Blog
Monthly Archive: 2014
Fragile Light Premiere
Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Jahja Ling, Gil Shaham and David Bruce
Just back from a thrilling world premiere of my Violin Concerto Fragile Violin with Gil Shaham and San Diego Symphony under Jahja Ling. What can I say about Gil, he is everything everyone says he is - the most charming, humble and sweet man, combined with the most extraordinary musicianship and tone. I was shocked when I spoke with him on FaceTime (v.21st Century) a few weeks beforehand to realise that he basically had the whole piece off by memory. In the end, he did take the music on stage for the performances, but several times I saw him turn several pages in a row as he'd clearly not been looking at it. That kind of committment from somebody as in-demand as him really tells you something about the man.
As with the previous performances of Night Parade and Cymbeline, the orchestra showed a genuine excitement and enthusiasm to tackle a new work, with a great readiness to take on board suggestions, and a willingness to accept my endless 'tweaks' up to and even beyond the premiere. They gave a tremendous performance, and I'm really happy with the finished piece, which I think may be one of my best yet.
The 'white noise' which I mentioned in my previous post forms the very end of the piece, and although it seems to have a certain 'shock factor' at first (Gil himself asked if he could play it on harmonics until I insisted this was the effect I was after), it really is quite gripping in the closing stages of the piece to hear the music drift higher and higher, higher than you think can be humanly possible. In all three performance I literally felt myself stop breathing at this point as it gets so quiet and so high you daren't move a muscle. Note to self to take more 'risks' like this in future pieces.
There were some great responses in the press, and I particularly enjoyed this wonderfully eccentric reviewer who seemed to have some kind of life-changing experience during the piece, which is very gratifying.
Now back to opera work, of which, more very soon....
It's all in the detail
Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2014
I'm currently in what it one of the most enjoyable and rewarding - if exhausting - parts of the creative process. The piece I'm working on is the new Violin Concerto I'm writing for Gil Shaham and the San Diego Symphony (the premiere is in December). My working process, such as it is, seems to be to work on the essential details first, until such time as I have the entire piece in this bare bones structure. I do think of orchestration from the outset, so I will often know that a particular line is on a particular instrument, but more than anything, what I am thinking of is harmony, texture and energy. The flow of the structure, moments of surprise. If I'm carving a form in stone, this is the outline general shape. Decisions taken at this stage are ones that count and are pretty irreversible without throwing the whole thing away.
This first stage is by far the hardest, it's the real moment of creativity, where you're trying to create a shape- and somehow a significant and meaningful shape - where there is just a lump of rock. It's a real strain, and it's the time when I would most appreciate a log cabin I could retreat to for a couple of weeks to be alone with my thoughts.
But once that outline shape is in place it's all about the detail. From that zoomed out view you are suddenly spending a week poring over a couple of bars which will wizz by in less than a second. But this work, intricate and infinite as it is, is pure pleasure, I'm playing with musical toys.
You sometimes hear composers talking about 'taking risks' - I think 9 times out of 10 this will be referring to orchestration, or things that occur within this 'details' period. When you are trying to create a fresh and interesting texture, sometimes you just have to try an approach that has never been tried before. But you sure can hear in your head the voices of the players ridiculing you "You can't play that on a violin!"
For example, just at the moment I'm considering a sound I wanted to make, which is a sort of 'white noise'. Now, if you get high enough up the violin, if you play so your bow is right next to the bridge and your left hand finger is right next to the bow, it does create a sort of pitchless 'shum' - I had the idea, what if an entire section makes that noise. And then what if you get them to give that shum a bit of life by gently glissando-ing it up and down a little. How would that sound if a whole section does it,each one moving independently. That's an example of a 'risk' - I don't actually know how it will sound, because I've never heard it, but I have a suspicion it might be interesting. In the next couple of weeks I will have to decide whether the suspicion outweighs the risk.
Savannah 2014
Posted on Saturday, April 12, 2014
I spent a delightful few days in Savannah, Georgia, courtesy of the wonderful festival set up there by Rob Gibson.
First up was the US premiere of The Given Note, re-worked since its premiere in Germany a couple of years ago. The performance featured some wonderful musicians, including Daniel Hope on violin, and the brilliant Spanish clarinettist Jose Franch-Ballester (photo (c) Frank Stewart)
Later in the week Avi Avital and the Dover Quartet gave a spell-binding performance of Cymbeline in one of the oldest synagogues in the US, congregation Mikve Israel. There was a golden light throughout the building which really brought out the sun-related themes of the piece to perfection.
It was also a real treat to hang out with mandolinist Mike Marshall and the extremely talented students on the 'Acoustic Music Seminar ' - a composition and performance workshop of sorts, the like of which I've never heard before, with some really gorgeous sonorities emerging from pretty much every piece. The whole week was inspiring and nourishing in the best possible way.
Avi at Carnegie
Posted on Thursday, January 9, 2014
Next week my dear friend and collaborator Avi Avital comes to Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall for his debut Carnegie recital. It's of course a big event for Avi, not least because he's using it as a chance to show of his chops on the Bach Violin Partita No. 2. I'm very honoured that Avi has chosen to include Cymbeline, the piece I wrote for him (mandolin plus string quartet) - joined by the excellent Enso String Quartet.
Avi has been giving a series of short introductory videos via the Carnegie Hall blog, and in this one he talks about his own joy of collaborating - including here, with none other than my other great pal Bridget Kibbey.
Like Avi, I find mandolin+harp a beautiful combination. I remember that Avi and Bridget met for the first time during rehearsals for my opera A Bird in Your Ear at Bard College. One free afternoon, while the stage was being set, Bridget and Avi spent the entire time busking away together. It was such a delightful sound, anyone who walked past just stopped and lost themselves for a while. It's amazing to hear in the video above that the sound of this combination was part of Avi's own childhood - it sounds to me, like he had an exceptional happy one!
