BORIS PIGOVAT COMPOSER

Boris Pigovat (b. 1953, Odessa, USSR) studied at the Gnessin Music Institute (Academia of Music) in Moscow. Between 1978 and 1990 he lived in Tajikistan. In 1988 he won the special distinction diploma at the International Composers Competition in Budapest for his composition Musica dolorosa No. 2 for trombone quartet.

Boris Pigovat immigrated to Israel in 1990. In 1995 he received the Prize of ACUM (Israeli ASCAP) for his composition Holocaust Requiem . In 2000 he was honored by Prime Minister of the State of Israel. In 2002 he received his Ph.D. degree from Bar-Ilan University (Israel).

Many of his works have been performed throughout the world. His composition Massada was performed at ISCM World music days 2000 festival in Luxembourg and at WASBE 2003 Conference in Jönköping (Sweden).

The world premiere of Holocaust Requiem for Viola and Symphony Orchestra took place at the Memorial evening dedicated to the Babyn Yar tragedy (in Kiev in February 2001, with soloist Rainer Moog). In 2008 this work was performed in Wellington, New Zealand at the Concert of Remembrance of the 70th Anniversary of Kristallnacht with soloist Donald Maurice. The CD of this performance was released in 2010 by the label ATOLL (New Zealand). In 2012 the CD received the prestigious Supersonic Award from the Pizzicato Magazine.

The symphonic poem Wind of Yemen was performed at the Asian Music Festival 2003 in Tokyo and at the WASBE 2009 (Cincinnati) and 2015 (San Jose) conferences. Three of his pieces were performed in New York’s Carnegie Hall: Prayer, Song of the Sea (world premiere, 2005), and Voices of Jerusalem . He was awarded the 2005 ACUM Prize for Song of the Sea .

Annapolis Symphony Orchestra 2023-24

His work Music of Sorrow and Hope (2011) was commissioned and premiered by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Zubin Mehta at the IPO’s 75th Anniversary Festival. In 2013 Maestro Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performed this work again in two concerts of the subscription series.

His work Poem of Dawn for Viola and Symphony Orchestra was premiered by Anna Serova and Croatian Radio Television Symphony Orchestra (ZagrebHRT Symphony Orchestra), conducted by Nicola Guerini, at Il Settembre dell’Accademia 2013, Teatro Filarmonico di Verona. These same artists later recorded Holocaust Requiem for NAXOS, released in 2015. Later that year, the CD received the Supersonic Award from the Pizzicato Magazine and was nominated for the 2016 International Classical Music Awards. At 2017 Anna Serova performed the Poem of Dawn again at 44th International Viola Congress, Wellington, NZ, with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra with conductor Hamish McKeich.

His work Therefore Choose Life was commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in honor of Manfred Honeck‘s 10th season as Music Director, and premiered in Heinz Hall on September 22, 2017.

THIS LAND CARLOS SIMON B. 1986

Born in Washington, D.C. but raised in Atlanta, GA, Carlos Simon began his musical education and career in his father’s church; Simon played piano, organ, and composed gospel songs. His heritage and personal experience with African American musical traditions is reflected in his oeuvre, and his desire to “use music as a platform for discussion and ultimately, change” has often led Simon to write works based on current events or historical themes of the United States.

Composed in 2019, This Land is described by Simon in his own program note to the piece as influenced by the text on the Statue of Liberty:

This piece is inspired by Emma Lazarus’ gentle, welcoming words in her poem “New Colossus.” Lush, bright harmonies in the strings are used to represent hope and unity. I’ve also incorporated the anthems of the many countries of the immigrants (State Anthem of the Russian Federation, Himno Nacional Mexicano, La Marseillaise, etc.) under a dissonant bed of pulsating harmonies.

The dissonance is heard immediately in the strings, playing sul ponticello (bow near the bridge) and sul tasto (bow over the fingerboard) to change the timbre and harmonics. This scratching sound then transforms into a romantic melody echoed by pastoral woodwinds. Bells toll in the chimes and muted brass, calling forth the tutti strings’ “lush, bright harmonies” that Simon describes as epitomizing “hope and unity.” After the tempo and volume increase, a joyful climax is reached with a burst of percussion. The joy is seemingly threatened with the return of the eerie, scratching strings and a melody in the chimes and brass that references “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” (and “God Save the King”), changed to a minor key. After this patriotic song of America, the idea of diversity within unity is sonically represented in the many other national anthems that are heard. Most audible are the dotted, martial rhythms of the “Himno Nacional Mexicano” in the clarinets and the trumpets rising above with “La Marseillaise.” The cacophony is brought to a sudden close, and the piece ends with tranquil strings.

The sonnet that appears on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, written in 1883 by Emma Lazarus, describes the goddess of liberty—and through her, America—as a beacon of strength and refuge:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she second piano teacher, Ernst Ferdinand Wenze, instilled in Grieg a love for Robert Schumann’s music which would prove very influential. He heard Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, performed at the Leipzig Gewandhaus (which also housed the conservatory) by Schumann’s widow, Clara Wieck Schumann (1819–1896), who was an internationally famous pianist as well as a composer.

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

The dissonance in Simon’s piece seems to emulate the struggles of the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” with the different national anthems directly referring to specific, and representing more broadly, immigrant populations. The intermittent unifying strings, which draw the piece to a hopeful close, helps to portray the goddess of liberty welcoming all with her “mild eyes” and her “lamp beside the golden door.” Images of the Statue of Liberty were projected behind the Arizona State University orchestra in the world premiere of the piece.

After completing his study in 1862, Grieg returned to Norway and quickly gained recognition as a pianist. Beginning in 1864, Grieg turned his attention to nationalistic composition, joining with three other composers to form the society Euterpe (after the ancient Greek Muse of music) to promote Scandinavian music. He began to establish himself as one of Norway’s leading composers, and it was the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 that would bring Grieg international fame as a composer. This piano concerto—the only one Grieg would complete—was begun in June 1868 while Grieg (along with his wife and infant daughter) were in Denmark for one of his many convalescent trips to help his recurring respiratory problems. The concerto premiered in Copenhagen on April 3, 1869, featuring Norwegian pianist Edmund Neupert, and was an immediate success. Virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt praised the concerto after reading it in 1870, and it was revised before its publication in 1872. Grieg would perform it himself in 1879 and revised it several more times before his death.

PIANO CONCERTO IN A MINOR, OP. 16 EDVARD GRIEG

1843-1907

Known today for his contribution to the development of a Norwegian style of composition, Edvard Grieg first learned the music of continental European composers as he studied piano. Upon the recommendation of virtuoso violinist and composer Ole Bull, a fifteen-year-old Greig enrolled at the Conservatorium der Musik, founded in Leipzig by Felix Mendelssohn. Grieg’s time at the conservatory was not entirely pleasant, but his

Considering Grieg’s deep appreciation for Robert Schumann’s music, it is not surprising that Grieg used Schumann’s piano concerto as a framing model for his own. Like Schumann’s, Grieg’s concerto begins with flashy, flamboyant chords, descending across the range of the piano. Grieg inserts his own style into this passage by using intervals found in Norwegian folk music. This opening keeps the original function of the concerto genre: to show off the soloist’s skill and talent and make the soloist the center of attention. The winds then introduce the quiet yet declamatory primary theme, which is then stated by the pianist. Grieg maintains the tradition established in the Classical era of using sonata form for the first movement, modulating to the relative C major for the flowing second theme first heard in the cellos. After a brief development, both the primary and secondary themes are repeated in the recapitulation, with the latter in the parallel A major. A tutti fortissimo statement of the primary theme leads into the cadenza, a virtuosic display for the soloist. The orchestra rejoins the soloist in a statement of the second theme before a forceful close. In the Adagio second movement, the peaceful major key melody is suddenly interrupted by loud and rapid figuration, signaling that the middle movement, while still different in character, is not one of static quiet. The third movement begins like a march, but after the piano enters it quickly transitions into a fast folk dance, with accented downbeats accompanied by offbeat strings. A pastoral flute introduces a contrasting singing theme, the trills still showing a folk influence, which allows the pianist to explore a range of styles and emotions in this final movement. The upbeat folk dance returns and builds to a dramatic finale. trio, also received their premieres in Moscow. Pigovat immigrated to Israel in 1990 and he expresses his Jewish faith and culture in many of his works, including the Holocaust Requiem: For years, I felt the necessity to write a work dedicated to the Holocaust. After my immigration to Israel, I started to consider different ideas for such a work. At first, I wanted to write a requiem for the standard orchestration: soloists, choir, orchestra, and, maybe, narrator […] I [decided to] write the work without the text, without the choir and solo singers, but I would try to save the tragic atmosphere of a traditional requiem. I dedicated Requiem to my father, whose family was murdered in Babi [Babyn] Yar by Nazis in September of 1941. It took me about two years to write it, during which I felt that he was waiting for me to complete it. The day after I finished writing Requiem , my father passed away.

The world premiere was held in 2001 at Babyn Yar, Kyiv, where Pigovat’s grandparents (Chaim and Basya-Chaya Pigovat) and aunt (Hannah Pigovat) were murdered in the massacre.