Download Concerts of Thursday, May 10, Friday, May 11, and Saturday, May

Concerts of Thursday, May 10, Friday, May 11, and Saturday, May 12, 2012, at
8:00pm.
Robert Spano, Conductor
Leon Bates, Piano
Alvin Singleton (b. 1940)
Different River (2012)
World Premiere, Commissioned by Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony
Orchestra
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
Leon Bates, Piano
Intermission
Aaron Copland
Symphony No. 3 (1946)
I. Molto moderato
II. Allegro molto
III. Andantino quasi allegretto
IV. Molto deliberato (Fanfare)—Allegro risoluto
Notes on the Program by Ken Meltzer
Different River (2012)
Alvin Singleton was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 28, 1940. These are
the world premiere performances of Different River. Different River is scored for
piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, two clarinets, two
bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba,
timpani, two bongos (hi, low), snare drum, marimba, Xyl, timables (hi, low), cowbell
(medium), vibraphone, three tom toms (high, medium, low), harp and strings.
Approximate performance time is twenty-five minutes.
These are the First ASO Classical Subscription Performances
Alvin Singleton
Alvin Singleton’s unique musical voice is the product of his richly diverse educational
and cultural background. Mr. Singleton studied at New York University, Yale
University, and, as a Fulbright Scholar, with Goffredo Petrassi at the Accademia
Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Mr. Singleton acknowledges the influence of
numerous and varied styles of popular music in his concert works. While growing up in
Brooklyn, Mr. Singleton was fascinated by such artists as the Beatles, John Coltrane,
James Brown and Mahalia Jackson. Mr. Singleton was also profoundly influenced by the
gospels and spirituals that resounded in his own family’s church.
Alvin Singleton was the first Composer-in-Residence in the history of Spelman College
(1988-1991). Alvin Singleton has also served as UNISYS Composer-in-Residence with
the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1996-97), and was the 2002–03 Composer-inResidence with the Ritz Chamber Players of Jacksonville, Florida. In addition, he has
served as Visiting Professor of Composition at the Yale University School of Music. In
the spring of 2004, Mr. Singleton joined the American Composers Orchestra as “Music
Alive” Composer-in-Residence and Artistic Advisor for the IMPROVISE! Festival. In
October, 2008, Singleton served as Composer-in-Residence in Tirana, Albania. He was
invited by the cultural organization Eurynome Corp., who presented the Albanian
premieres of selected works performed by the Orchestra of Albanian Radio and
Television conducted by Oleg Arapi. Mr. Singleton also conducted a master class at the
Fine Arts Academy in Tirana.
Alvin Singleton’s compositions have been performed by major symphony orchestras
throughout the world. Important international festivals that have programmed Mr.
Singleton’s music include Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, OR, Tanglewood,
Aspen, Bravo! Colorado, Music from Angel Fire in New Mexico, Cincinnati May
Festival, Cabrillo Music Festival, Bang On A Can, the National Black Arts Festival in
Atlanta, Other Minds in San Francisco, Festival Miami, the Vienna Summer Festival, Pro
Musica Nova in Bremen, the Styrian Autumn Festival in Graz, Nuova Consonanza
Festival in Rome, the Brussels ISCM World music Days and IRCAM in Paris.
Alvin Singleton’s music is published by Schott Music Corporation, and is recorded on the
Albany Records, Elektra/Nonesuch, Tzadik, and Innova labels. Singleton’s latest CD,
“Sing to the Sun,” was released in February 2007 on Albany Records and is the fourth
all-Singleton disc.
After his studies in Rome, Alvin Singleton remained in Europe for fourteen years as a
free-lance composer, where he received numerous awards and citations for his works.
While in Paris, Mr. Singleton met Robert Shaw, then the Music Director of the Atlanta
Symphony Orchestra. This meeting ultimately led to Mr. Singleton’s appointment as
Composer-in-Residence for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, a post he held from 198588.
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has continued to enjoy a long and rewarding
association with Mr. Singleton. On the weekend of March 5, 2009, Music Director
Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performed Mr.
Singleton’s PraiseMaker, which they also recorded for Telarc Records (Telarc CD32630). On the weekend of February 3, 2011, Robert Spano and the ASO performed Mr.
Singleton’s fanfare, Miaka Kumi (2010), written in celebration of Maestro Spano’s 10th
anniversary as Music Director. On the weekend of June 2, 2011, Maestro Spano and the
ASO performed Mr. Singleton’s After Fallen Crumbs, originally composed for the
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1988 (and recorded on Elektra/Nonesuch 9 79231-2).
These concerts open with the world premiere of Mr. Singleton’s Different River,
commissioned by Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Different River
For over a century or more the trend for so many composers of creative
music has been to put the emphasis of their work on self expression with
ever-less regard for listeners, even sophisticated ones. Certain composers
have even boasted that they don’t want their works understood; or as one
said, he writes for his colleagues.
Alvin Singleton, on the other hand, has typically achieved the distinct
accomplishment of writing music that is both attractive to hear and
intellectually-challenging in a way that also invites listeners to join him in
some sonic and/or structural guessing game.
DIFFERENT RIVER is certainly a case in point.
Scored for full orchestra with extra percussion, this one-movement work
lasts about 25 minutes. Of the title the composer writes: it is “about an
ever-changing perspective on a river that is always moving.. Each
time you step in you’re at a different place.”
Are we in this river or observing it? And of what is it made
(composed)? Strange objects float by. Intensely themselves, they may be
the mystical-though-annunciatory percussion utterance that opens
DIFFERENT RIVER. Or the galloping 16th notes from mallet instruments
that follows, or the contrasting long, long tones of strings and woodwinds,
or a brass fanfare, the sweet mumblings of solo harp, and then a stretch of
silence. Unlike in many of his works, Singleton here seems not to favor
any of these as the “theme” that wins out in the end. Each element that
enters and passes is bright, clear, and strong. There are moments when
elements gather, crash together, and suggest “climax.” But the true theme
of DIFFERENT RIVER is the listener’s experiencing the rolling by
of disparate musical passages. River-like, each impresses (intrigues?) us,
and like the river of life, all passes on.
—Notes by Carman Moore
Rhapsody in Blue (instrumentation by Ferde Grofé) (1924)
George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 26, 1898, and
died in Hollywood, California on July 11, 1937. The first performance of the
Rhapsody in Blue took place at Aeolian Hall in New York City, on February 12,
1924, with the composer as soloist and Paul Whiteman conducting the Palais Royal
Orchestra. In addition to the solo piano, Rhapsody in Blue is scored for two flutes,
two oboes, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, three horns, three trumpets,
three trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, suspended cymbal, cymbals,
glockenspiel, triangle, bass drum, gong and strings. Approximate performance time
is eighteen minutes.
First ASO Classical Subscription Performance: January 29, 1950, Oscar Levant,
Piano, Henry Sopkin, Conductor.
Most Recent ASO Classical Subscription Performances: May 31, June 2 and 3,
2007, Marcus Roberts, Piano, Robert Spano, Conductor.
“A jazz concerto”
George Gershwin composed his Rhapsody in Blue at the request of his friend, bandleader
Paul Whiteman. Whiteman planned to stage a concert in New York to demonstrate that
American jazz “had come to stay and deserved recognition.” Gershwin, who was busy
with the preparations for his newest musical, Sweet Little Devil, was hesitant to become
involved in such a project. However, in early January of 1924, Gershwin was in midtown Manhattan, shooting pool at the Ambassador Billiard Parlor. George’s brother, Ira,
who was also at the billiard club, picked up a copy of the January 4 issue of the Herald
Tribune. The paper contained an article announcing that Paul Whiteman had scheduled a
New York concert for February 12. The article further reported that, “George Gershwin
is at work on a jazz concerto” to be featured at the Whiteman concert.
A rather surprised Gershwin called Whiteman the following day. Finally, after much
persuasion by Whiteman, Gershwin agreed to compose a rhapsody for piano and
orchestra that he conceived of as “a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America—of our vast
melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our blues, of our metropolitan
madness.” Gershwin composed this rhapsody at a furious pace, completing the work in
about three weeks.
Ferde Grofé, who orchestrated the work, was an almost constant presence in the
Gershwin apartment, adapting each new page of the score as soon as it left the
composer’s hand. Grofé’s original version, performed at the premiere, was for jazz band.
Later, Grofé orchestrated the work for a large symphonic ensemble.
George Gershwin planned to entitle his new work American Rhapsody. But Ira
Gershwin, inspired by an exhibition of paintings by the American painter James McNeill
Whistler—including Nocturne in Gold and Arrangement in Gray and Black (Whistler’s
Mother)—suggested the work’s famous title, Rhapsody in Blue.
On February 12, 1924, a capacity audience filled New York’s Aeolian Hall to hear Paul
Whiteman’s concert, entitled, “An Experiment in Modern Music.” As the concert
proceeded, the attention of the audience began to flag. But, as Olin Downes reported the
next day for the New York Times: “Then stepped upon the stage, sheepishly, a lank and
dark young man—George Gershwin. He was to play the piano part in the first
performance of his Rhapsody in Blue for piano and orchestra.”
From the very first notes of the audacious clarinet solo, the audience was spellbound.
Here was a work that offered a beguiling synthesis of the classical tradition—long
believed to be the province of European composers—and America’s own music, jazz.
When the majestic final chord sounded, the audience erupted with an ovation described
by critics as “tumultuous,” “wild and even frantic.” From that day, George Gershwin
became recognized not only as an important composer of Broadway and popular
melodies, but as a force to be reckoned with in classical music. Almost ninety years after
its premiere, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue remains one of the most beloved and
performed concert works by an American composer.
Rhapsody in Blue
Molto moderato—The Rhapsody in Blue opens with the famous clarinet solo that moves
from its brazen ascent to the introduction of the first of several themes that appear
throughout the work. The pianist enters, soon embarking on a solo turn. As is implied by
the work’s title, the Rhapsody is a rather free-form work that offers diverse and often
virtuoso treatments of the thematic material by the soloist and orchestra. Toward the
latter part of the Rhapsody, the orchestra introduces a majestic theme, capped by some
jazzy commentary by the horns (Andantino moderato, con espressione). From there, the
Rhapsody in Blue proceeds to its brilliant climax, concluding with a final statement of the
opening clarinet theme.
Symphony No. 3 (1946)
Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 14, 1900, and died
in North Tarrytown, New York, on December 2, 1990. The first performance of the
Symphony No. 3 took place in Symphony Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, on October
18, 1946, with Serge Koussevitsky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The
Symphony No. 3 is scored for two piccolos, three flutes, three oboes, English horn,
E-flat clarinet, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns,
four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, xylophone, orchestra bells, slapstick,
triangle, tenor drum, ratchet, chimes, snare drum, tam-tam, tenor drum, wood
block, claves, cymbals, suspended cymbals, bass drum, anvil, two harps, piano,
celeste and strings. Approximate performance time is forty-three minutes.
First ASO Classical Subscription Performances: January 25, 1968, Aaron Copland,
Conductor.
Most Recent ASO Classical Subscription Performances: May 31, and June 2 and 3,
2007, Robert Spano, Conductor.
ASO Recording: Yoel Levi, Conductor (Telarc CD: 80201)
Aaron Copland remains America’s foremost composer of concert music. Copland’s
masterful and heartfelt incorporation of American folklore and melodies into such works
as the ballets Billy the Kid (1940), Rodeo (1942), and Appalachian Spring (1944), the
Lincoln Portrait (1942) for speaker and orchestra, and his arrangements of Old American
Songs (1950 and 1952), have long inspired the affection and admiration of performers
and concert audiences.
Despite the immense popularity of such works (or perhaps, because of it), Aaron Copland
also sought to compose pieces that built upon the traditions of European concert music.
The Clarinet Concerto (1948), written for Benny Goodman, represents one such venture,
although the stylistic influence of American jazz is also quite prominent. Copland’s
Third Symphony, commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation, represents perhaps the
composer's most ambitious work in this traditional vein. Copland’s Third followed two
relatively brief Symphonies, completed in 1925 and 1933.
The composition of the Third Symphony took place between 1944 and 1946. Copland
finished the orchestration of the final movement on September 29, 1946, just a few weeks
before the Symphony’s premiere on October 18, with Serge Koussevitsky conducting the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. The New York Music Critics Circle selected Aaron
Copland’s Third Symphony as the best work by an American composer played during the
1946-7 season.
Aaron Copland Discusses his Third Symphony
In Copland’s program notes for the premiere of his Third Symphony, he cautioned:
One aspect of the symphony ought to be pointed out: it contains no folk or
popular material. During the late twenties it was customary to pigeonhole
me as a composer of symphonic jazz, with emphasis on the jazz. More
recently I have been catalogued as a purveyor of Americana. Any
reference to jazz or folk-material in this work was purely unconscious.
While it is true that all of the melodies are Copland’s own, the spirit of such works as
Appalachian Spring and Lincoln Portrait may be found in the Symphony’s transparent
orchestration and beautiful, arching themes.
In addition, Copland acknowledged the presence in the Third Symphony of one of the
most familiar and beloved American concert works:
I do borrow from myself by using Fanfare for the Common Man (1942) in
an extended and reshaped form in the final movement. I used this
opportunity to carry my Fanfare material further and to satisfy my desire
to give the Third Symphony an affirmative tone. After all, it was a
wartime piece—or more accurately, an end-of-war piece—intended to
reflect the euphoric spirit of the country at the time.
Copland provided the following musical analysis for the 1946 premiere of his Third
Symphony:
I. Molto moderato. The opening movement which is broad and expressive
in character, opens and closes in the key of E major. (Formally it bears no
relation to the sonata-allegro form with which most symphonies usually
begin.) The themes—three in number—are plainly stated: the first is in
the strings, at the very start, without introduction; the second in related
mood in violas and oboes; the third, of a bolder nature, in the trombones
and horns. The general form is that of an arch, in which the central
portion is more animated and the final section an extended coda,
presenting a broadened version of the opening material. Both the first and
third themes are referred to again in later movements of the Symphony.
II. Allegro molto. The form of this movement stays closer to normal
symphonic procedure. It is the usual scherzo, with first part, trio and
return. A brass introduction leads to the main theme, which is stated three
times in Part I: at first in horns and violas, then in unison strings, and
finally in augmentation in the lower brass. The three statements of the
theme are separated by the usual episodes. After the climax is reached,
the trio follows without pause. Solo woodwinds sing the new trio melody
in lyrical and canonical style. The strings take it up and add a new section
of their own. The recapitulation of Part I is not literal. The principal
theme of the scherzo returns in somewhat revised form in the piano solo,
leading through previous episodic material to a full restatement in the tutti
orchestra. This is climaxed by a return to the lyrical trio theme, this time
sung in canon and in fortissimo by the entire orchestra.
III. Andantino quasi allegretto. The third movement is the freest of all in
formal structure. Although it is built up sectionally, the various sections
are intended to emerge one from another in continuous flow, somewhat in
the manner of a closely knit series of variations. The opening section,
however, plays no role other than that of introducing the main body of the
movement. High up in the unaccompanied violins is heard a rhythmically
transformed version of the third (trombone) theme of the first movement
of the Symphony. It is briefly developed in contrapuntal style, and comes
to a full close, once again in the key of E major. A new and more tonal
theme is introduced in the solo flute. This is the melody that supplies the
thematic substance for the sectional metamorphoses that follow: at first
with quiet singing nostalgia, then faster and heavier—almost dance-like;
then more childlike and naïve, and finally more vigorous and forthright.
Imperceptibly, the whole movement drifts off into the higher regions of
the strings, out of which floats the single line of the beginning, sung by a
solo violin and piccolo, accompanied this time by harps and celesta. The
third movement calls for no brass, with the exception of a single horn and
trumpet.
IV. Molto deliberato (Fanfare)—Allegro risoluto. The final movement
follows without pause. It is the longest of the symphony, and closest in
structure to the customary sonata-allegro form. The opening fanfare is
based on “Fanfare for the Common Man” which I composed in 1942, at
the invitation of Eugene Goossens for a series of wartime fanfares
introduced under his direction by the Cincinnati Symphony. In the present
version it is first played pianissimo by flutes and clarinets, and then
suddenly given out by brass and percussion. The fanfare serves as an
introduction to the main body of the movement which follows. The
components of the usual form are there: a first theme in animated 16th-note
motion; a second theme—broader and more song-like in character; a fullblown development and a refashioned return to the earlier material of the
movement, leading to a peroration. One curious feature of the symphony
consists in the fact that the second theme is to be found embedded in the
development section instead of being in its customary place. The
development as such concerns itself with the fanfare and first theme
fragments. A shrill tutti chord, with flutter-tongued brass and piccolos,
brings the development to a close. What follows is not a recapitulation in
the ordinary sense. Instead a delicate interweaving of the first theme in
the higher solo woodwinds is combined with a quiet version of the fanfare
in the two bassoons. Combined with this, the opening theme of the first
movement of the symphony is quoted, first in the violins and later in the
solo trombone. Near the end a full-voice chanting of the song-like theme
is heard in horns and trombones. The symphony concludes on a massive
restatement of the opening phrase with which the entire work began.