On the occasion of Franz Liszt’s recent bicentenary, various classical music moderators – radio stations, journals, music schools and concert organizers, posed the question “What is the Most Virtuosic Piano Piece Ever Written?” This was not a new question, however, as it has been something of a siren’s song for concert pianists over the last two centuries – compelling them to provide the answer in the form of their own performances of pieces that are considered to be unplayable by even the most accomplished pianists. On this album, Dr. Yan Shen presents her answer in the form of unquestionably virtuosic performances of three works that would certainly be in the Top 10 on any list of Most Virtuosic Piano Pieces. Aside from the aesthetic beauty of the works presented on this album (especially the Sonatas by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Roger Sessions), the technical demands contained in the works serve as an independent motivator. Much like mountain climbers who dream of summiting Mount Everest and K2, many notable concert pianists have dreamed of mastering these works, and many of them have broken their proverbial teeth in their attempts.

Although this album is elegantly titled FANTASY|SONATA|ELEGY, given the technical demands required to meet the challenges of the 3 works on the album, and Dr. Shen’s electrifying performances of these works, the album could have just as easily been titled PIANO VIRTUOSO.

“Here are three recent works of strong personality, genuine substance and warm-hearted integrity…uncommon skill in handling instrumental forces…performed here with thrilling conviction and formidable assurance by soloist Maja Bogdanovic… and the Orchestra of the Swan…Sawyers’s excitingly integrated music marries a generous lyrical impulse to a genuine thematic substance and marvellously invigorating contrapuntal flair… dashingly eloquent advocacy by the Steinberg Duo… Boasting admirable sound and judicious balance, this rewarding collection earns the strongest recommendation.”
—Andrew Achenbach- Gramophone

On the occasion of Franz Liszt’s recent bicentenary, various classical music moderators – radio stations, journals, music schools and concert organizers, posed the question “What is the Most Virtuosic Piano Piece Ever Written?” This was not a new question, however, as it has been something of a siren’s song for concert pianists over the last two centuries – compelling them to provide the answer in the form of their own performances of pieces that are considered to be unplayable by even the most accomplished pianists. On this album, Dr. Yan Shen presents her answer in the form of unquestionably virtuosic performances of three works that would certainly be in the Top 10 on any list of Most Virtuosic Piano Pieces. Aside from the aesthetic beauty of the works presented on this album (especially the Sonatas by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Roger Sessions), the technical demands contained in the works serve as an independent motivator. Much like mountain climbers who dream of summiting Mount Everest and K2, many notable concert pianists have dreamed of mastering these works, and many of them have broken their proverbial teeth in their attempts.

Russian composer Mily Balakirev’s Islamey, subtitled “Oriental Fantasy,” Op. 18 (1869), won Vladamir Horowitz’s vote for the “Most Virtuosic Piano Piece” and it has held the top position on so many such lists that Maurice Ravel used it as his benchmark when writing the Scarbo movement of his Gaspard de la Nuit - Ravel wanted his Gaspard to be more difficult than Islamey. While Dr. Shen demonstrates the contrary in her masterful performance, Nikolai Rubinstein, who premiered Islamey, claimed that it was impossible to master. Although Islamey is compositionally less developed than Alexander Scriabin’s own works (it is simply based on two folk themes and follows typical Romantic traditions), Scriabin was so determined to meet the challenge of the piece that his performance career was nearly ended when he damaged his right hand while fanatically practicing the piece.

Russian composer and virtuoso pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Sonata No. 2 (1913, 1931), is another work that is often included on various lists of “Most Virtuosic Piano Pieces.” Dr. Shen presents the second version of the three-movement work in B-flat minor (revised in 1931, with the note, "The new version, revised and reduced by the author"). The most famous version, however is the one recorded by Vladimir Horowitz who combined both the 1913 original version and the 1931 revised version into one. Rachmaninoff is known for his ability to create innovative textures and melodies within traditional harmonies. His Sonata No. 2, embodies distinct features of Rachmaninoff’s style: enormously thick and dense textures, extremely complicated harmonies, and multi-layered sonorities. Even though the work is rooted in romanticism, Rachmaninoff expanded the romantic musical dimensions by his cultivated compositional elements.

American composer Roger Sessions’ Third Piano Sonata (1964-1965), is a more recent nominee on various lists of “Most Virtuosic Piano Pieces.” The work is known as the “Kennedy Sonata”, since the third (last) movement was Sessions’ elegy for J. F. Kennedy (subtitled “In Memoriam: November 22, 1963”). The piece is a twelve-tone work in neoclassical style due to its traditional formal design. The piece is full of thick contrapuntal textures as well as innovative melodic gestures. In addition, the articulation signs that appear in the work are extremely intensive and obsessive, as it is not uncommon that ten different articulation signs appear in a single measure. This means that the performer must strive to play each note with a different touch. In addition to employing the same thick textures as Rachmaninoff’s Sonata No. 2, Sessions’ extensive use of articulation signs opens another virtuosic musical dimension.

− Mark Rodrieg

Cello Concerto

Symphony No. 2

Concertante for Violin, Piano & Strings

Having a work written for you is surely the ultimate compliment. I imagine that was how the Serbian-French cellist Maja Bogdanovic felt when British composer Philip Sawyers wrote his concerto for her following a commission by the Sydenham International Music Festival in 2010. It is said that what goes around comes around and after a period back in the 1950s and 1960s when to write tunes was considered out of favour composers can again give vent to melody. This Cello Concerto opens with an extremely memorable tune that dominates the first movement with the orchestra taking it up from the cello with which it then duets. It is a full-blooded piece in the romantic tradition with echoes of several of the great cello concertos of the past. Booklet writer and conductor Kenneth Woods cites Schumann, Dvořàk, Elgar and Walton to which list I would also add Miaskovsky. The second movement is equally beautiful with another extremely attractive tune taking centre-stage. Throughout the concerto the cello is given a truly singing role. The finale is quite different in character to its predecessors with a mercurially whimsical nature that dances around in a much more carefree atmosphere than before. Until one’s heard the concerto a few times this movement may strike one as being at odds with the rest of the concerto, as if it came from a completely different era. Only after repeated listening does it seem to fit more happily into the whole and once it has done the entire jigsaw reveals itself as equally echt as it is engaging.

Sawyers’ Second Symphony was also commissioned by the Sydenham International Music Festival in 2008 with the interesting stipulation that it must use the same forces as the programme’s last work, Beethoven’s seventh symphony. To quote Kenneth Woods’ notes it proves that “... there is a lot of life in the Beethovenian orchestra”. The symphony, which is cast in a single movement fairly bursts onto the scene with the brass stabbing the air at regular intervals. The symphony is full of drama and excitement. While at times it can seem restless and disturbed there are also plenty of moments of calm during which Sawyers’ facility for writing haunting themes shows itself. This is a symphony where the cerebral and the emotional are perfectly in keeping with each other. They deliver a work that is passionate, at times even volcanic, but always genuine in its expression.

The final work on the disc is Sawyers’ Concertante for Violin, Piano and Strings from 2006 which was also a commission, this time from Czech violinist Tomas Tulaček. Once again it bursts into life immediately. The equal partnership between the three elements results in a highly charged and emotionally satisfying work. It's another demonstration of Sawyers’ complete grasp of writing thematically interesting music that rewards the listener at every level. While short in terms of length it is dynamic with a powerfully driven motivic sense that cannot fail to grab the listener’s attention.

Sawyers is a composer of real quality which is so pleasing when there is so much mediocrity around. His music is always fascinating in its breadth of ideas as well as its execution as this disc so amply demonstrates. Maja Bogdanovic shows herself entirely deserving of Sawyers’ attention as dedicatee of the concerto. With her rich tone the Cello Concerto surely has the very best chance of finding a permanent place in the repertoire of many cellists.

The Orchestra of the Swan is Stratford-upon-Avon’s ‘resident band’. It has carved itself an enviable position in Britain’s musical life and as a champion of new music has been responsible for the commissioning of many new works from a host of today’s composers. With Kenneth Woods, their inspiring director, the orchestra has recently been helping put the music of Hans Gàl in its rightly deserved place with a series of acclaimed releases of his symphonies (AV2225, AV2230, AV2231, AV2232, AV2233) as well as his String Trios with the Ensemble Epomeo (AV2259). On this disc the orchestra show how well suited it is to the music of Philip Sawyers while the Steinberg Duo perform the last work in a thoroughly winning way that will help the Concertante gain many devotees.

This is a disc that anyone new to the music of Philip Sawyers, as I was, will find highly rewarding and thoroughly infectious.

− Steve Arloff

American flutist Mark Rodrieg began and completed the majority of his music studies with renowned flutist Albert Tipton (former Principal Flute of the National, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Detroit, and Aspen Festival Orchestras). Mark received his B.A. from the Shepherd School of Music - Rice University. Mark was then named a Presidential Fellow at Princeton University where he studied composition with Milton Babbitt and where he earned an M.A. Subsequently, Mark received a J.D. from Columbia University and an Artist Diploma from the Paris Schola Cantorum. Mark has also studied with Frederic Werner, Igor Lasko, Jean-Jacques Werner, and Amy Saxton Wiggs. Former Assistant Principal Flutist of the Aspen Festival Orchestra, Mark has performed with leading conductors and artists, including Sergiu Comissiona, James DePriest, Leonard Slatkin, Matt Haimovitz, Joseph Kalichstein, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Julien Gernay, Yan Shen and Maja Bogdanovic, among others. Mark has recorded on the Eroica Records label and is currently a recording artist for NAXOS and Solo Musica (Germany). His recent album, “Holy War X”, on the NAXOS/Solo Musica label has received stellar reviews. Ensemble Magazine fur Kammermusik writes, “The entire Holy War X album is designed to be combative while also remaining accessible - and it becomes profoundly moving.” Fono Forum writes, “In Mark Rodrieg’s performance of Harold Laudenslager’s Evocation, it is stunning the degree to which he creates a rich, even captivating, mood that is rare.” The Edge writes, “The Rodrieg Ensemble, led by their namesake, American flutist Mark Rodrieg, has released a fascinating and cerebral new recording of music, both old and new.” Mark plays on a custom-made platinum Powell flute and a custom-made gold Emanuel flute.

Chinese pianist Dr. Yan Shen, is a former member of the piano faculty at Guang Zhou Conservatory of Music, China. Yan received her DMA in piano performance at the Moores School of Music, University of Houston (Timothy Hester’s studio), her M.A. from the Wu Han Conservatory of Music, China, and her B.A. from the Guang Zhou Conservatory of Music. Yan was a Finalist in the American Protégé International Concerto Competition, Silver Medalist in the Guang Zhou International Piano Competition, a Finalist in the Beijing First International Piano Competition, and Bronze Medalist in the Beijing National Piano Competition, among others. She has performed solo and chamber music recitals at major concert halls including: Xing Hai Concert Hall, China; Wu Han Concert Hall, China; Qing Dao Concert Hall, China; Hong Kong City Hall and Quan Wan Concert Hall, Hong Kong; Carnegie Hall, New York. Yan has also performed at many festivals, including: the Texas Music Festival, USA; Bellas Artes Music Festival, Columbia; Polyphony Music Festival, France; Basel Music Festival, Switzerland; Olympic Music Festival, Korea. Yan has performed with numerous leading artists, including: Vagram Sarajian (Russia), Eric Varner (Canada), David Compell (UK), ShuhanYe (Tai Wan), Sydney Carlson (USA). She also collaborated with the Guang Zhou Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Orchestra of Guang Zhou Conservatory of Music, China, String Quartet of the Houston Ballet, etc. As a pedagogue, Yan has been invited by international music schools and institutions to play recitals and give master classes, including: the Schumann Piano School, Germany; Grotrian Piano Company, Germany; Bellas Artes University, Columbia. Yan has recently produced a lauded CD (Fantasy | Sonata | Elegy) of virtuosic piano works.

The Strad hailed Serbian cellist Maja Bogdanovic’s Carnegie Hall debut as “an outstanding performance of exceptional tonal beauty, great maturity of interpretation, and technical excellence”. Maja continues to reward audiences worldwide as one of the leading cellists of today with concerto engagements that include performances with the the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, the Bergische Philharmonie, the Slovenian and Macedonian Philharmonic, the Lubbock Symphony, the Belgrade Philharmonic, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Serbian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Korean Wonju Philharmonic. The quality of her recital and chamber music interpretations continues to be applauded at many of the world’s leading venues and festivals which include the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Salle Pleyel Paris, Salle Gaveau Paris, Palais des Congrès Nantes, Prinzregententheater Munich, the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, Festival du Périgord Noir, Giverny Festival, Plaisir de Musiques Annecy, Arcachon Festival, Classiques d’avenir Biarritz, Folles journées in Nantes, Roque d’Antheron, Zeist Festival in Holland. Ms. Bogdanovic has produced several internationally released CD recordings for the Lyrinx, Nimbus, and NAXOS/Solo Musica labels. Laureate of leading international competitions, Maja won the First Prize at the Aldo Parisot Cello Competition, Second Prize and the Special Audience Award at the Gaspar Cassado International Competition, and the Special Prize at the International Rostropovich Competition. Maja graduated with a First Prize from the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris (Paris Conservatory), where she completed her postgraduate studies with Michel Strauss in addition to studying chamber music with Itamar Golan and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Maja plays a custom-made Frank Ravatin cello.

Belgian pianist Julien Gernay graduated in piano and violin from the Conservatoire de Nice and then studied at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris (Paris Conservatory), with Michel Béroff, Christian Ivaldi and Daria Hovora where he was awarded a First Prize and Masters Degree in both Piano and Chamber Music. Other awards include: Semi-Finalist in the Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition; Lauréat of the Vendome International Piano Competition in Lisbon. He was also a winner of the Foundation Banque Populaire Group, Singer Polignac Foundation, Tarrazi, and Drouet-Bourgeois Foundation of France Awards. Julien has received critical acclaim in performances at major halls throughout Europe, the Americas, and Asia, including: the Paris halls Salle Gaveau, Salle Cortot, and Unesco; Opera halls in Nice, Bordeaux, Lyon, Madrid, and Sao Paulo; the Grand Théâtre Royal in Namur; the Philharmonie in Essen, Germany; the Grand Theatres in Milan, and Algiers; Ichou Hall and Asahi Hall in Japan. Julien has also performed at numerous festivals, including The Empéri Music Festival, Festival of La Roque d'Anthéron, Festival of Black Périgord, Festival of Menton, Festival of Wissembourg, Festival of the Vezere. Julien is also regularly invited as a guest performer for TV and radio shows on France Musiques and Radio France. As a chamber musician Julien has partnered and performed with many artists, including: violinists Nemanja Radulovic and David Galoustov, cellists Janos Starker, Maja Bogdanovic, and Roland Pidoux, pianist Menahem Pressler, and the Ebene, Modigliani and Szimanowski Quartets. Julien has recorded one CD on the Lyrinx label, two CDs on the Explora label and one CD on the NAXOS/Solo Musica label.

From Debussy To The Modern Holy Wars: 100 Years of Modern Music

At the turn of the 20th century, European capitals witnessed a growing class of intellectually minded young men that found their way to closed-door meetings of mystical societies -- Theosophists, Kabbalists, Rosacrucians, Neopagans -- all of whom sought a rupture from contemporary society. Similarly, in the political sphere, anarchists, ultra-nationalists, and communists were all hatching schemes to overthrow the liberally minded European monarchies. Vienna, a long-standing center of political power, cultural innovations and intellectual movements, was rife with societal tensions and paradoxes. During this period, Vienna sheltered the unlikely trio of Adolph Hitler (Nazi founder), Theodor Herzl (founder of Zionism), and the exiled Leon Trotsky (the Russian Marxist revolutionary who would publish the first editions of the Pravda newspaper during his sojourn in Vienna). The world felt unstable and there was a growing sense that the next revolutionary idea or well-chosen assassination could send Europe, if not the world, into chaos.

Vienna was also becoming the site of a philosophical battle royale between avant-garde modernists and the moneyed bourgeoisie, who venerated art and classical music but mainly ‘old’ classical music from Mozart to Brahms. The modernists were incensed by the disconnect between a supposedly tolerant liberal society that reveled in aestheticism and opulence while relegating most of the populace to systemic poverty. Aside from philosophical differences, many composers had a more basic reason to reject bourgeois aesthetics, namely the bourgeois cult of the past stifled their ability to create new works. Logically, Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951), who would become a pioneer of atonal music (circa 1908) and the founder of the Second Viennese School, felt that since the bourgeoisie had little interest in new classical music and the growing mass audience was only interested in cabaret or other forms of simplistic popular music, the serious artist should pursue art in elevated isolation. Schoenberg’s dictum on this point was, “If it is art, it is not for all.” The revolutionary French composer Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918) echoed Schoenberg’s sentiment on this point when he wrote to his colleague Ernest Chausson, “Music should have been a hermetical science, enshrined in texts so difficult and laborious to decipher that it would discourage the herd of people who treat it as casually as they do a handkerchief!”

It can justifiably be argued that modern classical music began with the works of Debussy. Debussy’s breakthrough work, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1894) - like his Syrinx (1913), presented on this album - subtly abandoned the diatonic tonal system and thus abandoned the system that had furnished the foundation for Western classical music since the 17th century.

The diatonic tonal system is based on development and modulations in and through major and minor keys (with hierarchical pitch and chord relationships based on a key “center”), which are in turn based on the natural overtone series. When we hear a string vibrating at 440 Hz, for example, we primarily perceive that frequency but the totality of the sound we hear is composed of lower amplitude nodes vibrating within that strings length – ½ the length forms the next octave at 880 Hz and further subdivisions yield the 5th, 3rd, 4th, etc.. A recognition that Debussy abandoned the tonal system, however, does not imply that his works are atonal (music with no key center nor any set harmonic hierarchies). Rather, Debussy’s audacious harmonic progressions create key uncertainty as they ambiguously drift through new harmonies that incorporate, among other innovations, the whole-tone and pentatonic scales. The Prelude, for example, opens with a languid and largely chromatic descending and then ascending flute melody (the Faun) while the harmony unfolds and fans across a lush B-flat dominant seventh chord, from which, according to classical rules of harmony, it should resolve to E-flat. Debussy feels no need to “resolve” and instead merely repeats the flute melody while the orchestra envelopes that melody with a new texture. This procedure continues and eventually becomes a luxuriant love song in D-flat major. Once landing on an identifiable key, Debussy feels no need to either follow traditional intra-key hierarchies (i.e. V leading to I, etc.), nor modulate to other keys (both hallmarks of the Western classical music tradition).

Similarly, the formal structure used for both the Prelude and Syrinx is innovative as Debussy repeats a vague theme turned on itself prior to any thematic development. Although the theme played by the flute in both works returns throughout, with various embellishments or fractioning of the theme, there is no long-term progressive development.

With regard to color, Debussy makes the choice of instruments an essential element in his compositions rather than consigning color to its traditional role of mere ornament. In the Prelude, the Faun theme is played almost exclusively by the flute, except in two brief instances, where the theme becomes something quite different, and the resultant color shifts are used as structural sign posts. When the clarinet takes the theme, it is to signify the melody at its most extended development. Then, the oboe takes the theme as a prolongation of movement when the hush of the opening returns.

Debussy’s work is too often simplistically called “impressionist” -- music which concerns itself with depicting or suggesting a given image or place. Although he frequently used descriptive titles for his works, Debussy was influenced by turn of the century French Symbolists rather than impressionist painters. The Symbolists rejected realism and used symbols to evoke or represent truths, ideas and emotions. In rebuking the idea that his music was “impressionist,” Debussy wrote that he sought a musical language that was “not a reproduction of nature but rather the mysterious nexus between nature and the imagination.”

Irrespective of whether or not it is accurate to label Debussy’s music as “impressionist,” it is more important to understand that Debussy was not interested in continuing the dominant Austro-German tradition of logical harmonic and structural development, which imbued the music from Beethoven to Wagner and Richard Strauss with narrative form. Rather, as Debussy wrote, he was interested in writing “music that could evoke, as it will, the improbable places, the unquestionable and chimerical world which works secretly on the mysterious poetry of the night.” This was Debussy’s formulation for the nature of dreams and in the Prelude this idea is made manifest when he describes the work as “successive decors which bring forth the desires and dreams of the faun.” As Debussy was not interested in depicting natural phenomenon nor narratives (which typically focus on expressing and stimulating emotional reactions), he did not need the established techniques for harmony, structure and rhythm. His use of harmonic ambiguity and lack of obvious formal structure coupled with fluctuating tempos and irregular rhythms yield works that are pulsating with sensuality and which deceptively seem improvised.

In Feux d’artifice, (Fireworks - 1912), presented here, a dreamlike depiction of constant small sparkling explosions is created by the use of fast rippling clusters, glissandi, arpeggios and tremolos. Against this backdrop are carefully spaced large blossoming explosions, represented by six variations of the same theme. The climax is the bomb explosion, a bass attack on the lowest note of the keyboard. In the after effect of the climatic bomb we unexpectedly hear two distant and out of key quotes from the French national anthem. In his analysis of the piece, musicologist David Lewin captures the stunning effect: “In Fireworks we have just witnessed a brilliant display of design, color, transformation and organized motive. We might imagine ourselves standing somewhere around Trocadero or the Eiffel Tower [for the annual Bastille Day fireworks]. Suddenly we are reminded, by music from somewhere else, far away, out of tune, that the display is meant to celebrate some ‘old’ and ‘remote’ ideas of a republic . . .”

Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano (1915), presented on this album, is part of his last period when he sought to renew French abstract music. He thus eliminated the visual and literary references that were common to his preceding works. The Sonata moves in unpredictable directions as various materials are exploited, developed to a certain extent, and then abandoned. In the Sonata, the unfettered harmonic progressions, ambiguous thematic references and elastic rhythms, announced in Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, are now in full bloom.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the established Western classical music tradition had seen continued harmonic and structural development. This development, in the hands of List, Wager, Strauss and Mahler, among others, had pushed the traditional diatonic harmonic system to what many thought were the theoretical outer limits of what was possible within this system. As part of these developments, composers were substantially increasing their use of melodic and harmonic chromaticism (using any of the 12 notes available within an octave rather than the 7 notes of a diatonic scale) and forcing both to perform the traditional roles of hierarchical development, tension and release. While certain composers thought that these innovations could be the point of a new departure for further development, others felt the innovations belied a growing crisis in tonal composition. Debussy summed-up this later view when he described Wagner’s work as “a beautiful sunset that had been mistaken for a dawn.” As for Schoenberg, he was caught between a strong sense of obligation to advance the theoretical developments of his venerated Austro-German predecessors and a recognition that the harmonic innovations that were occurring around him weakened the diatonic tonal system to the point of collapse. Schoenberg’s need to press forward coupled with his unshakeable belief in the necessity for structural coherence led him to abandon the principal framework (diatonic harmony) of the music he admired the most. The result was his shattering venture into atonality.

As key figures of the Austro-German tradition, Mahler, Reger, Schoenberg, and Strauss all understood that Debussy’s work had effectively broken the harmonic barrier. Their divergent reactions to the multiplicity of turn-of-the-century innovations were, in effect, attempts at continuing the development of the Western classical music tradition in the absence of established harmonic certitudes. The divergence of their responses is endemic to modern classical music.

Unlike the preceding periods, each of which were characterized by a predominant theory, the modern period, which is still developing today, is characterized by both a rapid series of compositional theories and simultaneously divergent compositional theories. Atonal music, neo-classicism, 12-tone-serialism, electronic music, integrated serialism, aleatory music, exoticism, minimalism, and pop-music techniques, are all part of modern classical music.

This theoretical multiplicity can be seen both among composers working in the same period and in the individual works of certain composers. Thus, we are not surprised that Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu, a French influenced neo-classicist, wrote his charming Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano, presented here, the same year that Shostakovich, a Stravinsky influenced neo-classicist, wrote his deathly Trio No. 2 (1944). More strikingly both of these neo-classic trios were written only one year after Anton Webern, the most gifted 12-tone serialist of the Second Viennese School, wrote his Cantata No. 2 (1943). Similarly, in 1948 Martinu would continue his neo-classical work as part of Princeton University’s faculty alongside Milton Babbitt, whose seminal works in integrated-serialism and electronic music, would influence a wide range of musicians.

Lesser known composers have contributed to modern classical music’s diversity. Violinist/composer Harold Laudenslager’s Evocation for Solo Flute (1959), presented on this album, is influenced both by Debussy’s harmonic liberty and Babbitt’s rhythmic precision. Having studied with Milton Babbitt at Princeton University, I developed similar influences in a different direction. In my triptych Holy War X (2011), presented here, I borrow thematic material from Debussy’s Syrinx and employ pop-music sampling techniques while combining harmonic and rhythmic structures of increasing abstraction as the triptych progresses from the first to third work in which I add partial aleatory or chance elements with turntable passages spun on recordings of the same music being performed.

This album invites listeners to explore the dawn of modern classical music and its continuing legacy (with a particular focus on Debussy), while also pointing forward to new works that pay homage to the rich classical music tradition by incorporating compositional elements from multiple periods.

-Mark Rodrieg

Jihad | Bacio | Syrinx 21

By the beginning of the 20th Century a canon in the field of classical music had clearly formed in Europe and the United States. Although the affluent classes were evidently enamored with classical music, they were mainly besotted with ‘old’ classical music, music from Mozart to Brahms with limited exceptions given for a handful of contemporary composers, including the then latest titans of the Austro-German tradition, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss.

By the time Strauss’ opera Salome premiered in Dresden, Germany (December 1905), both Strauss and Mahler were widely known by the public and treated like late 20th Century rock stars. Their reputations in the United States at the time (where every major city had an orchestra and European masters arrived en masse) were of equal stature. In 1907 Mahler was engaged by the Metropolitan Opera in New York for what was described by that company as “the highest fee a musician has ever been paid” – today’s equivalent of $300,000 for a 3-month engagement. In spite of this, what was undeniable was that the concert programming at all of the major concert halls was increasingly resembling the equivalent of a museum collection for antiquities. A review of the historical changes in concert programming at the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is illustrative of this point. At the beginning of the 19th Century, 84% of the repertoire performed by the Gewandhaus was by living composers, by 1855 this figure had dropped to 38% and by the beginning of the 20th Century the figure was less than 24%. This canon phenomenon has largely remained in classical music venues to this day, with new composers being slowly added to the canon over time.

The most troubling aspect of the canon phenomenon is that many people in the broader public are under the mistaken impression that classical music is something like Latin, a dead art form that is learned, practiced, and followed by trekkie-type aesthetes. Contrary to the foregoing museum or dead language impression, in many respects modern/contemporary classical music is more vibrant than in any preceding period, especially with regard to the diversity of styles and compositional techniques being practiced.

My triptych Holy War X (2011) was conceived, in part, in recognition of the fact that the broader public often has difficulty understanding or appreciating new classical works. Here, as is generally the case throughout these program notes, I use the term “classical music” in the broadest sense of the term (i.e. art music that employs highly developed harmonic language and complex forms, irrespective of period, as opposed to popular music, which adheres to basic harmony and forms). In order to address this “appreciation” issue, in the first two works of the triptych (Jihad and Bacio), I chose to blur the lines between classical music and popular music by utilizing various elements that are either taken from or associated with popular music. In the third work, however (Syrinx 21), I abandon this hybrid form by, among other things, abandoning the most common “safety net” element found in most popular music (repetitive percussion) and write a work that was conceived as pure art music.

Jihad was written in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The work was conceived both as commentary on the origins of cultural and ideological conflict (particularly between the Islamic world and the Judeo-Christian world, which many describe as a modern Holy War) and as commentary on the origins of the Gulf Wars in Iraq and Kuwait led by Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. The underlying music is based on an Arab love song. To this I add an introductory passage borrowed from Debussy’s Syrinx and western percussion. Finally, the most disjunctive element of the work (speeches made by Pres. George H.W. Bush in the year preceding the 1st Gulf War) is layered onto the musical elements. The juxtaposition of speeches given by Pres. Bush set against an Arab love song serves both as structural sign posts and as an emblematic representation of the aforementioned conflict between the Islamic world and the Christian world. It may be of interest to note that the quotes chosen were taken after reviewing all speeches given by Pres. Bush in the year preceding the 1st Gulf War and discovering that it was possible to decipher the warning, reasoning, and decision to go to war in only five passages.

Bacio was also written as a form of commentary on miscommunication and cultural misapprehension. In a slightly more abstract form, Bacio, much like Jihad, presents music that comes from a perspective of love and desire while other musical and extra-musical elements (heavily sampled speeches taken from various cultural and political protagonists) portend conflict and violence.

Syrinx 21, scored for 2 flutes, string quartet, female voice and turntables, continues the theme of communication breakdown and cultural misunderstandings found in Jihad and Bacio, while also alluding to the nexus between violence and desire. I use extensive quotations from earlier works, including my duo arrangement of Debussy’s Syrinx, while a bewitching Japanese female voice drifts in and out of the work using Sprechstimme (the vocalization technic between speech and singing). Structure is achieved by: (i) spaced presentations of identifiable musical elements; and, (ii) controlling variations in density, which, in turn, is achieved by utilizing each solo element or musical grouping as a distinct musical formation that can be freely layered with other formations. In the most extended example of this technique, I utilize the turntables -- loaded with prior recordings of the same music being played by the string quartet in the final recording session -- at specified in and out points. This results in two string quartet formations that are variously involved in a love song duet or their own battle royale.

-Mark Rodrieg