jwilzewske: women

Showing posts with label women. Show all posts

Monday, October 25, 2010

Outreach: Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, Urioste and White, and Harlem String Quartet

T he ensemble, conducted by Damon Gupton, opened its program with a shimmering, lovingly-shaped reading of Sibelius’s ‘Andante Festivo’. All the hallmarks of a first-rate string ensemble were in place: its tone was warm and varied, it moved with unity and fluidity, and its textures were appealingly transparent.”
— Allan Kozinn, New York Times, 06-OCT-2010.

T he inaugural program of the new Alliance between Friends of Chamber Music and the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance occurred yesterday afternoon—a concert by Sphinx Chamber Orchestra and the Harlem Quartet.

S phinx was founded in 1996 by Aaron Dworkin, a violinist, and is based in Detroit. It is dedicated to developing young black and Hispanic classical musicians and composers, providing instruments, scholarships, and support. The SCO is a 20-piece chamber orchestra, widely acclaimed for its precise and passionate playing, conducted by Damon Gupton (previously Assistant Conductor of Kansas City Symphony and winner of the 2007 Eduardo Mata International Conducting Competition, the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize, and other awards). The Harlem Quartet is comprised of Sphinx alumni Ilmar Gavilán (violin), Melissa White (violin), Juan-Miguel Hernandez (viola), and Paul Wiancko (cello).

Jean Sibelius – Andante festivo (1922)
Sergei Prokofiev – Allegro con brio (from Sonata for 2 violins, Op. 56, 1932) [Elena Urioste and Melissa White]
Gabriela Lena Frank – Coquetos (2001) [from ‘Leyendas’]
George Walker – Lyric for Strings (1946)
Joaquin Turina – La oración del torero, Op. 34 (1925) [Harlem Quartet]
Frederick Tillis – ‘Wade in the Water’ (from Spiritual Fantasy No. 12, 1988) [Harlem Quartet]
Felix Mendelssohn – Sinfonia No. 7 in D minor (1822)
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson – Allegro furioso (from Sinfonietta No. 1, 1953)

T he White Recital Hall at UMKC was nearly filled to capacity on this mild, sunny Sunday afternoon—more than 500 people attended. Such a crowd is evidence of the effectiveness that alliance between classical musical presenters and university-based conservatories can achieve, aided by appropriate pre-concert notice in the media. Masterclasses and educational sessions conducted by SCO in collaboration with the UMKC Conservatory Academy’s ‘Musical Bridges’ outreach program before and after the concert included programs at Eisenhower Middle School, Ruskin High School, Paseo Academy, and the Youth Symphony of Kansas City, with members of SCO coaching the students. In all, many hundreds of young music students participated.

P rograms like this help to insure that the Arts are available, not just to a few, but to everyone.”
— Peter Witte, Dean, UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance.

T he entire concert was exceptionally good and received an enthusiastic standing ovation at its conclusion. It’s not my habit in this blog to do ‘reviews’ per se, but I particularly loved the Prokofiev violin duo and can’t help but say a few words about that.

T his fourth movement, the Allegro con brio, is a fast rondo with athletic, angular, in-your-face themes for the two violins. Urioste and White were a tour de force, spirited and incisive. I had previously heard Urioste perform in 2007 when she was completing her studies at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. I’d previously heard White when she was at New England Conservatory in Boston. It was a delight to hear these two perform together; to recalibrate my recollections and impressions from several years ago; and to experience their pyrotechnical interactions with each other in this challenging, aggressive piece.

P rokofiev left his homeland for the West six months after the 1917 Russian Revolution and did not see it again until 1927, when he returned for a concert tour. A second tour followed in 1929, and a third, in 1932, marked the beginning of his gradual—and entirely voluntary—repatriation, which was completed by 1936. Just before that 1932 visit he composed his ‘Sonata for Two Violins’ during a holiday at Ste. Maxime (near St. Tropez) for performance in the concerts of the Paris chamber music group called Triton. The four brief movements, which Svyatoslav Prokofiev, the composer’s son, characterized as being ‘lyrical, playful, fantastical, and violent in turn,’ are filled with striking themes. The highly effective sequence apparently reflects the format of the old ‘sonata da chiesa’, and the content gives a fairly clear indication of the warmer style Prokofiev would adopt after his wanderings in the West, increasingly more ‘embracing’ rather than ‘biting’ or confrontational...”
— Richard Freed, Program Note, Kennedy Center, 2004.

I n this mid-term election season in the U.S. that is nothing if not biting or confrontational, Urioste and White provided a welcome antidote. Their playing embodied a politically active, assertive, insightful tone. Embracing, never bellicose or grizzly bear-like. Their playing conveyed a sense of optimism that fair compromise can be achieved, with shared resolve to forge that compromise right away. “Here is how we do it! Here! Listen!”

T heir performance was redemptive—enough to inspire hope for this country’s future, in dimensions far beyond Sphinx, far beyond serious music.

I n conclusion, congratulations to SCO and Harlem Quartet on their tour, and on their luminous performance in Kansas City yesterday. Heartfelt thanks to SCO and Harlem Quartet for their leadership, and for their generous outreach activities that help so many young students. Bravo!

Monday, March 8, 2010

International Women’s Day: Cecilia String Quartet and Kelly-Marie Murphy’s ‘Another Little Piece of My Heart’

W hat I most like about being a composer is… the cash compensation. No, heh, what I like most is that you can be anybody… you can be anything at all, anything you want—through the music. No constraints, total freedom. It’s tremendously liberating.”
— Kelly-Marie Murphy, introductory remarks, Ottawa Chamber Music Society concert, 07-MAR-2010.

T here is an apocalyptic ‘inclusiveness’ to this piece, a fellowship that all those affected by violence and loss (can) participate in.

O ur society is reluctant to speak about personal catastrophe—individual demolished lives and the struggles to pick up the pieces. Yet it is possible for music to speak about this—and persuasively, too.

T his piece, the second of six string quartets thus far composed by Murphy, was commissioned by CBC Radio for the International ‘Strings of the Future’ Festival and premiered at the Festival in 1999 by the Alcan String Quartet. The title derives from the old Ragovoy-Berns song of the same name, recorded by Janis Joplin in 1968.

S o far as I can tell, Murphy’s string quartet does not quote any melodies or harmonies from that song. But you can readily perceive parallels, in terms of the ethos and the gender-centric aspects of the string quartet and its popular-music namesake.

T he four-movement 15-min work begins with a slow, ethereal dialogue between the four performers, with unisons panning from left (Vn1) to right (Vc and Vla) and back again. The second movement is dominated by anxious staccato exchanges, mm ~ 120. The third movement is cinematic in its running, fleeing, desperate dash to safety. The fourth movement, mm ~ 56, begins with a solo viola statement—despondent, marooned—answered sympathetically by the cello and viola. Pianissimo high harmonics of the first violin part enter, adding a sense that the marooning will be permanent.

T he program notes by Craig Pedersen aver that, while composing this quartet was underway, Murphy was puzzled and impressed over how the heart, “a simple muscle, is taken as the seat of emotions.” Or, implicitly, puzzled and impressed over how much of our emotional state and its trajectory are muscular… physiologic… endocrinologic… beyond our capacity to predict or control.

M aybe the out-of-controlness and muscularity of fear and anger are easiest for us to comprehend.

B ut the other emotions are muscular/reflexive as well. What I mean is: if we manage somehow to cope with the injury and are not completely destroyed, then our recovery—and our preparedness to forgive and our feeling able to let go and move on—these feelings are surprising, emergent—astonishing even to the one who feels them. There is a genuine sense of discovery that is revealed in each of this piece’s movements—an emergence of ideas and emotions that maybe surprised even Murphy as she went about composing it.

T he calm that emerges by the end of the fourth movement is not one of wary acceptance or unstable endurance or any other precariousness. It is a satisfying conclusion, opening onto a spacious, open plain. The heart has miraculously survived its ordeal, with its dignity and integrity intact—surprising even its muscular self—still desiring [Life], still pumping. A new joint venture?—of both women and men?—working anew on constructive solutions together if they wish?—enabling each now to live fulfilling lives? In performance, the Cecilias fully inhabit the work, with gestures and insight that endow it with credibility, riveting the listeners’ interest. Murphy’s music tells vivid stories that empower and inspire men and women alike.

S cores and parts for Murphy’s compositions are available from the composer and from the Canadian Music Centre, 20 St. Joseph St., Toronto, ON, Canada M4Y 1J9 (info@musiccentre.ca).

K elly-Marie Murphy began her studies in composition at the University of Calgary and received her Ph.D. in composition from the University of Leeds. Murphy has subsequently held residencies at the Snowbird Institute for the Arts, Utah; Tapestry Music Theatre/Canadian Opera Company, Toronto; rESOund Festival of Contemporary Music, Edmonton; Strings of the Future International String Quartet Festival, Ottawa; Soundstreams/Encounters, Toronto; and at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Most recently, Murphy received Honorable Mention in the 2008 Barlow Prize competition.

M urphy has received numerous commissions—notably from the CBC and the Canada Council for the Arts—and has written for some of Canada’s leading performers and ensembles such as the Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, Shauna Rolston, James Campbell, the Gryphon Trio, Borealis String Quartet, Rivka Golani, Judy Loman, and James Sommerville.

M y impressions from Sunday’s concert are that Kelly-Marie Murphy composes the kinds of music that she herself wants to listen to, pieces that are inspired by events or concepts that are deeply meaningful to her—ones that are emblematic of freedom, breaking free of constraints.

A nd, as evidenced by the energy bestowed on Murphy’s ‘Another Little Piece of My Heart’ (1999) by the members of Cecilia String Quartet in performance, Murphy’s compositions are also the kinds of music that thoughtful artists who champion new music want to play. Bravo! It was an exciting concert, one richly symbolic of this day, International Women’s Day.

T he Cecilias will next be performing Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A major, Op.81 No.2, with Menahem Pressler at Pollack Hall at Schulich School of Music, McGill University, in Montréal on 17-MAR.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Tine Thing Helseth and the Mystique of Circular-Tone Trumpet

A way of describing the difference is that the [geometric bore profile of the—] American instrument produces a ‘circular’ tone with a lot of brilliance, while the German trumpet [bore profile is—] a more ‘oval’ one: the German tone is ‘wider’ and less brilliant... In Scandinavia we have mostly made use of the American trumpet. Its brilliance is part of the so-called Scandinavian sound.”
— Tine Thing Helseth, interview in MIC Norsk musikkinformasjon, APR-2009.

T he Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth does miraculous things. I especially admire her treatment of Johann Baptist Neruda’s concerto—which Tine manages in a way that is both elegant and viceral. Her playing of all of the brass war-horses is wonderful, but this Neruda piece for her especially epitomizes the concept of ‘circular’ tone.

[50-sec clip, Tine Thing Helseth & Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Johann Baptist Neruda, ‘Concerto in E-flat – II – Largo’, 1.6MB MP3]

[50-sec clip, Tine Thing Helseth & Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Johann Baptist Neruda, ‘Concerto in E-flat – III – Vivace’, 1.6MB MP3]

[50-sec clip, Tine Thing Helseth & Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Johann Baptist Neruda, ‘Concerto in E-flat – III – Cadenza’, 1.6MB MP3]

H ave we ever before heard this level of melancholia, such as what we heard in the Andante movement, or in the flowing and lively dance of the finale movement? When have we ever heard anyone run that brilliantly up and down along the scale? And that, on a trumpet! On this instrument that was formerly used to open splendid doors and gates for worldly rulers and clerics...”
— Lippische Landzeitung, DEC-2007.

T he effortlessness and honesty of Tine’s articulation... The weightlessness of her breathing... The decisions about the emphasis of each note, including sweet little appoggiaturas... Interpretations filled with emotional depth as well as cerebral insight, musical body in harmony with musical mind in harmony with well-matched musical instrument. Bak skyene er himmelen alltid blå!

J ohann Baptist Georg Neruda (Czech: Jan Křtitel Jiří Neruda) is curiously obscure, and even the dates of birth and death for him are not clear (given as ca. 1707 and sometime in 1780 in Dresden by the Grove Dictionary). Raised in a musical family in what’s now the Czech Republic, Jan/Johann spent some years as a violinist and conductor in Prague and Germany, after which he became Konzertmeister of the court orchestra in Dresden. His works include 18 symphonies, 14 instrumental concertos, plus several sonatas, sacred works and an opera.

N eruda composed this virtuosic concerto for the valveless ‘corno da caccia’ in the clarino register, which requires “hand-stopping” and other tricks to manage the tessitura and chromatics. And there are a number of historical trumpet players who do perform the piece on baroque-design instruments.

B ut playing it on a modern, valved trumpet—American or otherwise—presents a different set of challenges, for fingers, tongue, embouchure, and lungs. And valves enable a wider latitude of interpretive choices—ones that Tine explores beautifully.

S he plays with radiance strong enough to light up the entire hall. Her embouchure is light and her technique impressive. Each note is marvellous and her dynamics are based on natural and deeply felt musicality. ...she showed us just how wonderfully a trumpet can sing... It sounded like a song, but there was no need for words.”
— Zürcher Landzeitung, JUN-2008.

T ine was born in 1987 and started to play trumpet at age 7. She is currently studying at Barratt Due Music Institute in Oslo with Arnulf Naur Nilsen. She has appeared as a soloist with, among others, Wiener Symphoniker, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Zürcher Kammerorchester, Zürcher Kammerorchester, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland Pfalz, Cappella Cracowiensis, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Nordica, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie and all the major Norwegian symphony orchestras. Tine’s website chronicles her many performance awards and contest victories. She has performed at SHMF and other festivals. Tine is also leader of the brass ensemble, tenTHING. Every opportunity to hear this fine artist perform is magic. Check out her website for current performance schedule.

S he [has] calmness, balance, musicality and technical mastery. She has vigour, confidence and natural authority—and her instrumental ‘nerve’ commands the attention of listeners...”
— Aftenposten, JUL-2006.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Flute Chamber Music Is Not All Serious

M adeleine Dring … was born [I was born] on the moon and can therefore claim to be a pure-bred lunatic. Arriving on a speck of cosmic dust, she [I] came face to face with the human race and never really recovered.”
— Madeleine Dring, humorous autobiographical diary fragment, quoted in Ro Hancock-Child’s biography of Dring, p. 1.

Flutist Leslie Marrs performed a wonderful set of new music chamber works by Robert Fruehwald and Wil Offermans as part of the National Flute Association annual meeting today, attended by about 2,000 flutists and a few composers.

Fruehwald: Hymntunes IV: Imenetuki; Three Fantasies on Irish Folk Tunes; Duo on Bulgarian Folk Songs;
Offermans: Tsuru-No-Sugomori

The Bulgarian Duo pieces featured guitarist Robert Trent accompanying Leslie. The first movement, marked Allegro, is almost in a flamenco rhythm: demonstrative. The second movement (Adagio-Andante) is pastoral, with a pensive feel—initially with a melodic lead in the flute part, evolving to more conversational interchange between flute and guitar, and concluding with a soli flute passage at the end. The vivace third movement is an engaging dance piece. The entire Duo is about 8 minutes in length, which makes it compatible in many recital/concert programs.

The ‘Hymntunes IV’ and ‘Three Fantasies’, atmospheric essays performed on alto flute and bass flute, respectively, evoke ancient, ethereal folk epics and legends. Their strophic story-telling idiom is made especially vivid by subversive colors that the low registers of these instruments lend to the endeavor. In ‘Hymntunes IV’ the flutist produces thumping percussive effects by the protrusion of tongue suddenly into the flute headjoint aperture. Additional intriguing percussion is created by rapid, repetitive clapping of right-hand flute keys—not changing the pitch but merely clamping the pads quickly against the openings on the flute body. The acoustic effect is (as heard from a distance of about 5 meters from the stage, anyhow) like moist bamboo chopsticks plunging hungrily into a bowl mostly emptied of rice—subtle and evocative of the first large raindrops of an arriving storm hitting a metal roof. The resonance of the column of air accessed by the pads clapping down over their respective holes generates un-voiced clear pitches—similar to effects we sometimes hear in pizzicato strings or harp.

The solo piece by Wil Offermans is likewise an atmospheric meditation, replete with harmonics produced by over-blowing, tongue-flutters, pitch-bending, and undulating ‘tremolo’ dynamics. Bravo, to both Marrs and Trent!

Flutist Donna Shin performed the following flute-oboe-piano trio pieces:

Demersseman-Berthélemy: Duo Brilliant ‘Guillaume Tell’
Dring: Trio for Flute, Oboe, and Piano

with the able assistance of her University of Washington friends Shannon Spicciati (oboe and English horn) and Regina Yeh (piano).

The William Tell (arranged in 1865; adapted by flutist Jules Demersseman and oboist Felix Berthélemy from Rossini’s 1829 opera score) was delightful—an animated and inspiring display of rapid-tempo artistry by the three, playing in tight, crisp ensemble.

The trio by Madeleine Dring was remarkable—with rich sonorities, rapid chase ‘scenes’ between the flute and oboe, and wry humor powered by the fine balance achieved by Shin, Spiccati, and Yeh.

Madeleine Dring studied composition under Ralph Vaughan Williams, Herbert Howells, and Gordon Jacob. Although her output was substantially incidental music for television, radio, and films, she did compose a number of pieces that merit consideration in chamber music programming. Her husband Roger Lord, an orchestral oboist, provided Madeleine ample stimuli (domestic provocations?) for her several chamber music pieces for oboe as well as flute, clarinet, bassoon, and other wind instruments. The Trio performed at the NFA convention today is one of the better known of these works. (Madeleine died suddenly of a stroke at age 54, in 1977.)

Besides her accomplishments as a composer, Dring was also a singer, pianist, lyricist, actress, and—and cartoonist? This last avocation is amazing, especially considering the era in which she lived! How many women can you find—in England or anywhere else in the 1940s through 1970s—who were actively creating cartoons?

Madeleine had a remarkable sense of humor. It is a shame that this aspect of her personality is not more widely known. Many of her cartoons and line-drawings manifest an irreverence and hilarity that the passage of time does not diminish. Have a look at Ro Hancock-Child’s biography of Dring, which includes a number of Dring’s cartoons. In addition to drawing cartoons of her own, she also wrote incidental music for TV animation. She clearly enjoyed the challenge of creating music that is suitable for young audiences, in addition to the more serious works by which she is primarily remembered.

Dring’s composerly methods, especially in her miniatures (like the three movements of this Trio), are basically descended from “English Renaissance” style. But the content of her melodic and thematic writing often incorporates elements of English folk music.

Since the time of her death 30 years ago, Dring has been under-recognized as a woman composer. Madeleine’s work has been curiously neglected in many of the anthologies of music by women (see links below), penalized possibly because of the idioms that she favored, which do not conform to elite notions of ‘seriousness’. But any composer who has written works in chamber music idioms for the stage or for film or TV as Dring did so extensively—must consider such an omission to be ‘conspicuous’ and unfortunate. Not every composition has to be a warhorse for display of technical virtuosity for it to have value and become part of the chamber music repertoire!

Composed in 1968, much of this Trio is comprised of exchanges between the flute and oboe over a jocular piano part. The second movement, marked Andante, supposedly symbolizes a duet between lovers. It opens with romantic chords in the piano part, which gives way to a poignant oboe solo—very fable-like. In fact, one can readily imagine a ‘Little Mermaid’ or other Disney-type animated feature as one listens to this beautiful melody. Donna Shin’s flute enters, taking over the melody, and, subsequently, we have a respectful dialogue between the flute and oboe—evoking images of a world free of serious conflict, promising nothing but harmonious adventures and happy endings.

The Trio’s final movement, marked Allegro giocoso, is the most playful of the piece, with highly animated lines for the oboe and flute and a ‘conspiratorial’ piano. The piano is substantially in a minor mode, with incidental major seconds and the occasional erratic/ironic chord. The wild passages in the piano part set the stage for flute-oboe caricatures that follow. Late in the movement the flute and oboe play a crazed cadenza with maniacal unison playing and chasing, ending in a sweet duet in major thirds.

Without doubt Dring was gifted in her abilities to write miniatures for children’s plays and for TV and radio. But her droll wit is evident in her more serious compositions as well. None of her drawings and cartoons is profane, but they instead manifest a thoroughly British sense of humor. They have an edginess and faux self-deprecation that were, maybe, about 50 years ahead of their time. This flute-oboe-piano Trio is a much-appreciated ‘window’ through which to glimpse the fun-loving, comical temperament of Madeleine Dring. Shin, Spicciati, and Yeh did a brilliant job of bringing this piece to life. Bravo!

Madeleine Dring’s ambiguous sarcasm. No one shall be spared.