Jan Krzywicki
Emily Golden, mezzo-soprano
Anthony Orlando, percussion
Jan Krzywicki is active as a composer, conductor and educator. As a composer his works have been called "superbly crafted" "touching", "atmospheric" and "profound" by critics in this country, Europe, and Asia. He has been commissioned by prestigious performers and organizations such as the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, the Chestnut Brass Company, The Music Group, Network for New Music, and has been widely performed by ensembles such as the Colorado Quartet, the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Everson/Nowicki duo, and others. Krzywicki's works have been heard at conferences of the College Music Society, the Society of Composers, and on National Public Radio. He is the recipient of a 1996 Pew Fellowship in the Arts, ASCAP and Meet the Composer awards, and has been a Fellow at the MacDowell Colony, at Yaddo, and at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Krzywicki's works are published by Alphonse Leduc & Cie, Theodore Presser Co., Penn Oak Press, Lyra Music Company, and Heilman Music, and can be heard on Capstone Records (Snow Night for marimba and piano), Albany Records (Deploration for brass quintet), North-South Recordings (Nocturne II for soprano, harp, vibraphone and piano), and De Haske Records (Sonata for Trumpet and Piano).
As a conductor Krzywicki has led chamber and orchestral groups in literature from the middle ages to the present, including a large number of premieres. Since 1990 he has been conductor of the Philadelphia contemporary ensemble Network for New Music, premiering works by Dembski, Higdon, Larsen, Lansky, Maggio, Primosch, Rands, and others. Krzywicki is a professor of music theory at Temple University, teaching courses in analysis, performance practice, and ear training.
A native of Philadelphia, Krzywicki studied with Joseph Castaldo, with Vincent Persichetti at the Juilliard School, with Nadia Boulanger at the Ecole de Beaux Arts Americaines, with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Music School, and with Edward Mattila at the University of Kansas.
String Quartet (1993-94) consists of a single movement of six sections played without pause. The first three sections (Nervoso, Misterioso, Mesto) establish a series of musical events that are re-experienced in varied form as the next three sections (Agitato, Liberamente, Mesto), resulting in an overall structure felt in two parts. Both halves begin with intense tutti sections that eventually give way to more reflective, solo writing, culminating in a personal commentary by the viola. All the musical material derives from a three-note motive heard at the opening of the work, a motive which is closely related to the material of the Sonata for Trumpet and Piano.
String Quartet "was composed in the months following my father's death and is dedicated to his memory." The work was commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society for the Colorado Quartet who premiered and subsequently toured the work.
Published by Theodore Presser, Co.
Starscape (1980/83) is a fantasy for solo harp whose title is intended as an evocation of night, the night sky, and night thoughts. Written as a sort of sequel to Snow Night for marimba and piano, the work's scenario is that of stars emerging in a mystical night universe of silence accompanied by contemplations of the ultimate mysteries and miracles of nature, both tragic and spiritual. The work consists of five sections: an introduction, a song (based on the medieval chant "Ave maris stella"), a fantasy or development section, a reprise of the song, and a coda that includes a fragment of Mahler's song "Um Mitternacht" (At Midnight).
Starscape is dedicated to Karin Fuller and Robert Capanna who were so helpful in the composition of the work..
Published by Lyra Music Company.
Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (1994) was written for the trumpet/piano duo of Terry Everson and Susan Nowicki and consists of three movements played without pause: a prelude, an interlude and cadenza, and a finale. The work focuses primarily on the lyrical and virtuosic possibilities of the trumpet while employing various types of mutes to expand the coloristic range and enhance the character of each section. Inserting and removing the hand from the bell is also used for expressive and coloristic effect. Meanwhile, the piano creates additional color by plucking strings, playing dampened notes and harmonics. Technically, the piece develops entirely from a three-note motive heard at the beginning of the work, a motive consisting of a falling second and a rising third, consciously exploring similar material to the String Quartet.
Published by Alphonse Leduc & Cie (Paris)
Four Songs after Rexroth (1995) is a night cycle of poems and Chinese translations by Kenneth Rexroth that were chosen so that they might present a linear, nocturnal musical experience. The first song begins in the aura of twilight, before proceeding in the next two songs into a night of innermost thoughts and remembrances. In the last song, at dawn, transfiguration and transcendence is attained. The musical settings seek to evoke the beauty, mystery, anxiety, and sadness
of the texts; this leads, in the third songthe emotional crux of the cycleto the abandonment of conventional text declamation in favor of a non-verbal expression.
Commissioned by the Network for New Music, the songs are dedicated, with gratitude, to musicians/teachers Harold and Mildred Parker.
The work also exists in a version for mezzo-soprano and piano.
Published by Theodore Presser Co.
I. STAR AND CRESCENT (Rexroth)
The air has the late summer
Evening smell of ripe foliage
And dew cooled dust. The last long
Rays of sunset have gone from
The sky. In the greying light
The last birds twitter in the leaves.
Far away through the trees, someone
Is pounding something. The new
Moon is pale and thin as a
Flake of ice. Venus glows warm
Of peace, a bell calls for
A voice speaks in the silence.
II. A RINGING BELL (Ch'ang Yu, trans. by Rexroth)
Listening to the monastery bell.
The sound re-echoes amongst the hills.
Frost gathers under the cold moon.
In the depths of the night,
The first tones are still reverberating
While the last tones are ringing clear and sharp.
I listen and I can still hear them both,
But I cannot tell when they fade away.
I know the bondage and vanity of the world.
But who can tell when we escape
*III. DEEP NIGHT (Pao Ch'ao, trans. by Rexroth)
Deep night. I sing, alone in the dark.
The music of the strings reveals my heart.
Frost creeps through the curtains of the bed.
The wind rustles in the trees.
The bright lamp has gone out.
The bright face is gone forever.
To the tunes you used to sing.
Now the music brings only the deepest sorrow.
IV. THE FALL OF CH'OU (Rexroth)
Jade pendants chime before the dawn audience.
Peach blossoms drown in the swollen stream.
Barbarian fires overwhelm the guards.
Together two skylarks rise towards heaven.
Two hearts singing like chiming jade.
New Poems Copyright 1974 by Kenneth Rexroth.
Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
*Note: This poem is interpreted as a wordless song, i.e. the text itself is not sung.
Emily Golden, mezzo-soprano, has built an international reputation as a consummate singing actress in repertoire which encompasses the Baroque to the Contemporary. She has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, the Opera National de Paris, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Royal Opera Covent Garden, the Chicago Lyric Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the New York City Opera, the Seattle Opera, the Rome Opera, the Netherlands Opera, the Frankfurt Opera, the Teatro Regio of Turin, L'Opera de Monte-Carlo, L'Opera de Nice, L'Opera de Montpellier, Canadian Opera Company, the Scottish Opera, the Sante Fe Opera and the Washington Opera. Concert engagements have been with such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic, the BBC Scottish Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony and the Minnesota Orchestra, among others.
In addition to the standard operatic and symphonic repertoire, Ms. Golden has created roles in many notable world premiere
productions, including Jokasta in Oedipus of Wolfgang Rihm, Maria Macapa in McTeague of William Bolcom, and the title role in Salammbo of Philippe Fenelon. She is a native of New York City and was educated at the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music. She has been the recipient of several prestigious vocal awards and made her professional debut at the age of twenty at the Metropolitan Opera.
The Colorado Quartet made history in a ten-day period in 1983 by winning two of the music world's highest honors: the Naumburg Chamber Music Award and First Prize at the Banff International String Quartet competition. Since that time it has been praised on four continents as one of the finest quartets of our time, cited for its musical integrity, impassioned playing and lyrical finesse.
Currently based in the New York area, the Colorado Quartet appears regularly in major halls around the globe. In the 98/99 season, the quartet participates in Mostly Mozart's Haydn retrospective in New York City, as well as concerts in Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle, and other cities. Highlights of past years include tours of more than twenty countries, New York concerts in Carnegie Hall and on the Great Performers at Lincoln Center series, at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center and at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and performances at festivals in Scandanavia, the Czech Republic, and at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico. The Colorado Quartet celebrated the 1995 Bela Bartok commemoration with the first complete performance of the Bartok String Quartets to take place in Philadelphia. The Quartet has been featured on radio and television world-wide, with numerous radio broadcasts in America, England and Canada, as well as television programs in The Netherlands, Norway, Puerto Rico, Peru and Mexico. In 1997, they released a CD of Brahms Quartets (Op. 52 Nos. 1 & 2) on Parnassus Records and an album of contemporary compositions on Albany Records to great critical acclaim. 1998 sees the release of Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" and Mendelssohn's Op.80 quartets on Parnassus, and quartets of Henry Cowell on Mode. Past recordings include CDs of Beethoven and Mozarts on Fidelio records.
The Colorado Quartet is equally at home performing standard literature or newer works, and has premiered compositions by leading composers such as Ezra Laderman and Karel Husa, as well as composers of the younger generation. It has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund, and the Aaron Copland Fund for Music.
The members of the Colorado Quartet are inspiring and well-respected teachers, and have held residencies at Swarthmore and Skidmore Colleges, Philadelphia's New School of Music, and Amherst College in Masachusetts. They are founders and Artistic Directors of the Soundfest Chamber Music Festival and Institute of String Quartets in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The Colorado Quartet is Quartet-in-Residence at the Oberlin Conservatory during the 98-99 season.
Mary Ann Coppa, harp, studied with Karin Fuller and Alice Chalifoux and has performed with the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, Network for New Music, and other Philadelphia area ensembles. In addition to performing a wide variety of standard music literature Ms. Coppa has performed a large number of contemporary works for the harp, including Krzywicki's Planctus for oboe and harp (1990).
Terry Everson, trumpet, is a frequent soloist with orchestras and wind ensembles. He studied with Richard Burkart and Frank Kaderabek, and won First Prize awards at the Ellsworth Smith International Trumpet Competition, and First Prize in the Louise D. McMahon International Music Competition. He has toured with the Chestnut Brass Company and other groups, and has been presented in recital by Network for New Music. A former professor of trumpet at the University of Kentucky, Mr. Everson is currently Principal Trumpet of the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra and the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra. Along with pianist Susan Nowicki he has recorded solo CDs for an International Trumpet Guild Recording and for De Haske Records.
Susan Nowicki, piano, performs in recital with singers and instrumentalists across the country, and with Network for New Music. She has recorded contemporary music with trumpeter Terry Everson for the International Trumpet Guild, De Haske, and Albany labels, as well as Krzywicki's Nocturne II for North/South Recordings, and Snow Night for Capstone Records . She has held positions with The Philadelphia Singers, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Opera Theater, and the New Jersey Opera Festival, and has been a faculty member of the Curtis Institute of Music since 1987. Ms. Nowicki served as musical assistant for the Philadelphia Singers' three RCA Red Seal releases, and is the producer of this recording.
Elizabeth Hainen, principal harpist and twice featured soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, has won international attention as one of today's foremost virtuoso harpists. She has appeared as soloist with the Camerata Orchestra, the Mozart Society Orchestra, the Kennedy Center Orchestra, the Brevard Orchestra, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, and the Northwest Sinfonietta, and has made guest appearances with the Paris Opera Ballet; she also collaborated with the Dance Theater of Harlem in the choreography of Ginastera's Harp Concerto. Ms. Hainen is a founding member of both the Orpheo Chamber Players and the Academy Consort. In 1998 she made her solo debut at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' Orchestra Hall under the baton of Wolfgang Sawallisch, and performed in recital throughout the East and West Coasts. She performs regularly with Network for New Music.
Anthony Orlando, percussion, studied with Michael Bookspan and Fred Hinger and became a permanent member of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1972 after having served as principal Percussion and/or Timpanist with the Grand Teton Music
Festival, the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, and the Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Orlando has appeared as a recitalist of ragtime xylophone and avant-garde music for marimba and solo percussion; he is currently active as a member of Network for New Music. A long time performer of Krzywicki's music, he has recorded the composer's Snow Night for marimba and piano for Capstone Records.
Recording/Editing Engineer: George Blood, DVDMedia
Assistant Engineer: Heidi Velhagen
Cover design: Bates Miyamoto Design Services
Funding: Temple University, Pew Fellowship in the Arts
Special Thanks: Susan Nowicki, pianist, producer, adviser, without whom this recording would not have been possible
Thanks: Patricia Manley, Settlement Music School/Germantown, Colorado Quartet, Terry Everson, Mary Ann Coppa
This recording is sponsored in part by the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.
Recording sites and dates:
String Quartet: St. Peter's Episcopal Church, New York, New York, April 6, 1998. Starscape for solo harp: Settlement Music School/Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 16, 1998. Sonata for Trumpet and Piano: Settlement Music School/Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 16, 1998. Four Songs after Rexroth: Settlement Music School/Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 15, 1998
Cover Art: Night, Amargosa Desert by Augustus Vincent Tack (oil on canvas on plywood panel), The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
I. Nervoso (tutti) (7:18)
II. Misterioso (violin) (3:32)
III. Mesto (viola) (2:30)
IV. Agitato (tutti) (8:02)
V. Liberamente (violoncello) (2:48)
(sections played without pause)
Francesca Martin Silos, viola
Diane Chaplin, violoncello
Starscape for solo harp (1983) (6:52)
Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (1994)
II. Interlude and Cadenza (3:59)
(movements played without pause)
Four Songs after Rexroth (1995)
for mezzo-soprano, harp, piano and percussion
I. Star and Crescent (4:57)
II. A Ringing Bell (4:36)
IV. The Fall of Ch'ou (5:02)
(performed without pause)
Emily Golden, mezzo-soprano
Anthony Orlando, percussion
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