PROGRAM AT-A-GLANCE | LEILA JOSEFOWICZ & MENDELSSOHN’S SYMPHONY NO. 3 Building a Landscape Through Music
When reflecting on the works of famous artists such as Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, it is clear that many of their paintings were inspired by the breathtaking landscape and scenery of their travels. The same is true of Felix Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony, which was influenced by the composer’s travels to the British Isles, Edinburgh, and the Scottish Highlands with his friend Karl Klingemann, the Secretary of the Hanoverian Legislation. In 1829, ahead of their journey together, Mendelssohn wrote to Klingemann: “NEXT AUGUST I AM GOING TO SCOTLAND, with a rake for folk songs [and] an ear for the lovely, fragrant countryside.” Daníel Bjarnason’s Blow bright was also born from geographical influences and depicts the energy and brightness of the Pacific Ocean. Bjarnason wanted to portray the same powerful and beautiful radiation of its waves through the orchestra. He also reflected on the ocean’s stark contrast to the waters of the Atlantic during his compositional journey. A study in contrasts is what inspired Helen Grime’s Violin Concerto, from its frenzy of wild virtuosity to sensitive, reflective melodies throughout. This concerto paints its own landscape and allows the audience to travel through it wherever they desire to go.
PROGRAM NOTES Blow bright Composed 2013 | Premiered December 2013
DANÍEL BJARNASON B. February 26, 1979, Reykjavík, Iceland
Scored for 3 flutes (2 doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (one doubling English horn), 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, and strings. (Approx. 10 minutes)
A
lthough it is not a large country, Iceland has gained a reputation in the 21st century for producing innovative popular music, and for a striking new generation of classical composers, from which Daníel Bjarnason has emerged as an important figure. After initial studies in piano, composition, and conducting in Reykjavík, he went to the University of Music in Freiburg, Germany to pursue advanced studies in conducting. Although he now has an international career, he remains closely involved in the Icelandic musical scene. His compositions range widely in character, sometimes using tonally-based music, sometimes using a very free approach to tonality, and sometimes using electronic elements in the mix. The title of Bjarnason’s Blow bright is 22
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based on the final lines of Philip Larkin’s poem “Night-Music.” This piece was first scored for voice and small ensemble and set to Larkin’s entire poem. It has since evolved into the orchestral version we hear today, the expanded instrumentation carrying a similarly haunting atmosphere emulated by the string section throughout the piece. On the comparison of his original version for voice and small ensemble and his orchestral version, Bjarnason states: “The relationship is actually quite ambiguous. I chose this title because I feel it evokes the right feeling and because that line is beautiful: Blow bright, blow bright; the coal of this unquickened world. I had already set the poem of Larkin, from which that line comes, to music. But this [orchestral] piece doesn’t have much to do with the poem or that setting. I took that line away from it and thought about it separately. I also thought about many other things and this piece is written in a very free flowing and instinctive way. It’s actually very close to being pure abstract music. But one of the things I thought about was the ocean and, more specifically, seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time and realizing how incredibly different it was to the Atlantic Ocean, which is what I have known my whole life. The brightness SPRING 2023