William Lloyd Garrison
Plain Truths, just premiered at the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival, picks up a nice review in The Boston Musical Intelligencer, the journal and blog of the classical music scene in Boston. Sudeep Agarwala likes the “early-American sound-world” of the ballads and “harmonically complex backdrop” of other songs, and calls the second song, “Annie Lisle,” “particularly heart-rending.” Read the entire review here.
My American Spirituals, Book One and American Spirituals, Book Two are joining Schubert and Bach on a concert Friday night at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. It’s Friday, January 21, 2011, 7:30 pm.
Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster David Kim will play Book One, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Principal Cellist Anne Martindale Williams, Book Two, accompanied by Paul Jones. Philadelphia Orchestra members Rachel Ku and Joseph Conyers will also solo in the first half, and everyone will come together in the second half for Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet.
I wrote these works for David and Anne as part of a project spearheaded by Paul, and they’ve also recorded them.
More information here.
The string trio Ensemble Epomeo recently finished up a tour through New England, Canada, Philadelphia, and Princeton, playing Bach, Beethoven, Hans Gál, Alfred Schnittke, Richard Strauss, and my Thrice Blest. I was able to catch them at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. How they got there in time for the show is a story in itself, which the cellist Kenneth Woods recounts here. We all repaired to the White Dog afterward: I, for just a cup of coffee, but they, for their first meal, I take it, in about 400 miles and 14 hours.
How they could play my little piece, let alone Schnittke—let alone Beethoven—is beyond me.
Alfred Schnittke
They were alternating the Gál and Schnittke on their concerts; I had heard the former at Christ Church in October, and am glad to have gotten a hearing of the latter at Penn. Both were my first exposures to these pieces (I think nobody’s playing the Gál, as it’s only recently been discovered, but everyone ought to; for why, see here and here).
I can’t say that I really liked the Schnittke String Trio at first hearing, but I haven’t worried about liking in a long time. We rate it much, much too highly. This is an irony, since liking mostly concerns things over which we have no control.
I was, however, entranced. Caroline’s lyricism took on urgency and magnetism. She was drawing the viola and cello and me all to her. David’s tone deepened and was beautiful and sad. Ken was inexhaustible, portraying lightness and a gorgeous strength simultaneously.
Entranced? Maybe I was altered. It’s too soon to tell, but I’ll take it over liking.
Jeff, the bassoonist, sent me an email, saying that John Strassburger had died. It was three months earlier, almost to the day, that Jeffrey Centafont, accompanied by John French on the piano, helped to celebrate Strassburger’s retirement as President of Ursinus College, with my piece commissioned for the occasion, This Broad Land.
It was a surprising and touching honor to be commissioned to compose this for his retirement banquet in June. Surprising because I have no connection to Ursinus, and touching because Jackie and I were overwhelmed by the feeling of love from all segments of the college community for this man. Here is someone, we learned, who made a big difference—in the college, and in people’s lives. But we learned only then what Ursinus has known for some time. How often things happen—big, important things happen—because of one person. How wonderful when that person is recognized. It was a thrill to see that.
I was struck by his civility, gentleness, and curiosity. He and I exchanged a note or two afterward, and he surprised me again by sending me an edition of the Charles Ives Essays Before a Sonata, the foreword of which had been written by his uncle, Howard Boatwright.
This Broad Land was played at the memorial service. Here is his obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and here, in the Pottstown Mercury. Rest in peace, John Strassburger.
