At the Royal Majestic

Last updated

At the Royal Majestic is an organ concerto by the American composer Terry Riley. The work was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Its world premiere was given by the organist Cameron Carpenter and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of John Adams at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on April 11, 2014. [1]

Contents

Composition

The organ "Hurricane Mama" behind the stage of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. WD concert hall stage.jpg
The organ "Hurricane Mama" behind the stage of the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Background

The Los Angeles Philharmonic first approached Terry Riley in 2008 to compose a piece for their newly installed organ (which Riley named "Hurricane Mama") at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. [2] Riley spent numerous all-night sessions playing Hurricane Mama and composing the piece, which would eventually become 2008's The Universal Bridge. Several unused sketches from these sessions later became the basis for At the Royal Majestic, a Los Angeles Philharmonic co-commission. Riley has had a lifelong interest in the organ and previously featured it in such works as A Rainbow in Curved Air , Persian Surgery Dervishes , The Ten Voices of the Two Prophets, and Shri Camel . [1]

Structure

At the Royal Majestic has duration of approximately 30 minutes and is cast in three movements:

  1. Negro Hall
  2. The Lizard Tower Gang
  3. Circling Kailash

The first movement "Negro Hall" is the longest and is based on an eponymously titled pencil drawing by the Swiss artist Adolf Wölfli. In the score program notes, Riley wrote, "I was intrigued by what Woelfli, who never traveled outside of Switzerland and who lived the last half of his life in a mental institution, thought about Negro culture. I tried to imagine what a dance hall in the Waldorf Astoria NYC in the 1930s might be like (from Woelfli's perspective), a gaggle of black dancers in outlandish jitterbug and boogie-woogie routines in a polymetric changing tempo frenzy. I used Woelfli's beautifully geometric mandala-like drawings to inspire my own composing process." The movement references themes from the "Negro Hall" section of his 1990 chamber opera The Saint Adolf Ring, which is derived from Wölfli's oeuvre From the Cradle to the Grave.

The second movement "The Lizard Tower Gang" is the shortest movement with a duration of just under 5 minutes.

The final movement "Circling Kailash" refers to the Hindu practice of pilgrims circumambulating the holy Mount Kailash in Tibet, believed to be the residence of the god Shiva. [1]

Instrumentation

The work is scored for a solo organ and an orchestra consisting of three piccolos, two flutes, alto flute, two bass clarinets, alto saxophone, five bassoons, contrabassoon, two horns, four trumpets, flugelhorn, two trombones, two tubas, timpani, five percussionists, and strings. [1]

Reception

At the Royal Majestic has been praised by music critics. Reviewing the world premiere, Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times lauded the piece, writing, "Riley has the skill to write down music in the traditional Western classical tradition, but that's never been his preference. He is a collaborator. He is expert in the Indian raga tradition and accomplished in jazz. He has his mind-bending way with musical patterns but also an Ellington side and a ragtime side and a Ravel side and Bartòk. He opens musical windows and welcomes what flies in." He added, "Orchestral colors and musical ideas proceed in Royal Majestic as if in a dream or surrealist narrative. Devoted to fluidity, Riley doesn't like to fill in everything. He left, for instance, the organ's colors up to Carpenter, who played with intense seriousness and exquisite fluidity." [3] The music was also praised by Jim Farber of the San Francisco Classical Voice, who opined, "At the Grand Majestic is a knock-your-socks-off composition that melds many voices, memories, and ideas into a concerto structure. It certainly does not play it safe. But that's Terry Riley." [4]

Conversely, Ivan Hewett of The Daily Telegraph was more critical of the work, remarking, "The composer's own programme note promised a rich imaginative world, embracing the Swiss schizophrenic artist Adolf Wölfi, Tibetan temple music, and black dancers at an imagined dance hall in 1930s New York (thus the concerto's title, At the Royal Majestic). Here and there, the sound-world lived up to that promise, but long before the end the piece became lost in its own labyrinth." [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esa-Pekka Salonen</span> Finnish conductor and composer (born 1958)

Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish conductor and composer. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2024, he announced his resignation from the San Francisco Symphony upon the expiration of his contract in 2025.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Adès</span> British composer, pianist and conductor

Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: The Tempest (2004), Violin Concerto (2005), Tevot (2007), In Seven Days (2008), and Polaris (2010).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald Barry (composer)</span> Irish composer

Gerald Barry is an Irish composer.

In Seven Days: Concerto for Piano with Moving Image is a piano concerto by the British composer Thomas Adès. The work was commissioned by the Southbank Centre and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It was given its world premiere by the pianist Nicolas Hodges and London Sinfonietta under Adès at the Royal Festival Hall on April 28, 2008. An optional video accompaniment was created for performance with the piece by Adès's then partner Tal Rosner.

Tevot is a one-movement symphony for orchestra by the British composer Thomas Adès. The work was commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall. The world premiere was given by the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Simon Rattle at the Berliner Philharmonie on February 21, 2007. The United States premiere was given by the same ensemble at Carnegie Hall on November 14, 2007.

The Second Concerto for Orchestra is a concerto for orchestra by the American composer Steven Stucky. The work was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic while Stucky was their composer-in-residence for the inaugural season of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It was completed in 2003 and was first performed on March 12, 2004, with the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The piece was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

The Violoncello Concerto is a concerto for cello and orchestra by the American composer Christopher Rouse. It was commissioned to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Los Angeles Philharmonic by philanthropist Betty Freeman—to whom the work is dedicated—and completed October 27, 1992. The piece was premiered in Los Angeles, January 26, 1994, with conductor David Zinman leading cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The Piano Concerto is a concerto for solo piano and orchestra in three movements by the Finnish composer Esa-Pekka Salonen. The work was jointly commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, the BBC, the NDR Symphony Orchestra, and Radio France. It was premiered February 1, 2007 in Avery Fisher Hall, New York City, with Salonen conducting the pianist Yefim Bronfman and the New York Philharmonic. Salonen dedicated the piece to Yefim Bronfman.

Stockholm Diary is a composition for string orchestra by the Finnish composer Esa-Pekka Salonen. The work was commissioned by the Stockholm Concert Hall Foundation for the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Stockholm Chamber Orchestra. It was first performed in Stockholm, on October 27, 2004, by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Salonen.

Within Her Arms is a composition for string orchestra by the British-born composer Anna Clyne. The work was commissioned by the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It was first performed April 7, 2009 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Salonen. The piece was composed in memory of Clyne's mother, who died in 2008.

Soundings is a single-movement orchestral composition by the American composer John Williams. It was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the inaugural season of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It was first performed on October 25, 2003, by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Williams.

Maan varjot is a composition for solo organ and orchestra by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. The work was jointly commissioned by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre national de Lyon, Southbank Centre, and the Philharmonia Orchestra. It was first performed in Montreal on May 29, 2014, by the organist Olivier Latry and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Kent Nagano.

Polaris: Voyage for Orchestra is an orchestral composition by the British composer Thomas Adès. The work was co-commissioned by the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas for the opening of the New World Center. The New World Symphony was joined in commission by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Barbican Centre, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony. It was given its world premiere by Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony at the New World Center in Miami Beach on January 26, 2011.

Fresco is an orchestral composition by the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. The work was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Its world premiere was given in Los Angeles on March 12, 1998 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen, to whom the piece is dedicated.

Sculpture is an orchestral composition by the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. The music was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic with support from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation to celebrate the orchestra's inaugural season at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Its world premiere was given by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen on October 6, 2005.

The Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 28, is the first piano concerto by the Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera. The work was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation and was completed in 1961. It was first performed by the pianist João Carlos Martins and the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Howard Mitchell in Washington, D.C., on April 22, 1961. The concerto was Ginastera's first composition for piano since his Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 22, written in 1952. It is dedicated to the memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky.

A Scotch Bestiary: Enigmatic Variations on a Zoological Carnival at a Caledonian Exhibition is an organ concerto by the Scottish composer James MacMillan. The work was commissioned by the BBC and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It was composed from 2003 to 2004 and was first performed by the organist Wayne Marshall and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on October 7, 2004. Paul Jacobs (organist) gave the American East Coast premiere of this work in January 2018 in Philadelphia's Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts with the Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Flower Power is a composition for amplified chamber ensemble and orchestra written by the American composer Julia Wolfe. The work was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Its world premiere was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and members of the Bang on a Can All Stars ensemble conducted by John Adams at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, on January 18, 2020.

Register is an organ concerto written in 2017 by the American composer Nico Muhly. The work was written on a joint commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Southbank Centre. Its world premiere was given by the organist James McVinnie and the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by James Conlon at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, on February 23, 2018.

Kauyumari is an orchestral composition written in 2021 by the Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz. The work was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which first performed the piece under the conductor Gustavo Dudamel at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on October 9, 2021.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Riley, Terry (2013). "At the Royal Majestic". G. Schirmer Inc. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  2. ↑ Swed, Mark (May 27, 2008). "Otherworldly: Terry Riley rides Hurricane Mama into cosmic depths". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  3. ↑ Swed, Mark (April 14, 2014). "Review: Minimalist Jukebox Festival anything but minimal here". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  4. ↑ Farber, Jim (April 12, 2014). "Terry Riley to the Max". San Francisco Classical Voice. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  5. ↑ Hewett, Ivan (October 19, 2014). "'Visions of the New': BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall, review". The Daily Telegraph . Telegraph Media Group . Retrieved July 11, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.