Four Centuries of Great Music April 28, 2024 New Classical Music Releases and a celebration of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's 85th Birthday

Welcome to today’s episode of Four Centuries of Great Music.  Now we are in the middle of a series of episodes on new releases and the first work on today’s episode I had planned to do was Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Symphony #5 from a new release by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project which was released earlier this month.  But I realized that Tuesday is her 85th birthday, so decided to take a bit of a detour in today’s episode into an Ellen Taaffe Zwilich celebration with relatively new releases over the past 4 years.

But we will begin and end with music from the most recent release.  As planned let’s begin with Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Symphony #5.  

Let me quote from and article by Steve Smith from the New York Times at the time of the premier of this work by the Juilliard Orchestra under the direction of James Conlon.  He began by quoting from a blog post by Bob Shingleton, a retired recording executive, musing on the subject of fifth symphonies’ capturing what he termed the essence of their composers’ styles.  “Their fifth symphonies are not necessarily their greatest works, but somehow they capture the unique voices of those composers.”

Steve Smith then continued: “Among the many noteworthy achievements in Ms. Zwilich’s career, her 1983 Pulitzer Prize, the first awarded to a female composer, usually tops the list. But before that, in 1975, she became the first female composer to earn a doctorate from Juilliard. In her program notes for the new symphony, which was commissioned by the school, Ms. Zwilich cites Juilliard as the place where she found her voice as a composer.

Her mature style  a mix of neo-Classical craftsmanship, roiling energy and tonal accessibility  came into focus slightly later, from her Pulitzer-winning Symphony No. 1 onward. Those qualities were also present in the new symphony, a 24-minute work in four movements.

Subtitled Concerto for Orchestra, the symphony demonstrated Ms. Zwilich’s flair for orchestration. Focus restlessly shifted among sections, and from massed groups to isolated soloists. Unorthodox percussion instruments (like the spiral cymbal, a dangling, serpentine coil that offers a distant roar) and techniques (timpani played with a model of wire brush known as dreadlocks) showed that Ms. Zwilich keeps up with recent trends.

A brooding fanfare and crackling martial tattoos in “Prologue” echoed and subtly evolved throughout the work. “Celebration,” which could stand alone as a rousing curtain-raiser, bubbled and bristled with youthful ebullience. “Memorial,” inspired by Mr. Conlon’s championing of composers silenced by politics and war, paid tribute with surprisingly languorous, bluesy figures, redolent of music by Copland and Bernstein. In “Epilogue” elements from the preceding movements resurfaced in a stormy finale.

Determining whether Ms. Zwilich’s Fifth Symphony is among her strongest creations would require more than a single hearing. But the qualities that have long made her music personal and compelling were certainly present, and the Juilliard musicians took up the piece with diligence and vitality.”

Here is a performance of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Symphony #5 by the Boston Modern Symphony Project conducted by Gil Rose from the album Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Symphony #5 BMOP Sound released earlier this month on April 9th

You have been listening to Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Symphony #5 by the Boston Modern Symphony Project conducted by Gil Rose from the album Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Symphony #5

Next is  Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra.

The Concerto for Cello and Orchestra was written on a commission from the South Florida Symphony Orchestra. And completed in early 2020.  It was written in memory of the cellists Leonard Rose and Mstislav Rostropovich.  It was premiered at the South Florida Symphony Orchestra’s opening concert for the 2022 Season in early March 2020 with cellist Zuill Bailey and the South Florida Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sebrina María Alfonso to whom the piece was dedicated.  This was the only concert of that season because of COVID-19.


Dennis D. Rooney in the Palm Beach ArtsPaper wrote “

“The concerto’s three linked movements suggested a meditation on melodic gestures from the American vernacular. The blues hovered over the work allusively, but the musical materials always generated multifaceted meanings that were compelling yet evanescent, ranging from gently introspective to aggressive. An agitated, bustling motto introduced the successive sections.

Throughout, the mood was thoughtful but not elegiac.
Technical challenges are plentiful in the solo part.”  

 I would put more emphasis on the blues aspect of this piece than did Rooney.  To me the blues idiom permeates the work not “hovered over the work allusively”.  It is in 3 movements played attacca.

This was her first Cello Concerto.  She has written a piece for cello and piano, and many chamber works that include the cello. She has written a double concerto Violin and Cello and a Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano. Plus her Symphony #2 'Cello Symphony' features the cello section and even includes a virtuoso cadenza played by the entire cello section.

In an interview Ellen Taaffe Zwilich said "A Cello Concerto has been on my 'wish list' for a long time.  So I was particularly happy to receive a commission from Sebrina Alfonso and the South Florida Symphony to write a concerto for the outstanding cellist, Zuill Bailey.

"One of the things I particularly love about the cello is that it has virtually the entire range of the human voice, from the lowest bass to the highest soprano — and the voice of the Cello can transverse the whole vocal realm with seeming ease. But I sometimes say that string instruments are like "singers on steroids" because of the power they give to the composer to explore virtuosity as well as artistic expression.”

Here is a performance of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by Zuill Bailey, cello and Francesco Lecce-Chong conducting the Santa Rosa Symphony from the album Zwilich: Cello Concerto & Other Works. Delos Records and released in September of 2022.

Lets open this second hour of our celebration of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s 85th birthday with her
 Quintet for Alto Saxophone & String Quartet in A Minor

Otis Murphy, alto saxophone & Pacifica Quartet    Quintet for Alto Saxophone & String Quartet in A Minor        Contemporary Voices    Cedille Records

Quarter Note Equals 66
Quarter Note Equals 132
Quarter Note Equals 60-126-120


Quintet for Violin, Viola, Cello, Contrabass and Piano
Quarter Note Equals 60
Fantasy
Quarter Note Equals 120

The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, Michael Tree & Harold Robinson

Passionate Diversions: A Celebration of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
Azica Records

05 Commedia dell'Arte for Solo Violin and Orchestra_ I. Arlecchino
06 Commedia dell'Arte for Solo Violin and Orchestra_ II. Columbina
07 Commedia dell'Arte for Solo Violin and Orchestra_ III. Capitano
08 Commedia dell'Arte for Solo Violin and Orchestra_ IV. Cadenza and Finale


Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Commedia dell'Arte for Solo Violin and Orchestra by Gabriela Diaz, violin and the Boston Modern Symphony Project conducted by Gil Rose from the album Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Symphony #5 BMOP Sound released earlier this month on April 9th


Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Upbeat! by the Boston Modern Symphony Project conducted by Gil Rose from the album Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Symphony #5 BMOP Sound released earlier this month on April 9th