Brotons' Bass Clarinet Concerto receives excellent premiere performance

Because there are so few concertos for bass clarinet, Vancouver Symphony audiences were given that rarest of treats when they heard a brand new one, written by the orchestra’s music director, Salvador Brotons, on February 23 at Skyview Concert Hall. Brotons, whose prolific composing talents have garnered international attention, uncorked his latest piece with David Gould, bass clarinetist of the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra, as the featured soloist. Since Brotons had composed a piece for bass clarinet and piano that Gould had successfully premiered in Belgium, he used it as a launching pad for his Concerto for Bass Clarinet and Orchestra, and that connection made the collaboration between Brotons and Gould for this world premiere a genuinely pleasing and spirited event.

Using a chamber-sized ensemble, Brotons skillfully made plenty of room for the bass clarinet’s low and often soft, woodland-like sound. That allowed Gould to express lovely melodic lines, which varied delightfully against the texture of the ensemble.

In the opening Fantasia, the music was jocular and lightly skipped around with Gould establishing a mellow theme. Volleys from the French horn and other sections of the orchestra marked the exchanges, which settled down when the bassoon (Margaret McShea) and the soloist created a brief beautiful duet. That was followed by a bass clarinet cadenza that tender and soothing before becoming perky and buzzy, setting off the orchestra to up-tempo ending.

The second movement, Cantilena, evoked a lush and lyrical setting with Gould conveying a super mellow tone. He was complimented at one point by slowly climbing sequences from the harp and at another with the gentle voice of the oboe (Fred Korman). In the final measures, Gould’s bass clarinet smoothly descended into the basement register, landing on a pillow-soft tone.

A swift attacca into the third movement, Dionisiaca, kicked the music into a higher gear with exchanges between the orchestra and soloist. Urged on by Brotons, Gould and the orchestra arrived at the finale con brio and a splash of forte.

After an enthusiastic response from the audience, Gould shared an elegant encore, his own arrangement of Duke Ellington’s Single Petal of a Rose. I loved the way that he could make a waterfall of notes trickle into the main theme. It was a wonderfully soulful addition to the concert.

The second half of the concert was devoted to Richard Strauss’s great symphonic tone poem, Also Sprach Zarathustra. The brilliant opening statement (used to great effect by Stanley Kubrick in his 1968 film: 2001: A Space Odyssey) was powerfully delivered by the orchestra. The contrabassoon (Nicole Buetti) generated a terrific rumbling undercurrent that dissolved into the organ-like chord from the synthesizer (Michael C. Liu). The ensemble excelled at depicting the murky, dark, and somber passages, contrasting them well against the higher and brighter sections. Concertmaster Shepherd added some charm to the Viennese waltz and was joined gracefully by the ensemble. The pummeling of the bass drum and timpani and the trumpets restating the opening triads was thrilling.

At the top of the evening, the orchestra played Celebration for Orchestra, which was written by Ellen Taafle Zwillich in 1984. She is the first woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Music (1983), and Brotons mentioned that he had met her during his time studying at Florida State University. The piece opened brashly with a big, solid chord which was followed by a bell-like motif that echoed into the distance. That motif was repeated throughout, and the percussion battery, which was quite large, got a thorough workout. Despite the forte segments, a lot of the music was light and fanciful, with brief solos by concertmaster Stephen Shepherd, principal cellist Dieter Ratzlaf, principal violist Jeremy Waterman, and principal bassist Garret Jellesma.

Going back to Brotons’ Bass Clarinet Concerto, it will be interesting to find out which other orchestras will play it and when it will be recorded.

Today's Birthdays

Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868)
Jimmy Dorsey (1904-1957)
Reri Grist (1932)

and

Howard Nemerov (1920-1991)

Today's Birthdays

John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951)
Sergueï Bortkiewicz (1877-1952)
Guiomar Novaes (1895-1979)
Geraldine Farrar (1882-1967)
Roman Maciejewski (1910-1998)
George Malcolm (1917-1997)
Joseph Rouleau (1929-2019)
Osmo Vänskä (1953)
Markus Stenz (1965)

and

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
Linus Pauling (1901-1994)
Stephen Spender (1909-1995)
Zero Mostel (1915-1977)
Frank Gehry (1929)
John Fahey (1939-2001)
Stephen Chatman (1950)
Colum McCann (1965)
Daniel Handler (1970)

and from the Composers Datebook

On this date in 1882, the Royal College of Music is founded in London.

Today's Birthdays

Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918)
Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976)
Marian Anderson (1897-1993)
Elizabeth Welch (1904-2003)
Viktor Kalabis (1923-2006)
Mirella Freni (1935-2020)
Morten Lauridsen (1943)
Gidon Kremer (1947)
Frank-Peter Zimmermann (1956)

and

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990)
Ralph Nadar (1934)
N. Scott Momaday (1934)

Today's Birthdays

Anton (Antoine) Reicha (1770-1836)
Alfred Bachelet (1864-1944)
Emmy Destinn (1878-1930)
Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
Witold Rowicki (1914-1989)
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino (1928-2017)
Lazar Berman (1930-2005)
Johnny Cash (1932-2005)
David Thomas (1943)
Guy Klucevsek (1947)
Emma Kirkby (1949)
Richard Wargo (1957)
Carlos Kalmar (1958)

and

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
John George Nicolay (1832-1901)
Elisabeth George (1949)

Young artists and Niederloh excel in quartet of productions by Portland Opera

Angela Niederloh as Julia Child | Photo by Kate Szrom

Experiencing four operas in one evening may seem like a daunting task, but when they are four, relatively short, one-act operas, it can be a delightful undertaking. That’s how I felt when Portland Opera’s presented “An American Quartet,” which consisted of operas by Gian Carlo Menotti, Samuel Barber, Douglas Moore, and Lee Hoiby.

The performances on Tuesday, February 11, took place in the Gregory K. and Mary Chomenko Hinckley Studio Theatre of the Hampton Opera Center. Three of them featured outstanding singers from the young artists program and the fourth starred veteran mezzo-soprano Angela Niederloh in Hoiby’s hilarious adaptation of a Julia Child cooking program.

Deft stage directions by Allison Narver, in her Portland Opera debut, made sure that the laughter kept coming and that all of the productions ran smoothly. Set designs by Peter Ksander took advantage of the fact that the Hampton Opera Center originally housed the studios of KPTV. So, mock-TV cameras were used to convey each opera as a live TV show.

Emilie Faiella and Geoffrey Schellenberg in The Telephone |Photo by Kate Szrom/Portland Opera

Menotti’s The Telephone was an amusing take on a young lady’s fixation with her telephone even to the point of ignoring her suitor’s marriage proposal. Soprano Emilie Faiella created the blithefully obsessive gal and baritone Geoffrey Schellenberg made the frustration of her beau totally palpable. It was a relief to hear him resolve the situation with a phone call – from a pay phone, no less!

Ricardo Garcia in A Hand of Bridge | Photo by Kate Szrom

The shortest piece on the program, Barber’s A Hand of Bridge, placed two couples at a card table, and as their game began, a freeze frame allowed each person to reveal some of their innermost thoughts. One of the men (tenor Ricardo Garcia) expressed his love for his mistress rather than his wife (mezzo-soprano Camille Sherman), who was fixated on purchasing a hat trimmed in peacock feathers. The other woman (Faiella) lamented not loving her mother enough. Her husband (Schellenberg) erupted with frustration over his dull life, and proclaimed that if he were rich, he would have twenty naked boys and twenty naked girls to fulfill his sexual desires. The shocking statement caused laughter but also evoked images of Jeffrey Epstein. Enough said.

Camille Sherman, Ricardo Garcia, Geoffrey Schellenberg, and Emilie Faiella in Gallantry | Photo by Kate Szrom

Douglas Moore’s Gallantry poked fun TV soap operas with terrific cheekiness. Faiella wonderfully created the conflicted love-interest of two men while having time to strike beguiling poses for the camera. Schellenberg went over the top as the love-struck, yet conniving surgeon. Garcia played the straight man perfectly. Sherman enticingly shilled for the production’s sponsor, Lochinvar Soap. The ensemble camped it up and made the piece a hoot!

Based on one of Julia Child’s televised cooking lessons for making a chocolate cake, Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appétit! rounded out the evening with mezzo-soprano Angela Niederloh in the starring role. Niederloh marvelously channeled the essence of Child, used impeccable comic timing and a beguiling smile to deliver the sung monologue while mixing ingredients and downing a glass of wine. One of the best moments came when she placed a big spoon of melted chocolate in her mouth and told us how delicious it was.

From my perch, I could see the assistants who continuously shuffled the food items and various kitchen implements to Niederloh so that she could do everything so seamlessly. They deserved an extra round of kudos.

Nicholas Fox conducted the singers and accompanist Sequoia. Christine A. Richardson’s costumes were spot on and lighting by Carl Faber was splendid. All of the performers were top-notch, and I am looking forward to hearing all of the voices again in the near future.

Today's Birthdays

Armand-Louis Couperin (1727-1789)
Antoine Reicha (1770-1836)
Enrico Caruso (1873-1921)
Dame Myra Hess (1890-1965)
Victor Silvester (1900-1978)
Davide Wilde (1935)
Jesús López-Cobos (1940)
George Harrison (1943-2001)
Lucy Shelton (1944)
Denis O'Neill (1948)
Melinda Wagner (1957)

and

Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
Karl Friedrich May (1842–1874)
Anthony Burgess (1917-1993)
John C. Farrar (1896-1974)

And from the New Music Box:

On February 25, 1924, the first issue of the League of Composers Review was published. Under the editorial leadership of Minna Lederman, this publication—which soon thereafter changed its name to Modern Music (in April 1925)—was the leading journalistic voice for contemporary music in America for over 20 years and featured frequent contributions from important composers of the day including Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, John Cage, Marc Blitzstein, Henry Cowell, Lehman Engel, and Marion Bauer. Its final issue appeared in the Fall of 1946. And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1682, Italian composer Alessandro Stradella, age 37, is murdered in Genoa, apparently in retaliation for running off with a Venetian nobleman's mistress.

Today's Birthdays

Antoine Boësset (1587-1643)
Samuel Wesley (1766-1837)
Arrigo Boito (1842-1918)
Luigi Denza (1846-1922)
Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940)
Michel Legrand (1932)
Renato Scotto (1934)
Jiří Bělohlávek (1946)

and

Wilhelm (Carl) Grimm (1786-1859)
Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
George Augustus Moore (1852-1933)
Mary Ellen Chase (1887-1973)
Weldon Kees (1914-1955)
Jane Hirshfield (1953)
Judith Butler (1956)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1955, Carlisle Floyd's opera "Susannah" received its premiere at Florida State University in Tallahassee. According to Opera America, this is one of the most frequently-produced American operas during the past decade.

Today's Birthdays

John Blow (1649-1708)
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Sir Hugh Roberton (1874-1952)
Albert Sammons (1886-1957)
Dave Apollon (1897-1972)
Elinor Remick Warren (1905-1991)
Martindale Sidwell (1916-1998)
Hall Overton (1920-1972)
Régine Crespin (1927-2007)

and

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) - blogger of the 17th Century
W. E B. Du Bois (1868-1963)
Karl Jaspers (1883-1969)
William L. Shirer (1904-1993)
John Camp (1944)

Tidbit from the New York Times obit: In the early 1930s, William Shirer and his wife shared a house with the guitarist Andres Segovia.

From The Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1940 that Woody Guthrie wrote the lyrics to “This Land Is Your Land."

The melody is to an old Baptist hymn. Guthrie wrote the song in response to the grandiose “God Bless America,” written by Irving Berlin and sung by Kate Smith. Guthrie didn’t think that the anthem represented his own or many other Americans’ experience with America. So he wrote a folk song as a response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” a song that was often accompanied by an orchestra. At first, Guthrie titled his own song “God Blessed America” — past tense. Later, he changed the title to “This Land Is Your Land,” which is the first line of the song.

Today's Birthdays

Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817-1890)
York Bowen (1884-1961)
Benno Moiseiwitsch (1890-1963)
Joseph Kerman (1924-2014)
George Zukerman (1927)
Steven Lubin (1942)
Lowell Liebermann (1961)
Rolando Villazón (1972)

and

George Washington (1732-1799)
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)
Edward Gorey (1925-2000)
Gerald Stern (1925)
Ishmael Reed (1938)
Terry Eagleton (1943)

Preview of Brotons concerto for bass clarinet in The Columbian

My article about the Vancouver Symphony concerts this weekend appears in the online edition of The Columbian newspaper here. The concert will give the world premiere of Salvador Brotons' Bass Clarinet Concerto with guest artist David Gould. The orchestra will also play Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's “Celebration for Orchestra” and Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra."

Today's Birthdays

Carl Czerny (1791-1857)
Leo Delibes (1836-1891)
Charles Marie Widor (1844-1945)
Kenneth Alford (1881-1945)
Nina Simone (1933-2003)
Elena Duran (1949)
Simon Holt (1948)

and

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977)
W. H. Auden (1907-1973)
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996)
Ha Jin (1956)
Chuck Palahniuk (1962)
David Foster Wallace (1962-2008)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Peter Salomon (1749-1815)
Charles‑Auguste de Bériot (1802-1870)
Mary Garden (1874-1967)
Robert McBride (1911-2007)
Ruth Gipps (1921-1999)
Toshiro Mayuzumi (1929-1997)
Christoph Eschenbach (1940)
Barry Wordsworth (1948)
Cindy McTee (1953)
Riccardo Chailly (1953)
Chris Thile (1981)

and

Russel Crouse (1893-1966)
Louis Kahn (1901-1974)
Ansel Adams (1902-1984)
Robert Altman (1925-2006)
Richard Matheson (1926-2013)

Today's Birthdays

Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)
Louis Aubert (1877-1968))
Arthur Shepherd (1880-1958)
Grace Williams (1906-1977)
Stan Kenton (1912-1979)
Timothy Moore (1922-2003)
George Guest (1924-2002)
György Kurtág (1926)
Michael Kennedy (1926-2014)
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (1932-1988)
Smokey Robinson (1940)
Penelope Walmsley-Clark (1949)
Darryl Kubian (1966)

and

André Breton (1896-1966)
Carson McCullers (1917-1967)
Amy Tan (1952)
Siri Hustvedt (1955)
Jonathan Lethem (1964)

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Battista Vitali (1632-1692)
Pietro Giovanni Guarneri (1655-1720)
Gustave Schirmer, Jr. (1864-1907)
Marchel Landowski (1915-1999)
Rolande Falcinelli (1920-2006)
Rita Gorr (1926-2012)
Yoko Ono (1933)
Marek Janowski (1939)
Marlos Nobre (1939
Donald Crockett (1951)

and

Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916)
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957)
Wallace Stegner (1909-1993)
Jack Gilbert (1925-2012)
Len Deighton (1929)
Toni Morrison (1931)
George Pelecanos (1957)

Hadelich astonishes with awe-inspiring performance of Paganini's First Violin Concerto

Augustin Hadelich returned to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on February 8th to give another phenomenal performance. This time, he conjured the magic of Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1, turning that flashy piece into an awe-inspiring artistic statement. His impressive control of dynamics allowed him to shape each line in intriguing ways, such as when he soared into the highest notes yet made them fade ever so slightly. Whispery clean lines that alternated with pizzicatos phrases looked mind-numbingly easy in his hands. The lyrical melody in the second movement had just the right amount of sweetness and tenderness, and he iced it perfectly with a section of eerie glissandi. In the final movement, his fingers raced alone like the wind and at one point he flawlessly produced tones that seemed to whistle. It was just amazing.

The audience immediately responded to Hadelich’s performance with a standing ovation that would have gone on for a long time, but Hadelich quieted everyone down by performing his transcription of Francisco Tárrega’s Recuerdos de la Alhambra. Again, Hadelich stunned everyone by impeccably playing the piece. It looked like he used his bow to generate one line and the fingers of his left hand to create the other. However, he did it, it was truly astounding, and he received another standing ovation.

Gabriella Smith’s Bioluminescence Chaconne received its world premiere the night before by the orchestra in Salem. Commissioned by the Oregon Symphony and conducted in the series by Carlos Kalmar, this piece offered a lot for the ears. The music had a light, yet layered touch that generated a shimmering, glowing sound. With trumpets and trombones fading in and out, it was easy to imagine whales or other creatures of the sea swimming nearby and then disappearing into the background. A distinct rhythmic drive became more prominent with the percussion section laying it on a bit thickly and three piccolos adding their voices. I distinctly heard the chaconne when the timpani took its turn (all sections of the orchestra had a go on it). I felt that Smith took us on a luminescent journey. It would be terrific if the orchestra put in on a recording.

Missy Mazzoli’s Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) offered a sonic excursion into the heavens. Lots of suspended sounds, an underlying buzz or drone, crescendos emanating from the low brass, random strikes from the percussion section, repeated glissandos in the strings, and a march-like section that suddenly cut away, did give the sense of spheres moving about somewhere in the galaxy. It was a piece that I would’ve liked to have heard again. Maybe the orchestra could add it to a future recording as well!

The orchestra delivered an incisive interpretation of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in the popular arrangement by Ravel. Each movement of the piece received a polished sound. Highlights included brilliant contributions on the trumpet (Jeffrey Work), French horn (John Cox), Carin Miller Packwood (bassoon), tuba and baritone (JáTtik Clark), and the guest saxophonist who absolutely sparkled in her playing. The one odd thing was that the “Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells” didn’t generate any chuckles from the audience (like it usually does). Perhaps that was because it wasn’t spontaneous enough. In any case, there are mysteries about music that will probably remain a mystery.

Today's Birthdays

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
Henri Vieuxtemps (1820-1881)
Sr. Edward German (1862-1936)
Leevi Madetoja (1887-1947)
Andres Segovia (1893-1987)
Marian Anderson (1893-1993)
Paul Fetler (1920-2018)
Ron Goodwin (1925-2003)
Fredrich Cerha (1926)
Lee Hoiby (1926-2011)
Anner Bylsma (1944)
Karl Jenkins (1944)

and

Ronald Knox (1888-1957)
Jack Gilbert (1925-2012)
Chaim Potok (1929-2002)
Ruth Rendell (1930-2015)
Mo Yan (1955)

From the New Music Box:

On February 17, 1927, a sold-out audience attends the world premiere of The King's Henchman. an opera with music by composer, music critic and future radio commentator Deems Taylor and libretto by poet Edna St. Villay Millay, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The New York Times review by Olin Downes on the front page the next morning hailed it as the "best American opera." The opera closed with a profit of $45,000 and ran for three consecutive seasons. It has not been revived since and has yet to be recorded commercially.

Today's Birthdays

Charles Avison (1709-1770)
Willem Kes (1856-1934)
Selim Palmgren (1878-1951)
Maria Korchinska (1895-1979)
Alec Wilder (1907-1980)
Machito (1908-1984)
Sir Geraint Evans (1922-1992)
Eliahu Inbal (1936)
John Corigliano (1938)
Sigiswald Kuiljken (1944)

and

Nikolai Leskov (1831-1895)
Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918)
Van Wyck Brooks (1886-1963)
Richard Ford (1944)

Today's Birthdays

Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)
Jean‑François Lesueur (1760-1837)
Friedrich Ernst Fesca (1789-1826)
Heinrich Engelhard Steinway (1797-1871)
Robert Fuchs (1847-1927)
Marcella Sembrich (1858-1935)
Walter Donaldson (1893-1947)
Georges Auric (1899-1983)
Harold Arlen (1905-1986)
Jean Langlais (1907-1991)
Norma Procter (1928-2017)
John Adams (1947)
Christopher Rouse (1949)
Kathryn Harries (1951)
Christian Lindberg (1958)

and

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)
Art Spiegelman (1948)
Matt Groening (1954)

Today's Birthdays

Pietro Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676)
Alexander Dargomizhsky (1813-1869)
Ignaz Friedman (1882-1948)
Jack Benny (1894-1974)
Wyn Morris (1929-2010)
Steven Mackey (1956)
Renée Fleming (1959)

and

Frederick Douglass (1814-1895)
Carl Bernstein (1944)

and

On this day in 1895, Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest opened in London. He wrote the first draft in just 21 days, the fastest he’d ever written anything.