Sculpture (Lindberg)

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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. [1] [2]

Orchestra large instrumental ensemble

An orchestra is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which mixes instruments from different families, including bowed string instruments such as violin, viola, cello, and double bass, as well as brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments, each grouped in sections. Other instruments such as the piano and celesta may sometimes appear in a fifth keyboard section or may stand alone, as may the concert harp and, for performances of some modern compositions, electronic instruments.

Magnus Lindberg Finnish composer and pianist

Magnus Gustaf Adolf Lindberg is a Finnish composer and pianist. He was the New York Philharmonic's composer-in-residence from 2009 to 2012 and has been the London Philharmonic Orchestra's composer-in-residence since the beginning of the 2014–15 season.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September. Gustavo Dudamel is the Music Director, Esa-Pekka Salonen is Conductor Laureate, and Zubin Mehta is Conductor Emeritus.

Contents

Composition

Sculpture was inspired by the design of the Walt Disney Concert Hall by the architect Frank Gehry. Walt Disney Concert Hall, LA, CA, jjron 22.03.2012.jpg
Sculpture was inspired by the design of the Walt Disney Concert Hall by the architect Frank Gehry.

Background

Sculpture has a duration of roughly 23 minutes and is cast in one continuous movement. Its composition was largely inspired by the design of the Walt Disney Concert Hall by the architect Frank Gehry. [2] The concert hall has also inspired such pieces as John Williams's Soundings and Esa-Pekka Salonen's Wing on Wing . [3] [4]

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession. A movement is a section, "a major structural unit perceived as the result of the coincidence of relatively large numbers of structural phenomena".

A unit of a larger work that may stand by itself as a complete composition. Such divisions are usually self-contained. Most often the sequence of movements is arranged fast-slow-fast or in some other order that provides contrast.

Frank Gehry Canadian-American architect

Frank Owen Gehry,, FAIA is a Canadian-born American architect, residing in Los Angeles.

John Williams American composer, conductor and pianist

John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. With a career spanning over six decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable, and critically acclaimed film scores in cinematic history, including those of the Star Wars series, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, the first two Home Alone films, Hook, the first two Jurassic Park films, Schindler's List, and the first three Harry Potter films. Williams has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974, composing music for all but four of his feature films––Duel, The Color Purple, Bridge of Spies, and Ready Player One. Other works by Williams include theme music for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, "The Mission" theme used by NBC News and Seven News in Australia, the television series Lost in Space and Land of the Giants, and the incidental music for the first season of Gilligan's Island. Williams has also composed numerous classical concertos and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments. He served as the Boston Pops's principal conductor from 1980 to 1993, and is currently the orchestra's laureate conductor.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for a large orchestra consisting of three flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), alto flute, three oboes, cor anglais, three clarinets (3rd doubling bass clarinet), bass clarinet, three bassoons, (3rd doubling contrabassoon), contrabassoon, six horns (5th and 6th doubling Wagner tubas), four trumpets, four trombones, two tubas, timpani, four percussionists, two pianos (2nd doubling organ), two harps, and strings (no violins). [1]

Western concert flute transverse woodwind instrument made of metal or wood

The Western concert flute is a transverse (side-blown) woodwind instrument made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist, flutist, flute player, or (rarely) fluter.

Piccolo small flute musical instrument

The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The modern piccolo has most of the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written. This gave rise to the name ottavino, which the instrument is called in the scores of Italian composers. It is also called flauto piccolo or flautino.

Alto flute type of flute

The alto flute is a type of Western concert flute, a musical instrument in the woodwind family. It is the next extension downward of the C flute after the flûte d'amour. It is characterized by its distinct, mellow tone in the lower portion of its range. It is a transposing instrument in G, and uses the same fingerings as the C flute.

Reception

Sculpture has been praised by music critics. Reviewing the world premiere, Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times described the score as "sophisticated yet immediately engrossing" and wrote, "The orchestral writing is that of a master. Disney Hall is especially happy with bass notes, and Lindberg gave it its fill. The bouncy fanfare figures are not blatant but more like a filigree. The instrumental texture is often fast-moving and complex. A Sibelius sense of mysterious winds blowing everything around is strong at first." He added, "In the middle, Sculpture turns into a miniature concerto for orchestra, focusing on different instrumental sections competing to be the most dazzling. The piece climaxes with rousing Stravinskyan rhythms. The score's 23 minutes fly by. The performance was spectacular." [2]

<i>Los Angeles Times</i> Daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper which has been published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It has the fourth-largest circulation among United States newspapers, and is the largest U.S. newspaper not headquartered on the east coast. The paper is known for its coverage of issues particularly salient to the U.S. west coast, such as immigration trends and natural disasters. It has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes for its coverage of these and other issues. As of June 18, 2018, ownership of the paper is controlled by Patrick Soon-Shiong, and the executive editor is Norman Pearlstine.

Jean Sibelius Finnish composer of the late Romantic period

Jean Sibelius, born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius, was a Finnish composer and violinist of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely recognized as his country's greatest composer and, through his music, is often credited with having helped Finland to develop a national identity during its struggle for independence from Russia.

Although a concerto is usually a piece of music for one or more solo instruments accompanied by a full orchestra, several composers have written works with the apparently contradictory title Concerto for Orchestra. This title is usually chosen to emphasise soloistic and virtuosic treatment of various individual instruments or sections in the orchestra, with emphasis on instruments changing during the piece.

Reviewing a 2008 recording of the work, Richard Whitehouse of Gramophone declared Sculpture "quite a piece with which to have opened the Walt Disney Concert Hall" and compared the work favorably to Lindberg's Concerto for Orchestra, saying it "seems intent on righting its predecessor's wrongs – not least in its skilful mediating between extremes of motion without sacrificing either harmonic or textural intricacy, with a final section that fairly saturates the sound-space." [5] The music was similarly praised by Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle and Steven Pritchard of The Observer . [6] [7] Andrew Clements of The Guardian called the piece a "striking" example of "Lindberg's recent style, in which the control over harmony and structure is as rigorous as ever, but the gestural surface of the music is more immediately involving than in his earlier works." [8]

<i>Gramophone</i> (magazine) UK monthly magazine published in London devoted to classical music, particularly to reviews of recordings

Gramophone is a magazine published monthly in London devoted to classical music, particularly to reviews of recordings. It was founded in 1923 by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie. It was acquired by Haymarket in 1999. In 2013 the Mark Allen Group became the publisher.

The Concerto for Orchestra is an orchestral composition by the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. The work was commissioned by the BBC and was composed between 2002 and 2003. It was given its world premiere by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Jukka-Pekka Saraste on September 30, 2003 at the Barbican Centre, London.

<i>San Francisco Chronicle</i> newspaper serving the San Francisco Bay area

The San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The paper is currently owned by the Hearst Corporation, which bought it from the de Young family in 2000. It is the only major daily paper covering the city and county of San Francisco.

Recording

A recording of Sculpture, performed by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sakari Oramo, was released through Ondine on January 1, 2008. The album also features Lindberg's Campana in Aria and his Concerto for Orchestra. [5] [6] [7] [8]

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra orchestra of Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle

The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra is a Finnish orchestra based in Helsinki, and the orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle). The orchestra primarily gives concerts at the Helsinki Music Centre. Primary funding comes from television licence fees from the Finnish population.

Sakari Markus Oramo OBE is a Finnish conductor. He is current Chief Conductor of both the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ondine is a Finnish classical record label founded in 1985 in Helsinki, Finland, where the company is still based, and today offers an extremely eclectic catalogue of both contemporary Finnish music, as well as recordings with major Finnish and international artists.

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References

  1. 1 2 Lindberg, Magnus (2005). "Sculpture". Boosey & Hawkes . Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Swed, Mark (October 8, 2005). "A captivating new 'Sculpture' in sound". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  3. Swed, Mark (October 26, 2003). "Williams Evokes Hall's Steel Beginnings in 'Soundings'". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  4. Swed, Mark (February 12, 2005). "'Wing' truly catches the wind this time, and sails". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  5. 1 2 Whitehouse, Richard (February 2009). "Lindberg Campana in aria; Concerto for Orchestra; Sculpture". Gramophone . Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  6. 1 2 Kosman, Joshua (January 25, 2009). "CD: Magnus Lindberg, 'Sculpture'". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  7. 1 2 Pritchard, Steven (8 November 2008). "Magnus Lindberg: Sculpture, Campana in aria, Concerto for Orchestra". The Observer . Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  8. 1 2 Clements, Andrew (21 November 2008). "Lindberg: Sculpture; Concerto for Orchestra; Campana in Aria; Tapani/Finnish Radio Symphony Orch/Oramo". The Guardian . Retrieved July 10, 2016.