PROGRAM NOTES

Composed 2013 | Premiered December 2013

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)

Although 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 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 and energy and the way it radiates is so powerful and beautiful. I tried to put some of that into the music, and Blow bright can also refer to that in some ways.”

This performance marks the DSO premiere of Daníel Bjarnason’s Blow bright.

Composed 2016 | Premiered December 2016

HELEN GRIME

B. 1981, York, United Kingdom

Scored for solo violin, 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (one doubling E-flat clarinet), 2 bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, percussion, harp, piano, and strings. (Approx. 22 minutes)

Themusic of Helen Grime has been performed by leading orchestras around the world including the London Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Her music has been championed by conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Mark Elder, Pierre Boulez, Kent Nagano, Oliver Knussen, George Benjamin, Daniel Harding, Marin Alsop, and Thomas Dausgaard. Her music frequently draws inspiration from related artforms such as painting (Two Eardley Pictures, Three Whistler Miniatures), sculpture (Woven Space), and literature ( A Cold Spring, Near Midnight, Limina), and has won praise in equal measure for the craftsmanship of its construction and the urgency of its telling.

On her Violin Concerto, Grime writes the following: “My Violin Concerto came about after several collaborations with Malin Broman and many years of gestation. We first worked together with Malin’s piano trio (Kungsbacka Trio), but I also had chance to work with the orchestra in 2010, conducted by Daniel Harding with Malin leading. I was immediately struck by the ferocity, power, and passion in her playing. At turns, she is able to play with a sort of wild abandon, but also with great tenderness, sensitivity, and with many different colors. I knew when we started talking about the piece some years back, that I wanted to highlight and showcase these striking, opposing qualities. Violent, virtuosic music covering the whole range of the violin is contrasted with more delicate and reflective filigree material that features oscillating natural harmonic passages and searching melodies. Towards the beginning of the writing process, I sent Malin various fragments of material and many of these are used in the concerto. These initial sketches actually became the basis for the piece’s central section and everything else sprung from this. In one continuous movement, the piece falls into three main sections but features extensive, dreamlike, interlinking passages that connect them.”

This performance marks the DSO premiere of Helen Grime’s Violin Concerto.

Composed 1829-1842 | Premiered March 1842

FELIX MENDELSSOHN

B. February 3, 1809, Hamburg, Germany

D. November 4, 1847, Leipzig, Germany

Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. (Approx. 43 minutes)

An1829 visit to the British Isles that sparked Felix Mendelssohn to compose his famed “Hebrides” Overture also inspired the beginnings of his A minor Symphony, subtitled as the “Scottish.” Following a series of concerts in London, the 20-yearold composer and a group of friends headed north to Scotland. There, they visited the abbey of Holyrood and the ruined chapel where Mary Stuart was crowned Queen of Scotland. “Everything is broken and the bright sky shines in,” Mendelssohn wrote to his family. “I believe I found today in that old chapel the beginning of my [Scottish] Symphony.”

However, Mendelssohn’s travels continued to Italy, inspiring the famed “Italian” Symphony, while the misty Scottish landscape faded from his memory. He did not complete the A minor Symphony for another 13 years, and it became the last of his five mature symphonies to be finished—although it is labeled “No. 3” according to the order in which the symphonies were published.

Like the “Italian” Symphony, the “Scottish” is very tightly organized, with all four movements written in sonata form. This includes the scherzo, which has a development section in place of the customary trio at its center. Mendelssohn’s placement of the scherzo as the second