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Music from the Fleisher Collection, Vol. 2
JoAnn Falletta, Conductor
Music from the Fleisher Collection Vol. 2
An American born B.C. — which in the present context means “before Copland” — had a hard time of it if he wanted to become a composer. The job, rather like that of an actress in the 18th century, was not considered quite proper for a gentleman. By virtue alike of his talent and international recognition, of his character, and of his dedication to the support and encouragement of his colleagues, Aaron Copland (1900-1990) changed all that in the public mind, and already by the time Elie Siegmeister, Norman Dello Joio, and Jacob Avshalomov came on the scene, composing was beginning to be seen as a perfectly feasible and respectable, if not necessarily lucrative, profession.
Thus it was that even a musician who came to be as widely admired as Converse, after graduating in 1893 from Harvard College with high honors in music, tried for some months to be a businessman, in accordance with his father's wishes, before an irresistible inner need compelled him to turn to music; and Tuthill pursued a similar course for much longer, despite having a father, William B. Tuthill, who was the architect of Carnegie Hall, and a mother, Henrietta Corwin Tuthill, who was a professional organist.
As an undergraduate, Frederick Shepherd Converse had already studied composition with John Knowles Paine. After the enforced interval outside music, he resumed studies with George Chadwick in composition and Carl Baermann in piano, later going to Munich to study counterpoint, composition, and organ with Joseph Rheinberger, and graduating in 1898. Returning to the United States, he taught for a while at the New England Conservatory and then at Harvard. In 1907, having established himself as one of the country's leading composers, he resigned from Harvard to devote himself to composition, though he returned to the New England Conservatory after World War I. In 1910 his opera The Pipe of Desire became the first American work to be produced at the Metropolitan Opera. The most successful part of his substantial output, however, consists of his orchestral works, which include a series of highly effective symphonic poems. The Rhapsody for Clarinet and Orchestra recorded here is one of his last works. Composed in 1938 (the year illness forced him to resign his post as dean of the faculty at New England), it is scored for double woodwinds without clarinets, two horns, two trumpets, trombone, timpani, harp, and strings, and laid out as a ruminative introduction (Adagio, sostenuto) followed by an Allegro con spirito set in motion by a propulsive timpani part.
By the final period in Converse's career, Burnet Corwin Tuthill, though nearly 50, had only recently become a composer. After spending 13 years in various New York businesses, he served from 1922 to 1930 as general manager of the Cincinnati Conservatory. It was at that city's College of Music (which was to merge with the Conservatory in 1955) that he finally entered on the full-time study of composition, receiving the Master of Music degree in 1935. Moving to Memphis, he became Director of Music at Southwestern, adding the directorship of the Memphis College of Music two years later. An accomplished performer on the clarinet, for which he wrote several chamber works, including a quintet with strings, and a concerto, Tuthill composed his Rhapsody for Clarinet and Orchestra in 1954 in Memphis and Interlochen; he conducted the first performance, with Richard Reynolds as soloist, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1956. Scored for flute, oboe, bassoon, two horns, trumpet, trombone, snare drum, bass drum, and strings, the work is again broadly slow-fast in design, but the respective sections are more sharply differentiated than those of the Converse piece. Tuthill's slow introduction includes a blues section, and the principal “Faster” section, though interrupted by a smoother passage with insistently alternating soft chords in the strings, is almost exclusively concerned with the rhythmic permutations of a perky syncopated theme first heard in the brass.
Born in 1909, and already possessed of a BA degree from Columbia University (where he studied composition with Seth Bingham) by the age of 18, Elie Siegmeister occupied a position between that of his 19th-century predecessors and that of the new post-Copland generation. Continuing his studies with Wallingford Riegger, he went on in 1927, like Copland a few years earlier, to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and ten years later joined forces with Riegger, Copland, Virgil Thomson, and other colleagues to set up the influential American Composers Alliance. In addition to his work in traditional symphonic fields, he was actively involved with Broadway theater and associated also with blues and folk artists like Woody Guthrie, and these interests are vividly mirrored in his 1955 Clarinet Concerto; a note on the first page of the score directs that the rhythmic figure of dotted 8th-note followed by 16th-note is to be played in jazz style (as quarter-note/8th-note) throughout. Scored for flute, oboe, bass clarinet doubling clarinet, bassoon, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, percussion, piano, and strings, the concerto is laid out in four movements which the composer described as follows:
The clarinet opens with a long, rhapsodic melody marked by a blues inflection. A lively section follows, returning to a reflective mood at the end of the movement.
A perky scherzo opens rhythmically with cymbal, timbales and bass drum, quickly followed by a bouncing clarinet theme. There are light-hearted surprises, explosions, changes of mood. The whole movement is transparent and dissolves into air.
The original title of this was “Deep Blues.” The playing should be as “dirty” as possible. Oddly enough, I use neither the standard blues chords nor the twelve-bar pattern; it's my own concept of blues.
Here is a “get up and go” finale. When composing it, I wondered whether it was not moving outside of the jazz framework but then, why not? At times the music struggles, barbed and prickly; at other times, it races along. Toward the end, the feeling of intense struggle between clarinet and orchestra mounts, until finally a clear, triumphant passage is reached; a healthy resolution, and good-bye!
The most widely known of the five composers represented on this disc, Norman Dello Joio, began his musical life as an organist like his father, Casimir, who had immigrated from Italy early in the 20th century. He studied first with his godfather, Pietro Yon, and then in turn at All Hallows Institute, the College of the City of New York, and the Institute of Musical Art. He went on to study composition with Bernard Wagenaar at the Juilliard Graduate School from 1939 to 1941 and, in the latter year, with Paul Hindemith at the Berkshire Music Center at the Yale School of Music. In the course of a highly visible career marked by many awards and the filling of a number of important educational posts, Dello Joio has created a large output in all genres, including several operas and ballets and a wide range of vocal works for chorus and for solo voice. Despite the withdrawal of a number of early works, he also has an extensive range of orchestral works to his credit, including the Concertante for Clarinet and Orchestra, composed in 1949 and subsequently arranged for clarinet and piano. The work is scored for double woodwinds, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, percussion, optional celesta, and strings. The first of the two movements opens with a dialog between flute and solo clarinet that proves characteristic of the music's procedures. The second is an extensive set of variations on a gentle theme that is soon put through its paces in a variety of strongly contrasted tempos, including a second variation delightfully labeled “Allegro spumante” (sparkling, like the famous wine of his ancestral country).
The only one of our five composers not born in the United States, Jacob Avshalomov, son of the composer Aaron Avshalomov, came to the country from China in 1937, studying with Bernard Rogers at the Eastman School, from which he graduated with an MA degree in 1942, and becoming a US citizen in 1944. He taught from 1946 to 1954 at Columbia University, also conducting the chorus and orchestra in the American premieres of works ranging from Handel's The Triumph of Time and Truth to Tippett's A Child of Our Time. He then became conductor of the Portland (Oregon) Junior Symphony Orchestra, and later played an important role in the National Council on the Humanities and as co-chairman of the planning section of the NEA. His work with the Portland orchestra brought him the Alice M. Ditson Award in 1965; recognition for his work as a composer has included a Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Music Critics' Circle Award, and a Naumburg Recording Award in 1956 for his Sinfonietta. Avshalomov's Evocations, Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra, realized from an original written for clarinet or viola and piano, is scored for piccolo (doubling flute), piano, percussion, and strings, and is dedicated to David Oppenheim. The score carries the following introductory note by the composer:
This work was composed in 1947 and revised during the summer of 1952. Scored for solo clarinet and chamber orchestra, it is in the nature of a concerto — although there are no cadenzas or sonata movements. Nor are there any development sections: instead, the practice of developing recurrence is followed; so that while the design of the first movement is A B C B A, the reappearance of the elements does not bring repetition but transformation. The thematic material of all 3 movements is treated in this way; the second movement is a three-part song form, and the third is a five-part rondo.
Each movement is intended to evoke a distinct (but not specific) state of being: the first in the region of exuberance and mischief; the second, of grief; the third of grace and suppleness.
In pursuit of these aims, Avshalomov has fashioned a genuinely fascinating score offering a great variety of rhythms and sonorities. While the pulse of the first movement is always clear, there is constant shifting between 3/4 and 4/4 meters, further diversified by a few measures of four and a half beats. The deeply meditative middle movement is much more consistent in its compelling 3/4 progress, and the Finale alternates 9/8 and 12/8 in a beguiling conception that manages to combine quiet brilliance with a pervading sense of tranquillity.
Notes by Bernard Jacobson ©2001
Hailed by The New York Times as “…one of the finest conductors of her generation,” JoAnn Falletta currently holds the position of Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. An effervescent and exuberant figure on the podium, she has been praised by the Washington Post as having “Toscanini's tight control over ensemble, Walter's affectionate balancing of inner voices, Stokowski's gutsy showmanship, and a controlled frenzy worthy of Bernstein.”
In great demand as a guest conductor, Ms. Falletta has conducted many of the world's finest symphony orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Houston Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Winner of the Stokowski Competition and the Toscanini, Ditson and Bruno Walter Awards for conducting, Ms. Falletta has also been recognized as one of America's most gifted programmers. She is the recipient of eight consecutive awards from ASCAP for creative programming, as well as the American Symphony Orchestra League's coveted John S. Edwards Award. As a leading authority on orchestral repertoire and a champion of contemporary music, she has performed nearly 300 works by American composers, including more than 60 world premieres. Her growing discography includes more than 25 titles on labels such as Albany Records and Naxos.
A native of New York City, Ms. Falletta received her undergraduate degree from the Mannes School of Music and her master's and doctorate degrees from The Juilliard School.
Clarinetist Robert Alemany has performed with the Czech National Symphony, Orquesta Filarmonica de la UNAM (Mexico), Moravian Philharmonic (Czech Republic), Central Philharmonic Orchestra of China, Orchestral Sinfonico di San Remo (Italy), Denver Chamber Orchestra, Santa Cruz Symphony and the Queens Philharmonic. Formerly principal clarinetist of the Denver Chamber Orchestra and the Queens Philharmonic, he is currently a member of the Scandia Chamber Orchestra and the Waterbury Symphony and plays frequently with the Virginia Symphony and the Buffalo Philharmonic.
Mr. Alemany has recorded on the Koch, Classic CD, Albany and Newport Classic labels. His recording of trios by Beethoven and Kreutzer received a `CD Choice of the Month' award from Classic CD magazine. Mr. Alemany's original release of the Siegmeister Clarinet Concerto with the Czech National Symphony on Albany Records was placed on the Buffalo News' 1999 “Year's Best” list. Of this disc Fanfare Magazine wrote “It's hard to understand why this work, written in 1955, has been so little played in a concerto repertoire hardly bursting at the seams. This is an extremely well crafted work, bristling with energy and ingenuity. Alemany is a nimble soloist, displaying considerable virtuosic flair and chops.” Clarinet Magazine adds, “The four movements of the Concerto are very demanding of the soloist and Alemany delivers an impressive virtuoso performance which he plays seemingly with ease.”
Czech National Symphony Orchestra
Since the Czech Republic's bloodless “Velvet Revolution” of 1989, the country has been riding a rapid wave of democratization, which has affected the music industry as well. Orchestras in order to survive must concern themselves with the procurement of foreign funds through recording contracts and overseas performances. These developments have necessitated the need for higher performance standards.
Out of this chaotic scene Jan Hasenöhrl, an outstanding solo trumpet player, sensed the acute need to reshape the Czech orchestral scene and, in 1993, invited the top musicians from Prague's major orchestras to form a new orchestra, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. The Orchestra gave its first concert, conducted by Vladimir Valek, in November 1993 in Prague's Rudolfinum Dvorak Hall. In 1994 the Czech music world's national treasure, Zdenek Kosler, was named chief conductor. The first recording was made at the beginning of April 1994. Maestro Kosler died in August 1995.
In January 1996 the brilliant American Conductor and Music Director of the Chicago Sinfonietta, Paul Freeman was appointed Music Director and Chief Conductor. Under Maestro Freeman's leadership, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra has shown stunning development. Already he has made over 30 compact discs with the orchestra and has toured Italy and Great Britain. So successful was the November 1997 United Kingdom tour of 19 concerts under Paul Freeman and Libor Pesek that IMG Concert Management has recently signed a 5-year contract to tour the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in Europe, Asia, and America. Through its many recordings, concerts and television productions it is fast becoming one of the most important ensembles in the Czech Republic.
The Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music in the Free Library of Philadelphia is the world's largest lending library of orchestral performance material, housing over 21,000 titles. It is a unique source of 19th- and 20th-century American works, and continues to add contemporary titles to its holdings. This series of recordings in Music from the Fleisher Collection will highlight works of composers and different areas of interest represented in the Collection, and will emphasize Fleisher's longstanding commitment to new, noteworthy, and overlooked works. The Collection is proud to join with Paul Freeman, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, and Albany Records in the release of this historic series of recordings.
The Edwin A. Fleisher Collection
The Free Library of Philadelphia
Artistic Director: Paul Freeman
Executive Producer: Joan Yarbrough
Producers: Kile Smith/Jiri Gemrot
Chief Engineer: Jan Kotzmann
CNSO Music Director: Paul Freeman
Recorded December 1998-June 2000
ICN Recording Studios, Prague
Cover: The Free Library of Philadelphia
Elie Siegmeister (b. January 15, 1909, New York City; d. March 10, 1991, Manhasset, New York)
3 Slow Drag, very rhythmic [3:36]
4 Fast and driving [4:21]
Burnet Corwin Tuthill (b. November 16, 1888, New York City; d. January 18, 1982, Knoxville, Tennessee)
5 Rhapsody for Clarinet and Orchestra, Op. 33 [6:55]
Norman Dello Joio (b. January 24, 1914, New York City)
Concertante for Clarinet and Orchestra
6 Adagio con molto sentimento—Leggiero e soave—Adagio del principio [8:03]
7 Theme (Andante Semplice) and Variations [12:50]
Frederick Shepherd Converse (b. January 5, 1871, Newton, Massachusetts; d. June 8, 1940, Westwood, Massachusetts)
8 Rhapsody for Clarinet and Orchestra [6:48]
Jacob Avshalomov (b. March 28, 1919, Tsingtao, China)
Evocations, Concerto for Clarinet
9 Allegro giocoso—Andantino—Come Primo [5:58]
11 Allegro con grazia [6:11]
Czech National Symphony Orchestra*
JoAnn Falletta, Conductor
*Paul Freeman, Music Director
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