From the Wings; by Eleanor Long

From the Wings 

by Eleanor Long

If someone were playing a word association game with you (and you were a classical music enthusiast, which of course you are if you’re reading this!) and that someone said “Symphony No. 5,” what are the chances you would say “Beethoven”?  “Symphony No. 9”:  same answer?  Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Mahler, Schubert, and Bruckner MIGHT have hurt feelings, though, not to mention Mendelssohn and Vaughan Williams…  But while we’re playing this game, let’s go ahead and mention them!  

I’m cribbing the contents of this article from an exchange I saw on Facebook a couple months ago.  I won’t use the real names involved, in case anyone is sensitive about that stuff, but “a guy” posted the following puzzle/challenge:

If you had to pick nine symphonies by different composers to include as part of a proverbial desert island survival kit, which would they be? (Nine because nine has been kind of a magical number for symphonists ever since Beethoven stopped there.)  Here are the rules:

You can choose only one symphony per composer. 

You must choose numbered symphonies (no Symphonie fantastique, in other words). 

You cannot choose two symphonies of the same number by different composers. 

Here are what sixteen FB friends replied:

1) Brahms

2) Sibelius

3) Mahler

4) Nielsen

5) Prokofiev

6) Tchaikovsky

7) Shostakovich

8) Bruckner

9) Schubert

1) Elgar

2) Rachmaninov

3) Brahms

4) Nielsen

5) Sibelius

6) Tchaikovsky

7) Bruckner

8) Mahler

9) Schubert

1)Fisher Tull

2) Mahler

3) Copland

4) Nielsen

5) Shostakovich

6) Tchaikovsky

7) Beethoven

8) Bruckner

9) Schubert

1)  Howard Hanson

2) Mahler

3) Brahms

4) Nielsen (love the lyricism)

5) Mendelssohn

6) Beethoven (ditto)

7) Vaughan Williams

8) Bruckner

9) Shostakovich

1) Mahler

2) Brahms

3) Copland

4) Nielsen

5) Prokofiev

6) Tchaikovsky

7) Shostakovich

8) Bruckner

9) Beethoven

1) Kalinnikov

2) Sibelius

3) Prokofiev

4) Nielsen

5) Mahler

6) Tchaikovsky

7) Bruckner

8) Shostakovich

9) Beethoven

1) Brahms

2) Mahler

3) Copland

4) Ives

5) Sibelius

6) Tchaikovsky

7) Shostakovich

8) Dvorak

9) Beethoven

1) Barber (wonderful, compact piece)

2) Sibelius (the last movement is the most uplifting thing I’ve ever heard)

3) Copland

4) Nielsen

5) Prokofiev

6) Dvorak

7) Beethoven (even though no trombones)

8) Schubert

9) Bruckner (awesome scherzo)

1) Elgar

2) Brahms

3) Saint-Saëns

4) Vaughan Williams

5) Mahler

6) Tchaikovsky

7) Bruckner

8) Dvorak

9) Schubert

1) Mahler

2) Brahms

3) Saint-Saëns

4) Shostakovich

5) Beethoven

6) Tchaikovsky

7) Sibelius

8) Dvorak

9) Schubert

1) Elgar

2) Sibelius

3) Copland

4) Shostakovich

5) Beethoven

6) Tchaikovsky

7) Vaughan Williams

8) Dvorak

9) Mahler

1) Sibelius (not the best first, just my favorite)

2) Rachmaninov

3) Beethoven (the best)

4) Nielsen

5) Shostakovich

6) Mahler (larger than life)

7) Bruckner

8) Schubert

9) Everybody!!!!

1) Bruckner

2) Elgar

3) Beethoven

4) Franz Schmidt

5) Vaughan Williams

6) Mahler

7) Sibelius

8) Shostakovich

9) Schubert

1) Sibelius

2) Brahms

3) Mahler

4) Beethoven

5) Prokofiev

6) Tchaikovsky

7) Shostakovich

8) Dvorak

9) Schubert

1) Brahms

2) Sibelius

3) Mahler

4) Vaughan Williams

5) Prokofiev

6) Tchaikovsky

7) Shostakovich

8) Bruckner

9) Beethoven

1) Corigliano

2) Sibelius (I’m a sucker for the mood changes)

3) Mahler (the biggest, baddest symphony in the standard repertoire!)

4) Shostakovich (quirky in all the right ways)

5) Prokofiev (one hell of a fun ride)

6) Tchaikovsky

7) Bruckner

8) Haydn (thrilled to find a spot for the guy who basically invented symphonies)

9) Beethoven (have to have something triumphant and life-affirming to play on my island!)

Okay, without looking back, can you guess “winners” for each number in this opinion poll?  Here they are:

1) Brahms

2) Sibelius

3) Copland

4) Nielsen

5) Prokofiev

6) Tchaikovsky

7) Shostakovich

8) tie between Dvorak and Bruckner

9) Schubert

Roll over, Beethoven!  So sorry, Ludwig—you got a lot of votes, though.  The runaway winner was Tchaikovsky’s Sixth, with 12 votes out of 16.  And…good news!  We are playing it next season!  Along with three other high-ranking contestants:  Beethoven’s Fifth, Dvorak’s Eighth, and Brahms’ First. 

Keep reading!

VSO's New Music Advisor David Ludwig Scores Major Motion Picture

Classical music composer David Ludwig has written the original score to director Michael Almereyda's new feature film Cymbeline, an explosive modern-day drama based on Shakespeare's play by the same name. Academy Award nominees Ethan Hawke (Best Supporting Actor, Training Day, 2001) and Ed Harris (Best Actor, Pollock, 2000) lead a powerhouse cast including Milla Jovovich, John Leguizamo, Penn Badgley, Dakota Johnson and Anton Yelchin, with Bill Pullman and Delroy Lindo in a gritty story of a take-no-prisoners war between dirty cops and an outlaw biker gang. Oscar-winning Anthony Katagas (12 Years a Slave, Killing Them Softly) is producing the film for Keep Your Head Productions alongside Michael Benaroya (Margin Call, Lawless, The Words) for Benaroya Pictures. Although Ludwig has composed for documentaries and animated shorts, Cymbeline marks the feature-length film-scoring debut for the composer.This project represented a musical transition from concert stage to big screen for Ludwig, who is on the composition faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and has written for numerous major orchestras and some of the top performers in classical music today. 

Film director Michael Almereyda commented: "Having listened to a number of his orchestral pieces, I knew David could write music with complexity, depth and emotional power. The question was, could he harness these qualities in a film score, following the fixed contours of given scenes? Could he write dramatic music that rides the wave of the film's dialogue and action? His score for Cymbeline demonstrates that he can do exactly that, very capably, often brilliantly."

 "Writing for film requires a very different sense of timing and pacing, great flexibility, a handle on technology, and strong communication skills," said Ludwig. "But it is equally rewarding in so many ways. There's nothing quite like seeing the finished picture with your music framing the richness of each scene."
Cymbeline was a recent feature at the Venice Film Festival in September 2014 and was nominated for the Venice Horizons Award. This is Almereyda's second modern-day adaption of Shakespeare. In 2000, he directed the highly acclaimed Hamlet, with Ethan Hawke in the title role.

Preserving the original language and plot lines of Shakespeare's "Cymbeline," the film is a fresh take on a universal story of love, betrayal and revenge. Cymbeline the movie opens on March 13, 2015 in theaters and on Video On Demand.

David Ludwig (b. 1972) is "a composer with something urgent to say" (Philadelphia Inquirer). An award winning and highly sought after composer, Ludwig's recent concert commissions include those from Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Ravinia Music Festival, among many others. His latest recording Two x Four on Cedille Records was released in April 2014 to great acclaim, and the CD was nominated for a Grammy Award in multiple categories. In 2013 his choral work, The New Colossus, was selected to open the private prayer service for President Obama and his cabinet at his second Inauguration. NPR Music named Ludwig as one of the "Top 100 Composers Under Forty in the World." More information at davidludwigmusic.com.

Keep reading!

How the music of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra has Moved Me

How the music of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra has Moved Me

By Karen Paquin 

(Development Director, VSO)

The 100-mile move from Montreal across an international border to South Burlington is not biggest way that the Vermont Symphony Orchestra moved me.  Since I joined the VSO team just over six months ago, the Orchestra’s music that has moved me in very different, entirely wonderful, and completely unexpected ways.

In July, just before I began working, my family and I attended the Summer Music Festival Tour concert at Shelburne Farms.  What fun it was to dance to the big band sound of Benny Goodman and Glen Miller with my daughter!

In the fall, I was swept up in the picturesque composition, Before the Snow, written by Vermont native Beth Wiemann, and premiered during our Made in Vermont tour.  I closed my eyes as the music played and could actually envision an artist painting the stormy scene depicted in her piece.  It was a very cool experience.  I almost stepped into the painting myself to walk among the blowing, swirling leaves.

December brought Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.  I had never heard this piece before, but I knew the story behind it and, once I heard the music, I could see how it had stirred up so much controversy.  Hearing it live was amazing, but listening to it in the VSO jeep with Eleanor while driving back from our Brass Quintet and Counterpoint concert in Warren was truly surreal.  The road seemed to twist and turn to the music, forcing me to keep pace with it, to slow down.  As we merged onto the interstate, it was like we had to reach this point in our journey to stay in touch with the music as it rolled out of the stereo increasing its pace.

I was unsure that I would ever hear anything as impressive at Stravinsky.  But, then January arrived and with it, Elena Urioste playing Elgar’s Violin Concerto.  My eyes watered; I was so moved by her abilities… and I wasn’t alone.  Several people admitted to being moved to tears by the exquisite talents of this young woman.

This journey is just beginning and I am sure it will continue to move me through the incredible music that this orchestra of very talented musicians plays at every turn.

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Artist Bio: Erik Nielsen

 

Erik Nielsen's compositional catalog includes works for chorus, orchestra, wind ensemble, solo instruments, chamber music of many configurations, works for dance, film and electronic music. His works have been performed in Canada, Europe, Asia, South America and Australia as well as many locations in the United States and have been performed by ensembles including A Far Cry, the Amabile, Chiara, Emerson and Ying String Quartets; the National Symphony Orchestra; the Killington and Manchester Chamber Players; Bread and Puppet Theater; the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble; Vermont Opera Theater, Vermont Symphony; Vermont Youth Orchestra and Village and Northern Harmony. He has won awards from ASCAP, the Vermont Arts Council, and in 1991 was chosen Vermont Composer of the Year by the Vermont Music Teachers Association.  Recent commissions include Glimpses of Azure, commissioned by the Boston-based string orchestra, A Far Cry; Voices in the Wind, a set of duets for flute and viola; The Crane Maiden for chamber ensemble, narrator and three actors; two song cycles, Trajectory of Flight for mezzo-soprano and strings and The Falling of Trees for baritone and piano quartet; his Quartet for Strings #2; and Cinque Amici, a work for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano.  In 2002 he received the National Symphony Orchestra's composition prize for Vermont.  The resulting commissioned work, Mr. Nielsen's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, was premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. on March 20, 2004.   In October, 2000, his opera, A FLEETING ANIMAL: An Opera from Judevine, a collaboration with poet/playwright David Budbill, was premiered to great acclaim in several locations in Vermont.   He was a 1994-95 recipient of a Vermont Council on the Arts Fellowship in music. In 1995 his piano quintet was performed at Carnegie Hall by the Manchester Chamber Players. He has been a recipient of ASCAP Standard Panel (now ASCAP PLUS) awards annually since 1993.   Mr. Nielsen is Senior Composition Mentor with Music-COMP (formerly the Vermont MIDI Project).   He also teaches music theory and composition with the Vermont Youth Orchestra, the Monteverdi School and privately. Mr. Nielsen, who lives in Brookfield, had this to say about his Fanfare in Bb:  

“I found writing a fanfare with such strict time demands an interesting challenge. I decided that the best approach was to use a short melodic idea stated first in the brass, and then slow things way down to give the woodwinds and strings a chance to enter in a more mysterious way. That gave me room then to increase the intensity to bring the work to a suitably bright finish. My hope is that the piece will get the concert off to a rousing start.”

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"Orchestras Feeding America" Food Drive

Again this year, the VSO will collect food items at its concerts in Burlington, Rutland and Brattleboro as part of the national “Orchestras Feeding America” project.   


Audience members and the public may bring a non-perishable food item to the concert. The project is also accepting cash donations.  All food and cash contributions collected will be donated directly to the local branch of the Vermont Foodbank and donors will receive “Classical Cash,” good for a discount on a future VSO ticket purchase.

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March's Concert Theme: Paris in the Spring

Mozart's elegant "Paris" Symphony and Schumann's expressive "Spring" Symphony naturally suggest our March concert theme.  

The soloist for New Music Advisor David Ludwig's new bassoon concerto-- intriguingly titled "Pictures from the Floating World"--is one of the principal bassoonists of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (having won the position two years ago fresh out of music school). There is a French connection here as well: Ludwig's piece invokes the Japanese art prints that fascinated Debussy.

Performance Dates:

Saturday, March 14th at 8 pm
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington

Sunday, March 15th at 3 pm
Paramount Theatre, Rutland

Monday, March 16th at 7 pm
Latchis Theatre, Brattleboro

(photo source: http://www.latchis.com/gallery/)

Additionally, we are very excited to be back at the newly renovated Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro! Any southern Vermont fans should consider coming to the performance in this historic building.




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Introducing March's Guest Artist

Bassoonist William Short was recently appointed Principal Bassoon of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He previously served in the same capacity with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and has also performed with the Houston Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra.

As a chamber musician, William has toured around the United States with Curtis on Tour and has traveled to Belize, Cuba, Guatemala, and Nicaragua with the Philadelphia-based wind quintet Liberty Winds. Additionally, he has performed chamber music with principal players from the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Vienna Philharmonic, as well as with musicians such as Joseph Silverstein and Ida Kavafian. William’s performances have been featured on NPR’s “Performance Today” and on WHYY’s “Onstage at Curtis.”

William has performed at the Mostly Mozart Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, Pacific Music Festival, and Verbier Festival. He received his Bachelor of Music from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Daniel Matsukawa and Bernard Garfield, and his Master of Music at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with Benjamin Kamins. Additional major teachers have included William Lewis and Kristin Wolfe Jensen.
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Masterworks in Review

Jaime Laredo, VSO Music Director

"The Vermont Symphony Orchestra just keeps on getting better," says Jim Lowe, Rutland Herald Reporter.

We couldn't agree more!

The January Masterworks concert series featured a stunning performance of Elgar's Violin Concerto in b Minor, Opus 61, by violinist Elena Urioste. Lowe's review read: "Urioste, with a warm and personal sound she used expressively, managed the full range of emotions from fiery virtuosity to intimate tenderness, with flair and depth. It was not only exciting, her playing in the slow movement brought many to tears." She was led by conductor, Jaime Laredo, whom is no stranger to the piece, having performed it himself.

The concerts also featured Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in b minor ("Unfinished") which Lowe stated "VSO played with a new found nuance, along with its continuing joy of music making."

The fans in attendance seemed impressed as well. While seated amongst the audience, hushed conversation could be overheard commending the orchestra for taking on "new" and "fresh" composers' works, which included Allen Shawn's "Vermont Fanfare" and Gabriela Lena Frank's 2000 "Elegina Andina."

After such a successful run, we are excited to see what the March series brings! Keep reading!