Weekly Listening: Concerto for Orchestra, "Jubilee Games" by Leonard Bernstein

I remember stumbling upon this piece during my undergrad and being quite surprised by what I heard. It really is not your typical Bernstein, and it is unclear if that is for better or for worse.

Give it a listen here, here, here, and here.

A Brief Overview of Bernstein

There is very that could be said here that is not already covered in far greater details with far greater accuracy somewhere else (like here). He is probably best known as the resident conductor of the New York Philharmonic for eleven years (1958 to 1969), and as a composer of such mainstream classics as West Side Story, Trouble in Tahiti, and On the Waterfront. He was a prolific educator, lecturer, and humanitarian, and unabashedly championed the next generation of musicians while uncovering and promoting the pieces that might otherwise have been lost (eg. Charles Ives' Symphony No. 2).

A bit about the piece

Jubilee Games is one of Bernstein's last pieces, written in 1986 for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Israel Philharmonic, with a slight nod to Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, also celebrating its 50th anniversary with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It is a four movement work for large orchestra and choir.

Decidedly, the first two movements are very un-Bernstein. They definitely pull much more from his more academic compositions such as his symphonies; definitely drawing on something much more Stravinsky-esque than previous works. However, the third and fourth movements easily pull back to a more familiar sound easily linked to Bernstein's Jeremiah Symphony (the third movement definitely recalls the 2nd of the latter).

The work as a whole has a really nice arc to it, and the magical lines that make up the final movement are made that much more sweet by the organized chaos that precedes it. It makes me a little sad that this work is not programmed as often as it is deserving, but is that not the case with most music?

Weekly Listening: Piano Trio by Jennifer Higdon

When I was an undergrad at the University of Oregon, Higdon came in with a residency with the Eugene Symphony. She was invited to present for a class I was taking as a freshman and it struck me—albeit nearly a decade later—that she did not present on the work the symphony was playing; her Concerto for Orchestra which put her on the map as a new force in the orchestral world, but rather opted to present the second movement of this work. At the time, I hated it and have no idea why. However, while in my doctorate and searching for works to perform with the Colorado New Music Ensemble, I came back to this piece and fell in love. It is charming, genius in its simplicity, and about as Higdon as you can imagine.

Note that this piece is very much still in copyright, but there are a few recordings floating around youtube such as this one of Pale Yellow, and this one of Fiery Red.

A Brief Overview of Higdon

Hailing from Brooklyn, NY, Higdon is one of the most performed contemporary American composers in the United States. She holds a degree in flute performance from Bowling Green State University, an MA and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, and an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute. Her breakout piece is the stunning work Concerto for Orchestra (2002), which has lead to a number of other orchestral commissions across the country, including her Pulizer Prize winning Violin Concerto and her Grammy Award winning Percussion Concerto.

Despite all of that, it is VERY important to note that Higdon's musical growth was forged in her chamber music output and that she spent a great deal of her pre-concerto days sustaining herself on chamber work commissions. As a result—and in my humble opinion—Higdon's best, most inspired, and ingenious output is found in her chamber catalogue; something I am reminded of each time I dig deeper into that part of her repertoire and find myself maybe slightly tarnished by her larger orchestral works. Though I do love her Concerto for Orchestra, the inner three movements of which are particularly tasty, and the first movement of her Violin Concerto is a much needed reimagination on the standard sonata form concerto (admittedly, I liked the third movement of the piece until I realized that John Adams wrote it first, and better), her chamber works show a level of honesty and craft that cannot be hidden by the force of instruments, preventing her from the use of this weird planing pitch saturation thing that she does every time she has a huge tutti moment in one of her orchestral works.

A bit about the piece

Given the titles Pale Yellow and Fiery Red, I bet you can guess what the piece is about. Higdon herself asks the question, "can colors actually convey mood?" And while colors do have psychological links to emotions, both falsely perceived and scientifically legitimized, the fact that she modifies Yellow and Red with Pale and Fiery, respectively, she is already placing a filter of personality to use as a starting point. While the program notes give pretty standard composer fluff, I pick up a great deal of bare bones in this piece: the first movement is rife with directionless counterpoint, wrapped in a beautifully modal harmonic palette that seamlessly marries the length of the strings with the decaying ping of the piano. The second movement is a testament to her ability to make the instruments sound identical to create an undulating and exciting fabric of quick conversations. You really can see the budding seeds of a piece like Zaka buried in this trio, as well as her more elegant writing in the second movement of her Violin Concerto.