Cincinnati Symphony Collaborates with 2014 MusicNOW Festival
There will be plenty of “now” on the 2014
MusicNOW Festival in Cincinnati.
In addition to new music (lots), the Festival this year will involve a first-ever collaboration between MusicNOW and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
CSO music director Louis Langrée will lead concerts March 21 and 22 featuring music by MusicNOW founder Bryce Dessner of the indie rock band The National, as well as world premieres by composers Nico Muhly and David Lang.
In fact everything on the program is either new – there will be Cincinnati premieres by Dessner, Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki and Jonny Greenwood of the rock band Radiohead -- or hasn’t been heard on CSO concerts for a while.
The two “mainstream” classical works, Alexander Scriabin’s “Poem of Ecstasy” and Sergei Prokofiev’s “Scythian Suite,” were last performed on CSO subscription concerts in 1981 and 1999, respectively.
Guest artists on the March 21 concert will be the sextet eighth blackbird (CSO ensemble-in-residence), electric guitarists Dessner and his brother Aaron and baritone Nathan Wyatt.
The programs:
March 21, 8 p.m. Music Hall. Bryce Dessner, “Murder Ballades” for Sextet and “St. Carolyn by the Sea.” Nico Muhly, “Pleasure Ground” (world premiere). Alexander Scriabin, Symphony No. 4, “The Poem of Ecstasy.” eighth blackbird. Bryce and Aaron Dessner, electric guitar. Nathan Wyatt, baritone. Louis Langrée, conductor.
March 22. 8 p.m. Music Hall. Krzysztof Penderecki, “Polymorphia.” Jonny Greenwood, “48 Responses to Polymorphia.” David Lang, “mountain” (world premiere). Sergei Prokofiev, “Scythian Suite.” Langrée, conductor. Note: This concert will open with selections by singer, guitarist Will Oldham, also known as “Bonnie Prince Billy.”
Notes on the music: *
Bryce Dessner’s “Murder Ballades” was inspired by American folk ballads dealing with just that, such as “Omie Wise,” “Young Emily” and “Pretty Polly.” (One of them, “Dark Holler” is Dessner’s own composition.) The 20-minute work was premiered by eighth blackbird in The Netherlands in 2013.
Bryce Dessner’s “St. Carolyn by the Sea” (15 minutes), just released on CD by Deutsche Grammophon, dates from 2011. The title comes from Jack Kerouac’s novel “Big Sur.” Soloists on electric guitar will be Dessner and his brother Aaron.
New York composer Nico Muhly’s “Pleasure Ground,” a CSO commission and a world premiere (20 minutes), takes its inspiration from landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (designer of New York’s Central Park, among others). The idea, says Muhly, “is an ideal garden, designed but not fussed with, communal and fragilely eternal.” The word “ground” in the title refers to Muhly’s use of ground bass, i.e. a recurring bass line that serves as the structural element of a work. Muhly uses several in “Pleasure Ground.” Baritone soloist will be Nathan Wyatt.
Krzysztof Penderecki’s 1961 “Polymorphia” (7 minutes) was used in the horror films “The Exorcist” and “The Shining.” Set for 48 strings, it explores a tonal spectrum comprising the many ways you can make sounds with a stringed instrument. It ends with a surprise -- on a C major chord.
Jonny Greenwood’s 2011 “48 Responses to Polymorphia” (21 minutes), also written for strings and falling into nine sections, takes material from Penderecki’s “Polymorphia” and develops it in Greenwood’s own way (including striking the strings with over-sized bean pods).
David Lang’s “mountain” (10 minutes), another world premiere commission by the CSO, was written in honor of American composer Aaron Copland. Lang uses a mountain as his metaphor.
In addition:
There will be opening acts at 7 p.m. before each concert. On Friday, March 21, the Cincinnati band Little Lights will perform in the Music Hall auditorium. On Saturday, New York singer/songwriter Olga Bell will perform in the lobby.
The lecture series “Classical Conversations, beginning at 7 p.m. before each concert, will move to Corbett Tower in Music Hall (admission free with concert ticket). CSO director of artistic planning Naimah Bilal will lead the Friday conversation with Bryce Dessner and Saturday’s conversation with Nico Muhly and Lisa Kaplan of eighth blackbird. Muhly and Kaplan will follow their conversation with a “nano-recital” at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets for MusicNOW begin at $12. Get them at (513) 381-3300, or visit www.cincinnatisymphony.org
*Information partially derived from program annotator Peter Laki’s notes for the March issue of the CSO’s program book “Fanfare Cincinnati.”