1. Soar—Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra No. 1 Jiří Hošek, Violoncello Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra Christopher Lyndon Gee, Conductor 2. Drift—for Solo Oboe and Strings Vladislav Borovka, Oboe Brno Philharmonic Orchestra Mikel Toms, Conductor 3. …Mist, Memory, Shadow…—for Solo Violin and Strings Dora Bratchkova, Violin Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra Christopher Lyndon Gee, Conductor Cascade—Concerto for Orchestra 4. Drift Echo 5. Wave 6. Torrent Brno Philharmonic Orchestra Mikel Toms, Conductor PROGRAM NOTES SOAR soar was written in response to a long-held desire to write a work that would capitalise on the cello’s sound, style and technique. Most of all I sought to write for it’s ability to translucently and constantly evolve new and unique colorations and inflections of expressive, carefully molded musical line. With this as a background, I set out to write a cello and piano work that I could not help thinking of as a short score for a cello concerto. This led to thinking of the work as a deeply hybridised, even consciously contradictory amalgam of sources: chamber music for cello and piano, yet big and dramatic music suited to a concerto; a chromatic, ‘roving’ harmonic structure that is yet rooted in firm centres around E; a thorny, expressive language that is florid and exhibitionistic yet one that is also lyrical, passionate and intimately, inwardly emotional. From these impulses the work took shape. Over the initial few measures the piano unfolds a bass line that captures the harmonic ‘contradictions’ of the work: a firm centre of E, extended and elaborated through progression to the minor third above via progressive chromatic unfolding. Insistent accented sixths articulate implicit rhythms that are overtly taken up as the work unfolds. The cello enters boldly and dramatically: unfolding triplet sixteenths that form an important basis for the fast sections of the work. These three fast sections are separated by two slow, expressive and exposed sections of related thematic character thus forming the loosely knit five-part ‘rondo’ type structure of the work. The style of argument used in elaborating materials in soar is very distinctly similar to that of all of my works of this period: a reliance on traditional motivic and thematic development of ideas, balanced with an approach to repetition of ideas that allows the musician and audience to re-engage with the traditionally formative elements of music. But beyond all of this, soar is about the human spirit and our lifelong dance with life’s challenges and even demons. From its searching and worried opening measures to the bright climactic final moments of the piece the work seems to constantly betray its concerto-like drama of contrasts. The work seeks to capture some of the breadth and texture of life: struggle and triumph, defeat and redemption, nobility and loss. The orchestrated version of this work was completed in November, 2006 and is dedicated with much affection to the soloist, Christian Wojtowicz and conductor Tze Law Chan. DRIFT drift was written as a type of experiment with shape and form. I wanted to see if I could better ‘suspend’ time and, in doing so, create a strange unfettered motion that once moves and seems to stay still. A mental image that recurred to me as I wrote this work was the slowly morphing motion of clouds against sky, and this largely influenced the shape, title and form of the piece. As I began work on this piece the whole notion of meter and rhythm became quite challenging, as did the idea of harmonic rhythm. All of these things so bear on the shape and form of music that, when they are suspended, one can seem to almost lose control of the flow. The trick for me was to slow into this new time world where drama is not a player and things slowly morph and unfold. I would hope too that the audience can similarly fall into this world where time almost stands still and all that remains is the beautiful sounds of stillness hanging in the air. My deep thanks to Awadagin Pratt, conductor of WIRED string ensemble for premiering the piece and hearty thanks also to the artistry of Dwight Parry and his numerous and subtle suggestions that helped so much to refine the solo line. …MIST, MEMORY, SHADOW… Between 2000-2008 I was a resident in Tasmania, Australia, my second country and a supremely beautiful island of exceptional landscape, climate and most of all the natural ‘mood’ of the sweeping landscapes, dramatic and blazing Australian sun and glistening waters offset by fog encrusted mountains. ...Mist, Memory, Shadow... is a short elegiac work commemorating a triumvirate of things I consider iconically related to Tasmanian musical heritage. First of all, mist stands centrally in the profound effect the environment exerts upon all Tasmanian musicians – its quiet, unrelenting and strong presence that seems to yield to neither time nor the modern world. Environment seems to exert an influence on all Tasmanian artists to draw them deeper into the timeless mysteries of place and our presence in that place. Memory is linked with this, since the still environment of Tasmania's natural wilderness seems to catalyze a reflection on the present and how this is contextualized within the past, and by implication also the future. Shadow refers to both the incredible natural light of Tasmania but also the long 'shadow' cast by Jan Sedivka and the TSO on this very special place and the musical art that is borne and takes place there. ...Mist, Memory, Shadow... is thus a kind of still elegy that gently reflects on place and people with a central section that is more assertive and keyed to the passions so necessary to establish art and music in this fragile, timeless island. The work was commissioned by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and is dedicated to my good friend MA Jun-Yi and the tremendous TSO strings in honor of the 90th birthday of another good friend, the late master musician Jan Sedivka. CASCADE—Concerto for Orchestra Cascade was written in response to a request for a new work for two pianos from the extraordinary Pridonoff Duo. As I began to think about the work the idea of piano resonance started to capture my imagination. I began to think about this awesome ‘glow’ of sound that occurs after the keys are struck and how these waves of sound – lustrous, velvety pools of resonance – hang in the air. I began to think of these sounds as clouds or water and the various forms these take in the natural world. This, in turn, led me to reflect on the endlessly varied forms of water or cloud that inspired the three movement titles: Drift Echo, Waves and Torrent. Into this creative amalgam of ideas also was the type of work the Pridonoffs and I had discussed: a multi-movement work of around 20 minutes. I thought of this in a traditional fast–slow–fast arrangement of movements since I wanted to honor their amazing technical prowess in the outer movements and have these surround a central, expressive, somewhat darker middle movement. As I began to think about and increasingly as I set to work on the piece, the idea took hold that perhaps this two piano piece – extravagant and bold, colorful and expressive, playful and lyrical in turns – would also orchestrate into a wonderful and dazzling vehicle for large orchestra. So, in the fall of 2010, just months after completing work on the two piano version I set about the task of orchestrating the work into its current guise as Cascade – Concerto for Orchestra. The title and order of the movements is unchanged from the original version and I hope captures the energy, expressive intimacy and muscular drama that the Pridonoff Duo so powerfully projected in the two piano version.