CONCERTI CD

MARGARET BROUWER
MEMBERS OF THE DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
JAAP VAN ZWEDEN CONDUCTS 

 CONCERTO FOR VIOLA AND ORCHESTRA                  

1   I. Caritas
2   II. ...fair as the moon, bright as the sun
3  III. Blithesome Spirit  

           ELLEN ROSE • VIOLA

CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA    

4   I. Narrative
5  II. Ballad
6  III. Gypsy

GARY LEVINSON • VIOLIN

Total playing time: 47.17 
RECORDED March 16 – 18, 2012
CLIFF TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH; DALLAS, TEXAS
RECORDED BY Adam Abeshouse
PRODUCERS Adam Abeshouse | Margaret Brouwer
PROGRAM NOTES Laurie Shulman
MUSIC PUBLISHER Brouwer New Music Publishing

This recording is made possible through the generous support from the donors of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

LINER NOTES

By Laurie Shulman 

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est                    
Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.         
Exultemus, et in ipso iucundemur.                 
Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum.            
Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.                 

            This CD presents the premiere recording of 21st-century concerti by the American composer Margaret Brouwer. Though based in New York and Cleveland, Brouwer has strong connections to Dallas, where she lived for several years in the early 1980s. Thus when the Dallas Symphony Orchestra commissioned her to write the Concerto for Viola and Orchestra for its Principal Viola Ellen Rose, it was almost like a homecoming.

            “Ellen and I moved to Dallas at the same time,” Brouwer recalls. “We had many mutual musical friends and worked on several projects together.” Those projects included two works Brouwer composed for Ms. Rose. The friendship has endured for more than 30 years.

            Ms. Brouwer brings an intimate understanding of string playing to both these concerti, as well as extensive experience writing for orchestra. In the case of the Viola Concerto, Ellen Rose’s musicianship inspired her. “I love Ellen’s playing; she has such a gorgeous, rich sound,” Brouwer declares. “I also admire her fabulous technique and attention to detail.”

            Ms. Rose requested that the medieval chant Ubi caritas be incorporated somehow into the score. Brouwer was happy to accommodate her. “I often quote from older music. I love the sense of bringing together music from different periods. In some ways, I think that’s what the 21st century is all about: looking at different music throughout modern history. There’s so much music in our background now, including that of the 20th century.”

            As she learned the work, Ms. Rose devised a story line. “The first movement clearly starts out with angst,” she asserts. “Some terrible conflict has occurred. The second theme provides a refuge, a safe place, then the turmoil resumes. Later, some doubt sets in, bringing more conflict. The process of relinquishing resentment and letting go of a grudge is gradual. There’s a transition as enjoyment of life returns, with sixteenth-note passages that are lighthearted in comparison to what came before.

“The cadenza is the start of forgiveness, toward a more peaceful ending to the movement. Eventually the music moves toward something chant-like. I hear it as unity of spirit and, at the end, God’s presence. Charity is all about spiritual lives. You have to be able to forgive and forget. The first movement traces that growth process.

            “I hear the opening of the second movement as the first glimpse of a person who becomes a beloved. Slowly, intimacy builds to passion. It concludes with a section about long-lasting love: passion, partnership, and friendship combined.”

            The finale is completely different in mood, technique, and effect, with fiendishly difficult rhythms and technical wizardry.

            The concerto is asymmetrical in that the first movement is nearly as long as the second and third combined. It also contains the widest variety of music stylistically, and the clearest statement of the chant. Taking the Ubi caritas as a point of departure, the piece is loosely programmatic. Ms. Brouwer has written:

The concerto describes a person (the soloist) who is on an internal journey. The solo part begins in a mood of questioning and anger, contrasted with an orchestral atmosphere of blurred color and melodic fragments that suggest the chant Ubi Caritas. Under the influence of the orchestra, the passionato mood of the soloist gradually dissolves, turning to a mood of compassion and charity with only occasional references to the opening tensions. Toward the end, solo viola plays Ubi Caritas, accompanied by low string harmonics and flute.   This is followed by a melody inspired by Caritas, first in orchestral tutti, and then solo viola.  

The second movement, ...fair as the moon, bright as the sun... is simply a love song. The title is taken from the Song of Solomon (6:10).   Opening with soft breathless motion in the orchestra, "like a light breeze through white clouds", it quickly goes to a viola melody that exudes warmth, pleasure, and delight. Near the end, lower strings refer to the Ubi Caritas chant.

The last movement, Blithesome Spirit, continues the light-hearted mood and becomes buoyantly playful, mischievous, and sometimes a bit jaunty.

                        - M.B. 

Her sense of the concerto’s dramatic narrative is remarkably similar to Ms. Rose’s although they never discussed it. “I’m not a composer who starts with the story then makes the music ‘go with’ the story,” says Brouwer. “Some people look at a painting then write a piece about the painting, or read a poem and base their music on that poem. When I compose, a musical idea comes to me, then the piece grows out of that. As it evolves, I realize what it means to me as a narrative, or an emotion, or whatever it happens to be in that piece.”

Ellen Rose premiered the Viola Concerto with the Dallas Symphony on 7 January 2010 in Dallas’ Meyerson Symphony Center. Paul Phillips conducted.

Margaret Brouwer describes her 2007 Concerto for Violin and Chamber Orchestra as an experiment in layering. She juxtaposes consonant and dissonant harmonies and incorporates a 12-tone row in the first 2-1/2 measures of the piece. In various permutations, the row plays a role in all three movements, yet the Concerto is not a strict twelve-tone work and also includes many overtly diatonic passages.

            CityMusic Cleveland commissioned the concerto for Michi Wiancko, whose widespread interests include Gypsy bands, pop, and folk music. Brouwer tapped into aspects of these diverse musical genres and styles, contributing to the concerto’s quixotic mood changes. Her composer’s note explains.

The first movement, which incorporates a brief quotation from Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” is dominated by underlying feelings of frustration and sadness. The second and third movements lead to brighter and happier moods.

Michi’s request for a cadenza with optional drum set was an interesting challenge in the second movement: could I layer these elements into my compositional style in a convincing way? Study of various beats and many rewrites occurred before I was satisfied. A note in the solo part encourages the soloist and drummer to improvise during the cadenza.

The finale is in Gypsy style. The musicians play with abandon at breakneck speed – but they have fun. This movement is about high spirits, playfulness, going fast and sometimes [going] wild – and about the dazzling violin.

            “The concerto is very rhapsodic and improvisatory,” declares violinist Gary Levinson. “The first thing you hear is a giant cadenza. The music is conversational; you always have a sense of the human connection. The anti-establishment message suggested by the Dylan quotation helps to communicate the sense of frustration, pent-up anger, and unease that is central to the first movement. There’s no resolution.”

            This opening movement alternates between sweet, diatonic phrases reminiscent of Prokofiev and aggressive ones with rhythmic bite. Brouwer layers snippets of the twelve-tone row over diatonic chords and the tonal second theme. Angular and powerful music gives way to harmonic oases of beauty. Spare, almost minimalist accompaniment in the orchestra keeps the focus on the soloist 

            A light texture continues in the second movement, where the musical substance is almost exclusively concentrated in the solo line. Levinson comments, “The cadenza blossoms the way a jazz riff would. Brouwer weaves it in with great subtlety; the drum set takes over from the pizzicato strings at the start.” 

            The perpetual motion finale hurtles forward with Gypsy-inspired abandon, often grounded by a pedal point. The structure is a free rondo that sometimes dwells in a very high tessitura for the violinist. Brouwer makes subtle allusions to the great Gypsy rondo finales of 19th-century concerti. Toward the end, Levinson hears references to lezginka, a folk dance from the Caucasus region; Brouwer also tosses in a tune reminiscent of Irish fiddling.

             Michi Wiancko played the first performance of the Violin Concerto in Cleveland on 28 March, 2007. James Gaffigan conducted CityMusic Cleveland.