CNM Ensemble Concert III
Sunday, February 19, 2023 at 7:30p in the Concert Hall
Featuring guest violinist Wolfgang David, Vienna
Program
Symphony of Light (2021-22) world premiere I. Quarter = 84 | Irina DUBKOVA(b. 1956) |
| Tâmila Freitas de Souza, flute Lisa Ryoo, oboe Sayyod Mirzomurodov, clarinet Carlos Manuel Lopez Soria, bassoon Kristen Ronning, horn Anna Kelly, trumpet Xiaoyu Liu, trombone John Reyna, tuba McKenna Blenk, Peter Grubisich, Gabriel Albertus, percussion Junhong Zhou, violin I ShengHo Wang, violin II Fatima Gassama, viola Hanna Rumora, violoncello Natalia Terra, double bass David Gompper, conductor |
intermission
Violin Concerto (1990/92) I. Praeludium | György LIGETI(b. 1923-2006) |
| Tâmila Freitas de Souza, flute I Joshua Paul Stine, flute II Lisa Ryoo, oboe Sayyod Mirzomurodov, clarinet Jean-François Charles*, bass clarinet Carlos Manuel Lopez Soria, bassoon Kristen Ronning & Anna Cullinan, horns Michael Gause*, trumpet Jonathan Allen*, trombone McKenna Blenk, Peter Grubisich, Gabriel Albertus, percussion Junhong Zhou, violin scordatura ShengHo Wang, Michael Klyce, Ramel Price, Oriana Ross, violins Fatima Gassama, viola scordatura Christine Rutledge* & Donghee Han, violas Hanna Rumora & Josh DeVries, violoncelli Natalia Terra, double bass Wolfgang David, violin solo David Gompper, conductor *=School of Music faculty |
Performer biography
The Austrian-born violinist, Wolfgang David, has performed as both a recitalist and as a guest soloist with many leading orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berne Symphony Orchestra and New York Virtuosi, among others. He tours regularly throughout Europe, North and South America, as well as Japan, Korea and China. The winner of many competitions and prizes, David has performed in major halls such as the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall and Cadogan Hall in London, Victoria Hall in Geneva, UNESCO Hall in Paris, the Philharmonie in Cologne, Bolshoi Hall in Moscow and at Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo. Wolfgang David performs on a violin built by Carlo Bergonzi, Cremona after 1724, on exclusive loan to him from the Austrian National Bank. Gompper has composed over ten major works including a Violin Concerto for Wolfgang David, who’s Naxos recording with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (8.559637) received wide critical acclaim. www.wolfgangdavid.com. |
Composer bios and program notes
| The Symphony of Light (2021-22), dedicated to the memory of my parents and to all parents who gave their children the happiness of life, consists of three parts, traditionally mystical that refers to the Trinity. Each movement develops its own path towards light in a simple and clear musical language, clear concepts of life, love and death. The composition was written for the University of Iowa’s Center for New Music, David Gompper, director. |
Irina Dubkova (b. 1956), who began composing at the age of five and was trained as a pianist, completed her post-graduate studies at the Moscow Conservatory in composition with Roman Ledeniov and Yuri Kholopov. She has received prizes from a number of international composer competitions, including the silver medal from the International Academy of Contemporary Arts (2021), a medal from the Union of Moscow Composers (2016), and a Diploma from the Minister of Culture (2011). |
| Violin Concerto (1992) The first version of the concerto consisted of three movements and was performed in 1990 in Cologne. Two years later, Ligeti revised the score by replacing the first movement and adding two new movements. This new version was premiered in 1992. Finally, he re-orchestrated the third and fourth movements, and the final version was first performed a year later by Gawriloff with the Ensemble InterContemporain conducted by Pierre Boulez. While composing the concerto, Ligeti originally planned an eight-movement work. Parts of the music for the unfinished movements were used by Gawriloff and Ligeti for the cadenza in the final movement, which Ligeti asks the performer to devise as an alternative to the already existing cadenza. Tonight’s performance will use a cadenza assembled by Wolfgang. The concerto represents his late style: a synthesis of avant-garde explorations and traditional melodic and formal conventions. The BBC's Stephen Johnson calls the concerto as "a kind of cornucopia of effects and techniques, a wild collage of atmospheres and colors." Among other effects, it uses "microtonality, rapidly changing textures, comic juxtapositions, Hungarian folk melodies, Bulgarian dance rhythms, references to medieval and Renaissance music, and solo violin writing that ranges from the slow-paced and sweet-toned to the angular and fiery." During this time, Ligeti was interested in alternate tuning systems and harmonics. Thus, one violin and one viola in the orchestra tune their strings to the natural harmonics of the bass player. The second movement can be loosely described as a set of variations adapted from the third of his Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet, itself an arrangement of the seventh piece from Musica ricercata, but slowed down and heard nearly two octaves lower. |
György Ligeti was one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century. He stood with Boulez, Berio, Stockhausen, and Cage as one of the most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time. His early works show the influence of Bartók and Kodály, and like them, he studied folk music and made transcriptions from folk material. In Apparitions (1958-1959) and Atmosphères (1961), he developed a style forged from chromatic cluster chords that are devoid of conventional melody, pitch and rhythm, but instead grow into timbres and textures that yield new sonic possibilities. The composer referred to this method as "micropolyphony." In Aventures (1962), Ligeti devised a vocal technique in which the singers are required to make a full range of vocalizations, cries and nonsense noises to fashion a kind of imaginary, non-specific drama, but with rather specifically expressed emotions. Ligeti was almost alone among progressive composers from the latter twentieth century who have written popular and widely performed music. |
