Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Programme Notes Online. Thursday Series From the New World Thursday 29 November pm

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1 Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Programme Notes Online Thursday Series From the New World Thursday 29 November pm JOHN ADAMS (b.1947) The Chairman Dances foxtrot for orchestra Classicism from California? Written in 1987? And from an opera about 1970s superpower diplomacy? Yes that s how vibrant the classical tradition still is, and how brilliantly original a composer is John Adams. As well as being an IKEA-inspired interior design craze, Minimalism has been one of the most refreshing trends in contemporary classical music. The idea s simple a return to the basics, first rhythm, then colour, harmony and (whisper it) melody. By building from the rhythm and keeping things clear, composers like Glass, Nyman and Adams have given us a music that s wholly modern but unashamedly enjoyable two phrases you ll rarely find together! Modern music needs modern subjects. As Adams saw it, Handel and Verdi wrote operas about historical rulers; why shouldn t he write an opera about President Nixon s 1972 summit with Mao Zedong? Nixon in China opened in Houston in The Chairman Dances is a kind of postscript a fantasy scene Adams didn t include in the opera but thought too good to waste. Madame Mao gatecrashes the Presidential Banquet in Beijing, hangs some paper lanterns, slips into a slinky dress and foxtrots seductively round the political dignitaries whereupon the portrait of Chairman Mao on the wall behind comes to life, steps down, and joins her. Adams sets up his rhythm with the very first bar, and builds an unstoppable momentum, as the orchestra glints, chimes, jives and kicks its way through big-band riffs, romantic

2 interludes and swoonsome 40s film-music. By the driving climax, the whole room s dancing. Richard Bratby 2018 JENNIFER HIGDON (b.1962) blue cathedral Jennifer Higdon is one of America s most acclaimed figures in contemporary classical music, receiving the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto, a 2010 Grammy for her Percussion Concerto and a 2018 Grammy for her Viola Concerto. Higdon enjoys several hundred performances a year of her works, and blue cathedral is one of today s most performed contemporary orchestral works, with more than 600 performances worldwide. Her works have been recorded on more than sixty CDs. Higdon s first opera, Cold Mountain, won the International Opera Award for Best World Premiere and the opera recording was nominated for 2 Grammy awards. She holds the Rock Chair in Composition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her music is published exclusively by Lawdon Press. The composer writes: Blue like the sky. Where all possibilities soar. Cathedrals a place of thought, growth, spiritual expression serving as a symbolic doorway in to and out of this world. Blue represents all potential and the progression of journeys. Cathedrals represent a place of beginnings, endings, solitude, fellowship, contemplation, knowledge and growth. As I was writing this piece, I found myself imagining a journey through a glass cathedral in the sky. Because the walls would be transparent, I saw the image of clouds and blueness permeating from the outside of this church. In my mind's eye the listener would enter from the back of the sanctuary, floating along the corridor amongst giant crystal pillars, moving in a contemplative stance. The stained glass windows' figures would start moving with song, singing a heavenly music.

3 The listener would float down the aisle, slowly moving upward at first and then progressing at a quicker pace, rising towards an immense ceiling which would open to the sky as this journey progressed, the speed of the traveller would increase, rushing forward and upward. I wanted to create the sensation of contemplation and quiet peace at the beginning, moving towards the feeling of celebration and ecstatic expansion of the soul, all the while singing along with that heavenly music. These were my thoughts when the Curtis Institute of Music commissioned me to write a work to commemorate its 75th anniversary. Curtis is a house of knowledge a place to reach towards that beautiful expression of the soul which comes through music. I began writing this piece at a unique juncture in my life and found myself pondering the question of what makes a life. The recent loss of my younger brother, Andrew Blue, made me reflect on the amazing journeys that we all make in our lives, crossing paths with so many individuals singularly and collectively, learning and growing each step of the way. This piece represents the expression of the individual and the group our inner travels and the places our souls carry us, the lessons we learn, and the growth we experience. In tribute to my brother, I feature solos for the clarinet (the instrument he played) and the flute (the instrument I play). Because I am the older sibling, it is the flute that appears first in this dialog. At the end of the work, the two instruments continue their dialogue, but it is the flute that drops out and the clarinet that continues on in the upward progressing journey. This is a story that commemorates living and passing through places of knowledge and of sharing and of that song called life. This work was commissioned and premiered in 2000 by the Curtis Institute of Music. SAMUEL BARBER ( ) Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Op.24

4 The American composer Samuel Barber s name was made in 1938 when the legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini premiered his Adagio for Strings, a rescoring of the slow movement of a string quartet. That work is now hugely famous but this has tended to obscure Barber s other achievements, among them his poignant Knoxville: Summer of 1915 for soprano and small orchestra, a setting of the prose poetry of James Agee ( ) and a piece Barber described as a lyric-rhapsody. It was commissioned by Barber s friend, long-time champion and fellow singer Eleanor Steber, who gave its first performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under its conductor Serge Koussevitzky in April The date of the piece s commissioning, composition and premiere is hugely significant. Just a few years after World War Two had come to its horrifying conclusion, many in the Western world sought solace in the idea of less violent and more innocent times. Agee s text, a series of lilting, nostalgic recollections of his boyhood in Knoxville, Tennessee shortly before the United States declared war on Germany during World War One offered just such solace. Therefore, Barber s treatment of Agee s words is in many ways a soothing and sunlit piece of pastoral Americana; yet there are darker undercurrents as well, suggesting the potential for lost innocence. In regard to this there is an autobiographical element too: as Barber was working on the piece his father, to whom the work is dedicated, was slowly dying. Clearly, at this point in his life, Barber closely related to Agee s fond memories of his childhood and his loving relationship with his parents. Anthony Bateman 2018 ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK ( ) Symphony No.9 in E minor, Op.95 From the New World Adagio allegro molto / Slow very fast Largo / Very slow Scherzo: molto vivace / Scherzo: very lively

5 Allegro con fuoco / Fast, with fire Whose New World Symphony? That was Dvořák s New World Symphony but it doesn t say here who it s by. That (in)famous radio gaffe proves something. When a piece of music is more famous than its composer, you know you re dealing with a classic. But what s odd about Dvořák s Ninth Symphony is how so well-loved a piece can still inspire so many different opinions. You ll find writers who will tell you that this Symphony is based on African-American spirituals, Native American dance rhythms, or Czech folksongs. One American recording describes it as A passionate ode to the universal dream of a new beginning ; other writers have heard homesickness for Bohemia. And to millions, of course, it s still the symphony from the Hovis advert From New York s Docks and Skyscrapers One thing is certain: Dvořák wrote this piece in New York in the spring of 1893, and he wanted the world to know it: the title From the New World was his own. Jeanette Thurber had been determined to snare a great European composer to head up her newly-founded National Conservatoire, and for a $15,000 salary, Dvořák had been happy to be snared, sailing for New York in September Ever lively-minded, he was fascinated by what he found there and he took his duties towards American music seriously. He d already caused a stir by telling the press that In the Negro melodies of America I find all that is needed for a great and noble school of music. As his first major work in America, his new Symphony premiered at Carnegie Hall on 1 December 1893 was just as important a statement. Slaves and Valkyries It s hardly surprising, then, that many listeners hear spirituals in this symphony. The quiet, husky flute melody from the first movement has reminded some of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot; but most attention has focussed on the Largo, and that glorious cor

6 anglais melody. So good is that tune that it later gained words and actually became a spiritual Goin Home, sung by Paul Robeson amongst others. But that came after the symphony and how about those grand, mysterious opening chords, and the dancing woodwind interlude at the centre of the movement? They re the work of a composer who knew both his Wagner and his Bohemian village music. There was only one man who fitted that description Algonquins and Bohemians But what of other New World music? Dvořák was a fan of Longfellow s Song of Hiawatha, and the pounding rhythms of the scherzo are sometimes said to have been inspired by Native American drumming. In the summer of 1893, Dvořák did actually meet a party of Algonquin herbalists in Iowa, and he recorded the experience in two lovely chamber works. But the symphony was very definitely written in New York a world as distant as can be imagined from either Iowa, or Dvořák s beloved country home at Vysoká. Yet there s certainly a Bohemian swing to the scherzo s central section and that sweet, impetuous second melody is anything but the work of a sophisticated urbanite. However much Dvořák travelled and learned, his feet were still firmly planted at Vysoká. Goin Home And he was still a European composer, writing a major symphony in the year The symphony follows the classical rules; in fact, with its slow, sad introduction, Dvořák was reviving an almost defunct practice. He has some modern tricks up his sleeve too the motto theme (the horn call that launches the first Allegro) recurs at crucial moments throughout the symphony. And as the stormy finale races homewards, he summons up the spirits of earlier movements, as if to remind us that the symphony is a journey that s bigger than any one episode. Folk music from around the world displays uncanny similarities. Dvořák loved and missed his home but bubbled over with enthusiasm for the

7 energy and scale of America. The music of the New World symphony reflects all of this with colours more vivid, tunes broader and emotions less inhibited than in any of Dvořák s other symphonies. It s a glorious mix and ultimately, it s all Dvořák s. Richard Bratby 2018

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Programme Notes Online. Sunday Afternoon Classics An American in Paris Sunday 2 December

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Programme Notes Online Sunday Afternoon Classics An American in Paris Sunday 2 December 2018 2.30pm GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937) An American in Paris An American in