Gabriela Lena Frank: Karnavalingo
September 19 2014, World Premiere, Houston Symphony Orchestra
Credit: Sabina Frank Following the success of Frank's Three Latin American Dances, the Houston Symphony commissioned Frank to write another orchestral dance in celebration of their new music director Andrés Orozco-Estrada's opening week. The resultant work, Karnavalingo, is a delightful five-minute concert opener that will get audiences' toes tapping.
David Lang: man made
October 2 2014, Country Premiere, So Percussion, Los Angeles Philharmonic
Credit: Peter Serling In his concerto for percussion quartet and orchestra, Lang uses the percussion section of the orchestra to translate the found-instrument sounds produced by the soloists to "normal" instruments — for example, it opens with the soloists snapping twigs, which the orchestral percussionists translate into woodblocks, marimba and xylophone, which the orchestra takes up and embellishes, eventually overwhelming the soloists. Lang reflects, "finding something intricate and unique, decoding it, regularizing it, and mass producing it reminded me of how a lot of ideas in our world get invented, built and overwhelmed, so I decided to call it man made."
André Previn: Double Concerto for Violin and Violoncello
November 21 2014, World Premiere, Laredo-Robinson Duo, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Credit: Lillian Birnbaum A new piece for husband and wife duo, Jamie Laredo and Sharon Robinson, Previn's double concerto features the composer's seamless blending of jazz riffs, old-time cinematic sound and lyric melodic lines with powerhouse orchestrations. The Laredo-Robinson Duo is touring the piece in the US, Canada and Europe — contact Jay K. Hoffman & Associates for bookings.
Avner Dorman: Dialogues of Love
November 21 2014, World Premiere, Grand Rapids Symphony, Chorus, and Youth Chorus
Credit: Avner Dorman An oratorio for chorus and orchestra, Dialogues of Love explores texts about love in many languages from a variety of religious, poetic, and philosophical sources: The Bible, The Tao, The Qu'ran, and Love Mantras. Dorman drew heavy inspiration from Judah Leon Abravanel's book Dialoghi d'amore to create a work of both drama and devotion celebrating and investigating this miraculous of all concepts — love.
Kaija Saariaho: Maan Varjot
October 24 2014, Country Premiere, Olivier Latry organ, Los Angeles Philharmonic
Credit: Priska Ketterer In writing her new organ concerto Saariaho set out to explore the relationship between orchestra and soloist. Saariaho explains, "the orchestra has a great flexibility which comes from the ability to create micro-tonality, glissandos, rich textures with instrumental noises or delicate multi-layered dynamics. The organ, on the other hand, has the ability to produce rich and very precise textures controlled by only one musician, as well as long sustained notes without the constraints of breathing or the length of a bow."
