Shadows of the Infinite (2008) William Walton (1902-1983) Viola Concerto

I. Andante comodo—con spirito

Drew Forde, Viola

Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889)

Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor for Double Bass and Orchestra

I. Allegro moderato

Xavier Foley, Bass

Intermission

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1960)

Notes on the Program by Ken Meltzer

Shadows of the Infinite (2008)

Geoff Knorr was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, on June 13, 1985. The first performance of Shadows of the Infinite took place at Friedberg Hall of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 27, 2008, with Ruben Capriles conducting the Peabody Symphony Orchestra. Shadows of the Infinite is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, harp and strings. Approximate performance time is twelve minutes.

Geoff Knorr

Geoff Knorr is a young composer of contemporary concert music. He is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, with a BM and MM in Music Composition, and BM in Recording Arts and Sciences. Mr. Knorr’s composition professors at the Peabody included Christopher Theofanidis and Michael Hersch. Mr. Knorr currently resides in Sparks, Maryland, were he works as a composer and sound designer for Firaxis Games. He is also pursuing free-lance projects in composition and audio engineering.

Geoff Knorr’s compositions have been performed throughout the United States by both professional and student orchestras, including the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, and Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. His music has received numerous awards, including the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, Macht Orchestral Composition Award, and honorable mention in the National Association of Composers, USA Composition Competition.  Mr. Knorr was also selected as a participant in the 2009 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute.

Geoff Knorr is an amateur cellist, who played in the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. He is also an amateur pianist, guitarist and bass guitarist.

The composer provided the following program notes on his orchestral work, Shadows of the Infinite:

Various ideas of texture, color, timbre, and structure for an orchestral work had been swirling around in my head starting early in 2007, but it was not until December of the same year that I actually began work on it.

The opening of the work starts with a strong downbeat, which acts as a trigger to a bright, metallic texture consisting of string harmonics, winds, and bowed crotales. These strong downbeats continue periodically with what could be heard as aftershocks following their initial attacks. At the same time, the trumpets gradually introduce a three note rising motive, from which the work gathers much of its motivic material and development. The piece then takes these basic elements seamlessly through a series of timbres, colors, and emotions with the overall sense being that of majesty, awe, and mystery.

The idea of "Infinite" is vastly incomprehensible. No beginning. No end. Eternal past. Eternal future. Forever. Never-ending. No matter how hard you or I try, we simply cannot wrap our minds around this thought. Even when we gaze upward through our telescopes there is a limit to how far away things out there are, and so we can somewhat understand…but infinite, this is beyond us.

"The infinite-personal, triune God is there, and…is not silent."*
Shadows.
Majesty. Awe. Mystery.
Infinite.
Personal.

*Schaeffer, Francis. He is There and He is Not Silent, a part of Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy. Wheaton: Crossway Books/Good News Publishers, 1990. Pg. 290

William Walton’s Viola Concerto is the first of three Concertos the British composer wrote for solo string instruments and orchestra. Jascha Heifetz commissioned—and in 1939 premiered—Walton's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. The Cello Concerto was the result of a commission from yet another legendary virtuoso, Russian cellist Gregor Piatagorsky, who was the soloist in that work’s 1957 premiere.

The great conductor Sir Thomas Beecham suggested to Walton that he compose a Concerto for the prominent British violist, Lionel Tertis. Walton completed the Concerto in early 1929 and sent it to Tertis for his approval. Tertis, however, rejected the work, finding it too modern for his tastes. Edward Clark of the BBC then forwarded the Concerto to the German composer and violist, Paul Hindemith. Hindemith agreed to play the work, and was the soloist in the Concerto’s October 3, 1929 London premiere, with the composer on the podium.

Despite limited rehearsal time, the premiere of the Walton Viola Concerto was a great success. Tertis was in the audience, and sent a letter to Walton, apologizing for his initial assessment of the score. In short order, Lionel Tertis also performed the Walton Concerto, and remained a staunch advocate for the piece. In 1962, Walton revised the Concerto’s orchestration.

This concert features the Viola Concerto’s opening movement, set in slow tempo (Andante comodo), and featuring a yearning, wide-ranging melody for the soloist. This principal episode alternates with an agitated sequence (con spirito), before finally resolving to a hushed conclusion.

Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor for Double Bass and Orchestra

Giovanni Bottesini was born in Crema, Italy, on December 22, 1821, and died in Parma, Italy, on July 7, 1889. In addition to the solo double bass, the Concerto is scored for flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, trombone timpani and strings. Approximate performance time is of the first movement is eleven minutes.

Giovanni Bottesini’s early music studies were with his father, a clarinetist and composer. As a child, Bottesini sang in choirs, and played the timpani and violin. In 1835, the young Bottesini applied to study at the Milan Conservatory. However, the only remaining scholarships were for bassoon and double bass. In a few weeks’ time, Giovanni Bottesini mastered the latter instrument sufficiently to gain admission to the Conservatory. There, in addition to his instrumental pursuits, Bottesini studied harmony, counterpoint and composition.

In 1839, Giovanni Bottesini left the Milan Conservatory. The following year, he made his triumphant concert debut. Bottesini soon established himself as one of the leading double bass virtuosos of his day, performing both in solo concerts, and as a member of various orchestras. Concert engagements took Bottesini throughout Europe and the New World. His American recitals included appearances in New York and New Orleans.

In addition to his talents as a double bass virtuoso, Giovanni Bottesini also enjoyed a prominent career as a composer and conductor. His most famous conducting appearance occurred in Cairo, Egypt, on December 24, 1871, when Bottesini conducted the world premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s grand opera, Aida. During his career, Bottesini held several important music director positions. In January of 1889, Verdi proposed that Bottesini be named Director of the Parma Conservatory. However, Bottesini died six months later, at the age of 77.

But it is for his achievements as an instrumentalist that Giovanni Bottesini is best remembered. He was nicknamed the “Paganini of the Double Bass,” a reference to the legendary Italian violinist. Bottesini astounded audiences with his extraordinary technical brilliance and musicality. In commenting on Bottesini’s 1880 Gran duo concertante for Violin, Double Bass, and Orchestra, a critic wrote: “It is necessary to hear Bottesini in this piece to discover what possibilities are hidden in the giant of the stringed instruments; to hear what can be done in the way of sonorousness, tone, lightness of expression and grace.”

Bottesini most certainly also showcased these qualities in his Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor for Double Bass. This concert includes the first of the Concerto’s three movements (Allegro moderato).

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1960)

Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1918, and died in New York on October 14, 1990. The first performance of the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story took place at Carnegie Hall in New York on February 13, 1961, with Lukas Foss conducting the New York Philharmonic. The Symphonic Dances from West Side Story are scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, two clarinets, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, celeste and strings. Approximate performance time is twenty-three minutes.

In January of 1949, Jerome Robbins approached Leonard Bernstein with a suggestion for a new project—a modern-day version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The updated Romeo would be set in the slums during the Easter-Passover celebrations, and depict a conflict between Catholics and Jews. Robbins suggested that Arthur Laurents write the show’s book.

The three met, and Bernstein was very much taken with the project. However, Bernstein’s many conducting obligations stood in the way. In April of 1949, Bernstein wrote in his log: “This remote-control collaboration isn't right. Maybe they can find the right composer who isn’t always skipping off to conduct somewhere. It’s not fair to them or the work.”

In 1955, Bernstein, Robbins and Laurents resumed work on the project, which the composer referred to in his log as “Romeo”. Everyone agreed to change the original story line to one that focused on a conflict between “two teen-age gangs, one the warring Puerto Ricans, the other self-styled ‘Americans’.” Bernstein was thrilled by this change of course: “Suddenly it all springs to life. I hear rhythms and pulses…” That year, Bernstein met “a young lyricist named Stephen Sondheim”. Bernstein immediately pronounced him “ideal for this project.”

Bernstein’s work on Candide further delayed progress on “Romeo.” But by February of 1957, Bernstein vowed: “From here on nothing shall disturb the project.” West Side Story premiered on August 19, 1957, at the National Theater in Washington DC. The production featured one of the most remarkable collaborative teams in the history of musical theater—a book by Arthur Laurents, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, music by Leonard Bernstein, with the entire production directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins.

After performances in Washington, DC, and Philadelphia, West Side Story opened at the Winter Garden in New York City on September 26, 1957. The production finally closed on June 27, 1959, after 734 performances. A tour followed, as well as a Hollywood movie in 1961. West Side Story has remained in the repertoire ever since.

I am now convinced that what we dreamed all these years is possible; because there stands that tragic story, with a theme as profound as love versus hate, with all the theatrical risks of death and racial issues and young performers and “serious” music and complicated balletics—and it all added up for the audiences and critics.

In West Side Story, the setting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet shifts from Verona to modern-day New York City. The Capulets are now the Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks. The Montagues become the Jets, the gang of “self-styled ‘Americans’”. Tony, a member of the Jets and Maria, the sister of the leader of the Sharks, are the modern-day “star-crossed lovers.”

In 1960, Bernstein fashioned an orchestral work from the original Broadway score. Sid Ramin and Irwin Kristol assisted Bernstein in orchestrating the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, which premiered at New York’s Carnegie Hall on February 13, 1961, with Lukas Foss conducting the New York Philharmonic.