Composer Michael Hersch Presents World Premiere of His Two Pieces for Cello and Piano

By -

For composer Michael Hersch, the summer brought two important world premieres: his monumental Third Symphony, whose “granitic force” (Financial Times) “impresse[d] with sheer sonic weight and intensity” (San Jose Mercury News) at the Cabrillo Festival, and his unaccompanied violin work, in the snowy margins, which Grammy Award-winner Peter Sheppard Skaevard debuted at the Dartington Festival in England. It was Sheppard Skaevard’s repeat performance on September 23 at the British Museum that launched Hersch’s new season, in which the composer also looks forward to the release of his new CD, the second volume of his complete works for solo strings, due November 23 from Vanguard Classics; the world premiere of his Two Pieces for Cello and Piano, for which he will accompany veteran Hersch specialist Daniel Gaisford in Washington DC on November 7; and further performances in New York City and Nashville TN early in the new year.

This coming Sunday, November 7 sees Hersch’s first world premiere of the season, when he joins cellist Daniel Gaisford to perform his Two Pieces for Cello and Piano (2010) at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, the nation’s first modern art museum. Hailed as “America’s greatest unknown cellist” (Philadelphia Inquirer), Gaisford is the dedicatee of the new work; Hersch explains:

“While I have written several solo cello works for him, Daniel has asked over the years if I might write some new works especially for us to perform together. Although it took almost ten years, these two pieces are the result and are dedicated to him.”

Gaisford also gives the Washington premiere of Hersch’s Sonata No. 1 for Unaccompanied Cello on the same program; after his world premiere performance of the work, the New York Times praised Hersch’s “extraordinarily communicative music,” and continued:

“Hersch’s music speaks for itself eloquently. ... [The first] Sonata for Unaccompanied Cello [is] an arching 35-minute work that amply repays the considerable demands it makes on a cellist’s technique and interpretive imagination. Daniel Gaisford’s spectacular performance was particularly gripping in the work’s extroverted finale.”

It was Gaisford’s recording of the demanding Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2 for Unaccompanied Cello that made up the critically prized first installment of Vanguard Classics’ three-disc survey of the composer’s music for solo string instruments. Now, on November 23, the label releases the second volume – the wreckage of flowers – featuring Miranda Cuckson in Hersch’s complete violin works. All world-premiere recordings, the new album comprises two works for unaccompanied violin – Five Fragments (2004) and Fourteen Pieces after texts of Primo Levi (2007) – and the wreckage of flowers: 21 pieces after poetry and prose of Czeslaw Milosz (2003), on which the violinist is joined by pianist Blair McMillen. According to Cuckson, “a brilliant young performer who plays daunting contemporary music with insight, honesty, and temperament” (New York Times):

“Hersch’s music forms a unique world; one highly recognizable as his own and difficult to associate closely with stylistic movements. He uses spare materials to grippingly visceral effect, packing the utmost expression into very simple bits of material.”

The new title is Vanguard’s fifth recording of Hersch’s works, a rare honor for a composer not yet 40. His second disc for the label was selected by both the Washington Post and Newsday as one of the most important recordings of 2004-05, while his fourth – the first volume of the present series – was glowingly reviewed by the New York Times:

“The riveting piece [Sonata No. 1 for Unaccompanied Cello] [is] given a gripping performance by Daniel Gaisford. … The intensity and communicative power of this sonata, at times an anguished lament, is typical of much of Mr. Hersch’s work. … The reflective second movement, a showcase for Mr. Gaisford’s rich, penetrating tone and searing musicality, ebbs and flows into the harmonically rich final movement, with its virtuoso challenges and almost brutal intensity. Mr. Gaisford… offers a mesmerizing performance of Mr. Hersch’s seven-movement Sonata No. 2.”

The third and final disc in the series, due for future release by Vanguard Classics, will comprise Hersch’s music for viola and double bass.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In &quo
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

The Art of String Quartets by Brian Ferneyhough

By -
Image
When an artist sets paint to canvas, there are brush strokes used for different effects. Sometimes those strokes are subtle, imperceptible; they produce works of art like the Mona Lisa . Other times the very obvious nature of the stroke is the art, as in works by Van Gogh. With some composers of music, the notes on the page are their craft. How those notes translate into an aural experience is what defines some composers as great artists. Brian Ferneyhough has a masterful command of the techniques of putting notes on the page. These techniques are sometimes so subtle, even though written in black and white, they escape detection. Some of what he attempts with his music is just that, to escape detection, to bury the framework, diverting the ear away from the structure, so only the music is heard . The subtlety is so fine it is almost imperceptible. Even though he studied at several institutions, he is considered self-taught, studying scores from Boule
Read more