. 2. The sheer liquidity of Wang’s lefthand early on in the third will take your breath away, particularly in contrast with the rather stern quality he follows with. And yet, the moments of black humor that pop up are plenty visible. If this is to be believed, the devil gleefully walks away, needle in hand, at the end.

Wang concludes the album with a rarely performed version of Rachmaninoff’s F Major Prelude, a dreamy student work which the composer turned into his duo for piano and cello, Op. 2 No. 1.

TransCentury Media reviews Zixiang Wang's "First Piano Sonatas"

(++++) BEGINNINGS AND CONTINUATIONS

Composers’ earlier works can sometimes be as interesting in showing the directions in which they did not go as in providing youthful examples of how their creators later developed. Thus, Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 1 (actually the third he composed, but the first one that survives as a full-scale multi-movement piece) is built around a deeply sad Adagio and concluding Funèbre, in both of which the composer laments the loss of his performance ability because of what doctors had told him was permanent damage to his right hand (caused by overuse in practicing). The faster first and third movements do little to relieve the sense of despair, the first being melancholy and turbulent, the third harsh, angry and unresolved at its conclusion. The intensity of the work comes through quite poignantly in a new performance by Zixiang Wang on the Blue Griffin Recording label. Wang not only has technique to spare but also possesses an unerring sense of how to bring out the music’s anger and anguish without making it sound so over-the-top as to be melodramatic. Yet the passion and bleakness of this sonata did not portend future works of the same type from Scriabin: he actually recovered the use of his right hand, although he did not return to the virtuoso-performance circuit, and his later sonatas explore territory that is quite different from that in his first.

Rachmaninoff’s Piano Sonata No. 1 is also tied at most loosely to his later work. Its sprawl and large scope – its three movements last significantly longer than the four used by Scriabin – do look ahead to Rachmaninoff’s later music, as does the frequent use of the Dies irae motif; and the conclusion of the sonata is replete with pounding chords that are recognizable as a kind of Rachmaninoff compositional signature. But the work is otherwise something of a dead end in the composer’s oeuvre. Its three movements were going to represent the three main characters from Goethe’s Faust: the title character, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles. The sonata retains some elements of that original program, which closely parallels that of Liszt’s Faust Symphony, but Rachmaninoff abandoned the structure in favor of something non-programmatic. The first and third movements, both in D minor, are drawn-out and very close to the same length, while the central Lento in F is filled with extended melodic lines that contrast strongly with a finale that, unlike later Rachmaninoff, is almost devoid of significant themes. The sonata as a whole is somewhat diffuse and even self-indulgent in its exploitation of the extremes of pianistic capability – in terms of the instrument itself, not just the performer. Here as in the Scriabin, Wang handles the virtuosic elements with aplomb, but he is less successful in trying to wrest some coherence and overall sensibility from the Rachmaninoff than from the Scriabin. The Rachmaninoff is a difficult piece both to play and to hear, and certainly Wang’s handling of it shows considerable skill and a thoughtful approach to the music. But as a whole, his reading is less convincing than is his handling of Scriabin’s sonata.

As an encore, Wang offers an even earlier Rachmaninoff work, and a much rarer one to hear: the solo-piano version of the Prelude in F, which is much better known in its cello-and-piano version (Op. 2, No. 1). Calm and borderline sweet, this 1891 version of the prelude, written when the composer was 18, sounds little like mature Rachmaninoff. But it makes an effective contrast with the huge Sonata No. 1, while also letting listeners hear the road not traveled in the composer’s later work.

Insider Interview with "dwb" composer Susan Kander

On March 15, 2021, Susan Kander released the album of her and librettist Roberta Gumbel’s chamber opera dwb (Driving While Black). In this insider interview we spoke with Mrs. Kander about writing a work that confronts the topic of systemic racism and the unique collaboration that makes the work so special.

How did the idea of dwb (driving while black) as an opera come about?

I will jump through fire to write for Roberta Gumbel. Our professional relationship and friendship goes back twenty-five years. When she joined the faculty at University of Kansas School of Music, she was joining two people I already knew from Cantata Profana Ensemble, Hannah Collins and Mike Compitello, aka New Morse Code. The sound world offered by voice, cello and percussion was mesmerizing to me right out of the gate – as was the prospect of writing for New Morse Code. I proposed that I write a piece for the three of them, and NMC said yes, thank goodness! Roberta and I talked, long distance, about several different possible subjects for a smallish song cycle, but none of them stuck. At the time, 2016-17, her son was getting his driver’s permit; the NAACP had recently issued a travelers’ warning for Black people driving in cars in the state of Missouri. As the mother of two boys, I was already sympathetic to her having a teenage driver, but the added anxiety of her son driving while Black – I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Over dinner while she was staying at my house for her annual NYC trip, we talked about it and it became clear that that should be the subject of the song cycle.  

Naturally, I could not write the text as I often do. I approached a Black playwright friend who was interested but overwhelmed with commissions of her own. Since Roberta had so much to say about the subject, and so many family stories to relate, I went back to her and said, “You have to write the text.” So she did. Short bits started coming, scenes, speeches, and after a while it became apparent that this was going to be much more than a song cycle. Once we realized it was an opera everything started falling into place.

The instrumentation is a unique combo: in addition to the soprano, there is a cellist and percussionist each of whom play a variety of instruments (including their own bodies!), and have some speaking parts. What role do the instrumentalists take in the story? How do they add to or enhance the stage action?

I think the dramatic participation of the instrumentalists came to me partly because I know these two musicians are magical to watch – they would absolutely be part of the visual experience of any piece, but also because it’s just cool to wrap ensemble players into a vocal performance. I’ve done it before, in A Cycle of Songs, for soprano, clarinetist and pianist – which Roberta recorded and performed in 2008. I’d seen Hannah sing before, in a NMC piece, so I knew she was game, and they didn’t bat an eye at the speaking bits. It’s great to break up the timbre and texture of the human voice here and there - it wakes up our ears a bit and widens the dramatic lens terrifically. Last but not least, we’re telling a story of community, so it made sense to use the whole community before us to tell the story.

With just the performers on stage, how do you demonstrate or distinguish the two different points of view – the personal narrative Scenes and external Bulletins?  

Basically, the narrative scenes have more fluid, often lyrical music, and the Bulletins tend to be more rhythm-defined, punchier.

You’ve composed a number of works with your own libretti, but this is the first time you’ve collaborated with someone else as librettist. What was the process like working with Roberta Gumbel to create dwb?

I have always written my own libretti because I started out in life as a playwright, theater is my formative background. The miracle of working with Roberta is that she’s a total theater animal, with deep, broad performing experience, and she brings that vital sensibility to creating text. She perceives the big picture – the arc of a piece – kind of instantly in big theatrical gestures. She understands character as something that must be defined and manifest by a human performer, principally (in opera) through the voice, and communicated with specificity to the audience. So each scene or vignette she sent me fired me with super specific ideas, feelings and sounds. And of course, being a singer, she organically knows what ‘sings’ as far as language goes, so that was a joy as well, no tussles over word choice.

dwb addresses the anxieties of being a black parent with a child who’s coming of driving age. How, as a white composer, do you approach telling this story unique to BIPOC families, and put yourself in their shoes as you’re composing?

There are several answers to that question. Answer one: I will never exactly, personally know the anxiety/terror I try to communicate in dwb. Answer two: I am a mother of two boys who grew up in New York; I do know very well what it’s like to worry about your children on a daily basis. Getting inside dwb meant adding more layers and more concrete danger to what is a fundamental, universal parental experience. Answer three: I experienced hard, sustained anti-Semitism growing up, a handy place to extrapolate from. Answer four: As a composer, my job is to use my imagination to get inside the words and characters Roberta created to the best of my ability. And to trust my collaborator to tell me when something doesn’t feel right.

What message do you hope listeners will take away from listening to the album?

Maybe “message” isn’t the right word. We wanted to make a piece that would give the audiences who generally frequent opera and chamber music an intimate experience of what it’s like to be that person: the Mother, the 12-year old boy, the young father, etc. The phrase that repeats and grows and bends throughout the opera is “You are not who they see.” Over and over, we are shown that the problem of driving while black – of (…) while black - isn’t a thing that only affects “them.” “Them” is always, always, an individual, and we hope that idea will be a takeaway from the opera.

Secondarily, we hope the opera will be produced in non-“classical” places and be made available to all kinds of audiences, all ages and styles. We hope companies and communities will use it to attract new audiences – Roberta and I have long experience in Opera Education; we’re always looking for ways to bring the unique magic of opera to new people. It’s cheap, short, portable, doesn’t need a big space, can be taken out of the concert hall or opera house and done mic’d if necessary (we’ve done it, it’s great); and people really want to talk about it when it’s over. We love that about dwb.

CineMusical reviews Zixiang Wang's debut recording "First Piano Sonatas: Scriabin and Rachmaninoff"

Scriabin/Rachmaninoff: First Piano Sonatas
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

By Steven A. Kennedy

Pianist Zixiang Wang’s debut release provides an opportunity to explore two different approaches to the piano sonata by two of Russian composers at different stages of their careers.  The music of Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) is perhaps less known here in the US.  His sensual orchestral music is a bit of that Symbolist-Impresssionist style from a distinct Russian perspective building on Wagnerian ultrachromaticism.  His first sonata (1892) was written earlier in his career and delineates his own personal struggle with damage to his right hand from excessive practicing!  Rachmaninoff’s music has tended to maintain itself well in the public concert hall though his solo piano music tends to demand great facility and virtuosic demands on the performer.  Written in 1907, his first piano sonata was written during the composer’s more mature period—a time that also saw completion of the second symphony.  Both pieces are still fairly rare, or at the very least, bear fewer overall current available recordings than other works in their oeuvre.

Scriabin’s sonata kicks things off with its grand romantic pianistic gestures in the opening “Allegro con focoso”.  In this four-movement work, we can hear more Chopinesque writing in a piece that can feel like we are sitting in a grand salon.  The music fits more into that traditional style of the period without some of the more outlandish chromatic writing Scriabin would later explore.  In that sense, the sonata is a bit of a departure point to hear his early style as it would then evolve.  The first movement structure is intriguing structurally, a hint at the composer’s experimental nature.  The second movement is a bt more spiritual in focus with a choral-like quality.  After a virtuosic display in the third-movement scherzo, we head into the funereal final movement, marked “Funebro”.  The march, with its echoes to Chopin, is perhaps the composer’s acknowledgment of the death of his own concert career.

The music of Liszt finds its natural connection to Rachmaninoff’s first piano sonata both in its inception and inspiration—supposedly the underlying connection is a musical essay on Faust.  A three-movement work with towering outer allegros to frame a romantic rumination on Gretchen, the sonata is an equally demanding virtuoso accomplishment.  The outer movements feature references to the “Dies Irae” plainchant that haunted so much of Rachmaninoff’s work.  It becomes a subsidiary idea within expanded textures and often shocking dissonances in the surrounding material.  The dramatic qualities are also important here and Wang manages to bring these out well.

As a bit of an encore, Wang has chosen a rarer prelude, the Prelude in F, which was reimagined for cello and piano and published as Op. 2, no. 1.  The choice here fits with Wang’s interest in bringing to light less familiar repertoire in his concerts.

Wang’s performance are quite excellently handled here and his virtuosity is not to be questioned.  He is able to shift gears well to help add more to the communicative quality of the music.  The delicate passages in the Scriabin are quite moving.  The Rachmaninoff allows for an even more admiration for his rapid passage work coupled with the gentle reposes.

Blue Griffin has captured the piano well in this studio recording.  There is just enough ambience to allow the sustains to die off well.  The piano sound itself is a bit bright and crisp which allows Wang’s passage work to shine.  Just enough pedal to help add what is needed in the big moments can provide the proper blurring that aids the darker, or more dissonant moments.  These are committed performances that bring a proper emotional balance to the music.  Certainly this is a good place to start to explore these rarer works even with some fine complete surveys of the Scriabin currently available.  For those who find the later Scriabin not to their liking, this will make a gentle introduction to his more traditionally romantic qualities.  The Rachmaninoff is equally stunning and more programmatic than one might at first perceive.  Both pieces sit well together on this release which is worth tracking down for those interested in Russian piano literature.

Take Effect reviews Zixiang Wang's "First Sonatas: Scriabin & Rachmaninoff"

First Piano Sonatas
Blue Griffin, 2021
8/10

An esteemed pianist who is no stranger to winning awards, Zixiang Wang tackles compositions by Alexander Scriabin and Sergei Rachmaninoff on this first solo album.

Scriabin’s “Piano Sonata No. 1 In F Minor, Op. 6” starts the listen with Wang’s rumbling keys in the 4 installments that vary from soft and bare to louder moments of lively beauty as Wang interprets the late romanticism selection with both grace and vigor.

Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Sonata No. 1 In D Minor, Op. 28” follows, and leads with calm mystery, where Wang’s key acrobatics flow with an adventurous and meticulous quality that retains the maturity of the original while putting his own inimitable stamp on the classic.

The final track, “Prelude In F Major”, also by Rachmaninoff, leads gentle and sublime, before highly intricate playing from Wang becomes so proficient, it hardly seems like just one piano is present.

An outstanding solo debut, Wang proves just why he’s been seeing worldwide praise as he turns in a glorious and mesmerizing effort here.

Insider Interview with pianist Zixiang Wang

In February 2021, the pianist Zixiang Wang releases his debut recording, “First Piano Sonatas: Scriabin and Rachmaninoff” on Blue Griffin Recordings. In this Insider Interview we spoke to Mr. Wang about this project, as well as the inspiration behind the recording.

What are your earliest musical memories? Are your parents involved in music?

Neither of my parents has any musical background, but they love music. My mother has worked at a kindergarten for some years and she could play a little keyboard by ear. My earliest musical memory was that she played the keyboard and it made me happy.

If you weren’t a professional musician, what would your dream job be? Did you ever consider another career path apart from music? 

I dreamed of many different careers while growing up. When I was little, I loved painting (I still paint today) and I wanted to be a painter. I am also fond of writing. I tried several times to write a novel though I never made it to the end of the first chapter. When I was graduating from college, I was offered an internship at a music publishing company and I was seriously considering pursuing that as my career, but I chose to continue my piano training abroad in the end. Now, I can’t imagine a life without music.

You’ve said that part of your mission as a pianist is to find relatively obscure works from great Romantic composers. What discoveries have you found that you’d like readers to know about? Why are these worthy of our attention?

Of course, there are some specific things, for example how Scriabin was influenced by Chopin, how Rachmaninoff was influenced by Liszt and Goethe’s Faust. However, the biggest discovery I want to point out is how much one can benefit from learning these less-played musical works. There are reasons why they are played less – it could be technical difficulties, musical difficulties, or some formal issues. By resolving these problems, I step deeper into the composer’s musical world and develop a deeper understanding of the composer’s other works.

Your new album highlights early works of two great Russian Romantics, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. How did you come up with this theme? How did you decide on the exact repertoire for the album?

Actually it was my teacher Professor Arthur Greene who came up with this excellent idea to put these two first sonatas in my album. He introduced me to Rachmaninoff’s sonata first, then I got the idea to make an album with this piece. When I asked his advice on the repertoire for this CD, he said: “you should learn Scriabin’s first sonata!” That was the moment when the theme was determined. However, the short prelude by Rachmaninoff was my idea and my teacher was very pleased with my discovery.

Since this is your first album, I’m curious what it felt like to step into that first recording session. How did it feel?

I was excited. Stepping into the first recording session is like stepping into one’s professional career – to be a recording artist.

How did you prepare for this record?

Practice, record myself and listen, and practice. My strategy is to focus exclusively on one composer at one time, so I recorded Scriabin first and Rachmaninoff a month later.

What do the two sonatas on your album tell us about the later works from these great composers?

In Rachmaninoff’s sonata, one can hear many characteristics that remain in his later piano works, such as the use of medieval chants, mingling threads of melodies, and of course, big chords, tons of notes, and so on. If you put an early work and a late work of his side by side, you can easily conclude they are written by the same composer. Opposite to Rachmaninoff, Scriabin’s keyboard writing style evolved notably, from late romanticism to mysticism. However, in this early work we can hear some musical qualities that never left Scriabin –­ sensibility, colorfulness and philosophical musings attached to the composition.

Tell us about your lecture series “Trace of Music.” What inspired you to start it?

During the lockdown, I was watching a Chinese TV series, in which a great Chinese artist – Danqing Chen – tells fascinating stories behind paintings in the Western and Eastern histories. It was eye-opening. I thought: why don't I do something similar in the field of music? My aim was to introduce some great piano works of Western music to Chinese audiences by the means of sharing with them the life of the composer, the inspiration and emotions of the composition, and some basic compositional concepts, etc.

You are currently editing your research on the major piano works written by leading Romantic composers. What works are you researching? How has recording your album, which features two of those major works, informed your research (and vice versa)? What are you looking for while doing this research? Why are you doing this research? And will this be published or made publicly available in some way when you’ve finalized the research?

My research has focused on the works that I have performed and found close to me. Whenever I learn a piece I research the historical background of the work. For example, I had given my lecture recital on Scriabin’s sonata shortly before I recorded it. Through a comprehensive study of the piece, my interpretation of the music grew day by day. When I stepped into the recording studio, every piece of information made sense in sound.

I am looking into publishing my research document when it is finalized. I am still working out some specifics but I hope to make these works more widely known and accessible.

OperaWire profiles Victoria Bond

Composer Profile: Victoria Bond, Legendary American Composer & Conductor

By Gillian Reinhard

American conductor and composer Victoria Bond is one of the most popular artists of opera and classical music today.

Over a long career that has included conducting stints around the world and dozens of original compositions, Bond is also notable for her distinction as the first woman to receive a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Juilliard School.

Bond was born in Los Angeles, California to a musical family. After moving to New York, she studied piano at the Mannes School of Music. Bond returned to the West Coast for her undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California, moved to New York for a Master’s and a doctorate from Juilliard.

She has been commissioned by organizations around the world, including American Ballet Theater, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and the Michigan Philharmonic. She is the principal guest conductor of Chamber Opera, Chicago and previously served as assistant conductor of New York City Opera, music director of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of Bel Canto Opera Company of New York, among others. She has guest conducted across the United States and the world in locations ranging from Honolulu, HI, to Richmond, VA to Beijing, China.

Additionally, Bond founded the Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in 1998 to encourage compositions from contemporary composers. Her awards include the Walter Hinrichsen Award, the Victor Herbert Award, the Perry F. Kendig Award, and the Miriam Gideon Prize, as well as three honorary doctorates.

Most Famous Works

According to her website, Bond has composed eight operas, six ballets, two piano concertos, and many other orchestral and choral compositions. Two of her most well-known operas depict the lives of groundbreaking women.

“Clara,” an opera about the nineteenth-century pianist and composer Clara Schumann, premiered at the 2019 Berlin Philharmonic Easter Festival.

“Mrs. President,” a chamber opera, premiered in Anchorage, Alaska in 2012. The opera depicts the life of Victoria Woodhull—today recognized by historians as the first American woman to run for president in 1872 alongside running mate Frederick Douglass. Bond also composed “The Miracle of Light,” a Hanukkah opera.

Limelight Magazine reviews Orli Shaham's "Mozart Piano Sonatas"

Three years ago, when her husband David Robertson was Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s chief conductor, US pianist Orli Shaham gave a beautifully nuanced recital linking Brahms backwards to Bach and forwards to Brett Dean and Israeli composer Avner Dorman. Not only was the programming inventive and well thought out, but also the execution was immaculate.

That program can be found on disc on Canary Classics, a label established by her violinist brother Gil, and now she is turning her keenly intelligent attention to Mozart’s 18 piano sonatas, starting the cycle in an interesting way with the three works in B Flat – Nos 3, 13 and 17. “They are all so different, yet the B Flats combine to create a perfect mirror of Mozart’s development from his late teens to full maturity,” Shaham says.

A noted broadcaster, educator and writer in America, Shaham challenges Artur Schnabel’s famous remark that the sonatas are “too easy for children and too difficult for adults”. The key to them is that they are vocal in nature: “Everything is singable; it’s rare to find intervals in Mozart’s music which are not,” she says.

In the K281, written when Mozart was 19, Shaham captures the freshness and Haydnesque airiness of the opening movement. By the time he wrote K333, in 1783, Mozart was in Vienna performing concerts for connoisseurs and the K570, from 1789, was published posthumously.

Like the man, Mozart’s 18 sonatas contain multitudes, and with Shaham we have an intelligent and sensitive guide.

The Violin Channel interviews the Alexander String Quartet

VC INTERVIEW | Alexander String Quartet - Beethoven's 250th Anniversary

The ensemble will present two concerts online on November 16, and will be available through November 29 on Baruch's College's website. Admission is pay-what-you-can

The Violin Channel recently caught up with the Alexander String quartet, quartet in residence at the Baruch College, in New York, since 1986.

The program features Beethoven's quartet Op. 18 No. 1, Op 59 No. 2, Op. 135, and Op. 132, and American composer George Walker’s Lyric for String Quartet.

Tell us about your long-standing residency at the Baruch University? How do you approach your interactions with the students?

"The quartet has been spending one week each semester at Baruch College Since 1986. The plan and long term funding for this innovative residency was put together between the Quartet members and Aaron and Freda Silberman. Aaron had graduated from Baruch on the GI Bill back in 1946 after serving in WW2. He and Freda became huge patrons of music in Pittsburgh where they settled but were large donors to Baruch and wanted to endow the gift of music to the liberal arts and business students there, many of whom were usually too busy to go out to concerts while they were studying and working.

The idea has been that we go to classes in any and all of the disciplines in the liberal arts - from psychology to Mathematics, World literature to music history. Everything. We play and speak with the students - usually making connections between the subject matter they are dealing with and the music and impetus behind the creation of the music we play.

It’s been a two way street in terms of satisfaction and meaning. The appreciation we and our art form have received from the students and Baruch College faculty and community over these 34 years has been enormously rewarding.

We also take a few hours every semester to read and record compositions from the students in the harmony and composition classes with Professor Philip Lambert. It’s a blast and seeing the expression on their faces when they hear their own works being played live in front of them is priceless!" said violinist Frederick Lifsitz.

Read the entire interview at this link.

SHARPS & FLATIRONS features Jeri Jorgensen's "Complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas"

HEARING BEETHOVEN, THE 19TH-CENTURY WAY

Jorgensen and Bryant discuss their CD of Beethoven’s violin sonatas, played on period instruments.

By Izzy Fincher Nov. 22 at 1 p.m.

Listening to Beethoven on early 19th-century instruments is the next best thing to time travel.

On their CD recording of Beethoven’s sonatas for piano and violin (Albany Records TROY 1825–28), released in July 2020, violinist Jerilyn Jorgensen and pianist Cullan Bryant play all 10 sonatas on restored historical instruments, transporting listeners back in time to 19th-century Vienna.

As historical performance practice instrumentalists, Jorgensen, a member of Colorado College’s performance faculty, and Bryant, a chamber musician based in New York, are breaking new ground. They are the first duo from the United States to release Beethoven’s complete violin sonatas on period instruments from an American collection.

Their expertise in classical-era performance practice has led to invitations from the Historical Keyboard Society of North America in 2018 and 2021, performances at the National Music Museum in South Dakota, and an early-piano concert series in North Carolina.

In 2020, the 250th anniversary year of Beethoven’s birth, a year flooded with Beethoven recordings, their interpretation stands out, offering listeners an opportunity to hear Beethoven’s music as it sounded during his lifetime.

On a first or superficial listening, listeners may find the sonic differences between period and modern instruments rather subtle. But after learning about the historical context and the technological developments in instrument making, listeners will be better able to identify and appreciate the musical nuances.

“Playing on period instruments doesn’t lend one to being more academic in one’s interpretation,” Bryant says. “In fact, it’s quite the opposite. It invites more emotional involvement, and in the case of Beethoven, a little more insanity, a more romantic interpretation.

“The instrument is telling you how to play. It is telling you what it needs to express the music. You don’t play the same (as on modern instruments), and you gain a new insight into what Beethoven was looking for interpretively. It is precious.”

Read the entire article at this link.

Amsterdam News: Alexander String Quartet to honor composer George Walker: First African American to win Pulitzer for music

In the documentary Quincy, about the life of legendary music producer Quincy Jones, we learn that Jones studied with Nadia Boulanger, considered one of the best classical music instructors in the world. Jones wanted to be a classical composer but went on to become a leading jazz composer and R&B producer instead.

Classical music critic Alex Ross in a recent The New Yorker article wrote, “Will Marion Cook, Fletcher Henderson, Billy Strayhorn, and Nina Simone, among many others, had initially devoted themselves to classical-music studies. That jazz came to be called ‘America’s classical music’ was an indirect commentary on the whiteness of the concert world.”

It’s clear that racism undoubtedly had a hand in steering some classical music aspirants away from the discipline.

The fact, then, that George Walker, who also studied with Boulanger, was a classical musician his entire career, is all the more impressive. Born in Washington, D.C. in 1922, Walker began studying piano at five, and went on to become the first Black instrumentalist to perform at Manhattan’s Town Hall. It’s one of a list of other “firsts” too long to enumerate here other than to add that Walker was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for music. Still, he remains relatively unknown despite his vast accomplishments. To say George Walker is woefully underappreciated, is an understatement.

The Alexander String Quartet (AST) will begin remedying that unfortunate fact this month, where they’ll perform some of Walker’s work in a series of virtual concerts presented by Baruch Performing Arts Center through Nov. 29.

Read the entire article here.