Sometimes a month can go by with just a little musical activity but can still be packed full with events of interest. Actually, I need to go back to the final week of January because I did not have time to write about the conclusion of the Asian trip last time. Here is the summary:
An engagement in Hiroshima followed my concerts in Osaka. The Hiroshima Symphony is another fine orchestra with great energy and wonderful discipline. Since we had success working together three years ago on Mahler 6, the orchestra asked for another symphony by the Austrian master. This time, we settled on Mahler’s First Symphony, and it was clear from the first rehearsal that we were going to achieve great things.
When it is feasible, I use the older seating arrangement for the strings, with the violins divided left and right, and the cellos and basses moved to my left. It works well for this composer, and I am convinced that several of his orchestration decisions were based on what he had observed as a conductor. For example, the first movement includes a moment when both violin sections play a tremolo on an A-natural, but only the firsts make a crescendo. This effect cannot be heard clearly with all the fiddles on the same side.
To avoid the inconvenience of flipping the stage setup halfway through the concert, I need to have the orchestra sit this way for the whole program. In this case, it all worked well. Our performance of the Mahler brought cheers from the full house, and the orchestra was very gracious in acknowledging my work with them.
The soloist was pianist Yu Kosuge, with whom I had worked several years earlier on a tour with the ONL. She played the Liszt orchestration of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy. I love this transcription, as it is the closest we can get to a concerto by Franz. It is more fun if one knows the original piano version as well as the song on which it is based. Yu played it with an appropriately fiery temperament.
I had asked for this piece because it tied into the opening work on the program. Rather than try to sum it up, here is the program note I wrote for my latest creation, Schubertiade, which received its world premiere with this concert.
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In April 2022, when we were all starting to come out of hiding from the global pandemic, I had the privilege of conducting the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra in a concert honoring the 50th anniversary of their becoming a professional orchestra. When we had concluded the Sixth Symphony by Gustav Mahler, I sat, somewhat exhausted, in the dressing room.
Several administrators of the orchestra came to greet me, and during the course of our chat, they asked my wife, composer Cindy McTee, if she would be interested in writing a work to honor Franz Schubert. She was flattered but declined. However, I became quite intrigued by the idea and suggested that the piece be written by me.
Almost immediately, ideas started swirling around in my head. Should it be a totally original composition, with no musical reference to the Austrian master? Or might it be a hybrid in which various strains of Schubert fragments are heard alongside new material? I decided on the latter and used the composer’s final composition, the Symphony in B Minor, as a starting point.
Schubert himself was rather poor for most of his brief life. To have his music heard, he would organize soirées at his apartment during which friends would gather to play and sing his works. These events were known as Schubertiaden. The composer was usually at the piano. When I began to write this piece, I wondered what it might be like if this tradition could be extended well past the composer’s lifetime.
The work is basically in three parts, with descriptive moments placed before each. It begins with Schubert, not seen, at the piano, playing the opening of his monumental B-Flat Sonata. This is rudely interrupted by the orchestra, representing the guests, who arrive with a series of rather vociferous fanfares and flourishes in the trumpets, horns, and flutes.
The initial section comes from the first six bars of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony and is cast as a passacaglia. This is a set of variations over the bass line that opens the symphony. Other elements of the first movement are introduced, but those become more and more distorted as the guests indulge in some Glühwein.
Schubert is playing one of his impromptus when several more friends arrive, and they are introduced by the same instruments that greeted the earlier visitors. When they settle down, some more recent composers, perhaps Philip Glass or Steve Reich, proceed to take Schubert’s main themes from the slow movement of his final work and alter them into a mash-up of harmonic and rhythmic glee. This becomes the second part of Schubertiade.
The guests are anxious to get home, and the music becomes more and more deafening as well as fast, with dancing turned into a frenzy. The music stops, and the flourishes are played once more, but this time more quietly. It is a signal for everyone to leave. However, they do not make their way to the door until several have honored their host by performing fragments of some of his other compositions. This becomes the third and final section of the piece, a quodlibet, if you will. Sometimes these are not played exactly as the composer wrote them, but we are in a 21st-century version of a Schubertiade.
It is raining as the guests depart into the evening. A final reference to the fanfares is heard, but this time the notes are played in reverse. The composer is left at his piano, trying to complete the sonata melody that began the evening, which, at least in this version, will remain “Unfinished.”
***
With a lot of instructions to give, and knowing that my Japanese language skills are lacking, I asked for assistance from the principal double bassist, who translated everything I had to tell the orchestra to get the various effects I wanted. As we went along, I kept track of places I thought could be reworked, dictated them to the ensemble, and marked them in my score for future reference.
The work was supposed to be the opening piece of the concert, but earlier in the week, we learned that the distinguished conductor Kazuyoshi Akiyama had passed away. He had been music director of the Hiroshima Symphony, and we all wanted to honor his memory. So, when the orchestra and I entered the stage, after an announcement requesting the audience to hold their applause, we performed “Nimrod” from the Enigma Variations. Then, we all exited, waited a little while, and came out again, as if this were the true start of the program.
Special mention needs to go to Hiromi Oe, who works for the agency Kajimoto. She was our steady guide for the three weeks and went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that everything worked smoothly. This included having a supply of my favorite Japanese beverage, Nectar, on hand in the hotels, rehearsal spaces, and halls. It is a peach drink, and if the people at Fujiya are reading this, I would be more than happy to endorse the divine ambrosia.
The rest of the month was mostly quiet, with various items to attend to at home, plus a lot of studying. Three big pieces that are new to me loom on the horizon, including Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
A short trip to Las Vegas ensued, with timpani auditions and a fundraiser for the orchestra. While I was there, news of the big changes at the Kennedy Center were announced. I was devastated. You all know the story. I was a bit worried that my anxiety would creep into the talk I was to give to the donors. But I realized that Vegas is actually a working model of a society in which virtually anyone can succeed with a bit of effort. Gender, race, and nationality do not make a difference because those who reach for the stars bring financial benefit to the city. Everyone is able to put politics aside, and walking around Las Vegas is a lesson in how a diverse community comes together.
For the past several years, my son and I have taken a few days off for some father/son bonding. We leave the safety net of our spouses and venture out on our own. This year we headed to Arizona to attend three early spring-training baseball games. Staying in Scottsdale, we were slightly away from the big-city bustle. These trips give Daniel and me a good opportunity to catch up, have some fun, and eat quite well.
Next, I was off to Nashville for a conducting engagement, but the concerts extend into March, so I will wait until then to write about this week. We are now into the home stretch of the winter/spring season with some very intriguing programs coming up, so please stay tuned.
See you next month,
Leonard