Collaboration concert with CCM

 Brave New Works

 

WElcome

WHo

NExt

PAst

LInks

STuff

Summer Concert

Click here for Poster of the concert

August 27, 2002
8 pm

Collboration concert with Kerrytown Concert House and Cincinnati Conservatory of Music 
with Guest Artists Robert Auler, Piano 

Program

 

Fantasia Fiorentina (16')                 Joel Hoffman
                   Mr. Auler                (1953--)
                   Mr. O'Neill

"The Stream Flows"    (10')               Bright Sheng
                   Mr. O'Neill               (1955--)
 

Sonata for Violin and Piano (14')       William Bolcom
                   Mr. O'Neill             (1938--)
                   Mr. Auler

                  INTERMISSION

Two Diversions for Piano               Elliott Carter
                   Mr. Auler               (1908--)
 

Sonata for Violin and Piano           John Corigliano
                   Mr. Auler               (1938--)
                   Mr. O'Neill 
 

                      *****  (notes to follow)
 

Joel Hoffman is a professor of composition at the
University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of
Music.  He is also director of Music 2002, a
contemporary music festival at the
College-Conservatory, which attracts top composers and
performers for a two-week celebration of contemporary
music, including master classes, concerts, lessons,
and lectures.  Past invitees have included Bright
Sheng, William Bolcom, Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski,
and Milton Babbitt.  He is a highly repsected composer
whose awards include the BMI award, 15 ASCAP awards,
and fellowships from the National Endowment for the
Arts, and American Academy of Arts and Letters.  His
"Fantasia Fiorentina" is a work which fuses tonality
with atonal elements, and which places equal technical
and musical demands on each instrument. 

Last October, Bright Sheng was  named a MacArthur
Foundation "Genius" Fellow, one of only two musicians
to receive the highly prestigious award.  He is
currently professor of composition at the University
of Michigan.  Recent projects have included "Nanking!
Nanking!", an orchestral work commemorating the Rape
of Nanking, and "Red Silk Dance", a piano concerto
premiered by Emmanuel Ax with the Boston Symphony. 
His work for solo violin, "The Stream Flows", derives
from a famous southern Chinese folk song.  Written in
two parts, the first part  attempts to recreate the
sound of a female singer, while the second is a fast
country dance. The text of the folk song is as
follows:

                    The Stream Flows

     The Rising moon shines brightly
     it reminds me of my love in the mountains
     Like the moon, you walk in the sky
     as the crystal stream flows down the mountain.

     A clear breeze blows up the hill.
     My love, do you hear I am calling you?

 William Bolcom, distinguished professor of
composition at the University of Michigan, has won
awards from every era of his compositional career.  In
1988, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his "Twelve New
Etdues for Piano".  His compostional style represents
a junction point between tonal, atonal, and vernacular
elements including jazz and ragtime.  His Fourth
Sonata for Violin and Piano, written in 1994,
demonstrates many of these eclectic elements: the
first movement is fast, motivic, and employs atonal
melodies and rapid-fire technical work for both
performers.  The second derives its lyrical, tonal
material from a Danish folk tune, which is then
distorted throug the perception of memory.  The third,
entitled, "Arabesque", uses a repetitive displaced
octave figure in the piano, while the violin soars
above this accompaniment.  The fourth movement,
"Jota", is a very fast dance movement, again
demonstrating virtuosity and flair on the part of both
performers. 

Elliott Carter, born in 1908, is regarded as one of
the most important American composers since Copland,
and has won most of the awards avaiable to a composer.
 He is perhaps best-known for his innovative use of
metric modulation, a rhythmic technique in which the
pulse shifts seamlessly from one tempo to another,
sometimes even many times in the course of a phrase. 
His "Two Diversions for Piano", written in 1999,
exhibit this tendency, as well as extremes in dynamics
and textures, which range from sparse, economical
writing to soaring, lyrical melodies.

John Corigliano is perhaps best known to audiences as
the Oscar-winning composer of the film score to the
"Red Violin". He has also written two Symphonies, an
Opera, "The Ghosts of Versailles", important concertos
for Clarinet and Piano, and a host of other solo,
chamber, and vocal works.  In 1964, he won the Spoleto
Chamber Music Prize for his Sonata for Violin and
Piano, written in memory of his father, John
Corigliano, Sr., then Concertmaster of the New York
Philharmonic. 
The Sonata is a highly lyrical, nostalgic work, which
effectively employs atonaity, but which is nonetheless
rooted in tonality.  The first movement's feverish
violin writing coupled with a toccata-like piano part
is extremely exciting.  The second movement is a
sweeping, lyrical interplay between the violin and the
piano.  Following the third movement's more static
quality, the fourth once again returns to the feverish
pitch of the opening, ending with an extraordinary
race to the end between the violin and the piano.

 
 
 

Robert Auler, piano
Tim O'Neill, violin 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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