Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 (Stucky)

Last updated

The Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 is a concerto for orchestra by the American composer Steven Stucky. The work was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra with contributions from Johnson & Higgins for the bicentennial of the United States Constitution. It was composed from September 1986 through April 1987 and premiered October 27, 1988, with the Philadelphia Orchestra performing under conductor Riccardo Muti. [1] [2]

Contents

The piece was a finalist for the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Music, losing to William Bolcom's 12 New Etudes for Piano . [3] Stucky later won the award in 2005 for his Concerto for Orchestra No. 2. [4]

Structure

The work has a duration of roughly 30 minutes and is composed in three movements: [1]

  1. Allegro
  2. Adagio
  3. Comodo

Reception

Aaron Keebaugh of the Boston Classical Review described it as "a piece that deserves to be heard more often" and wrote, "Listening to this piece is like experiencing the best influences of twentieth-century music. Jagged rhythms à la Bartók fuse with precision-cut Stravinskian phrases, and the work’s commodious textures recall Lutosławski’s own Concerto for Orchestra." [5] Donal Henahan of The New York Times also compared the music to that of other 20th-century composers and gave the work lukewarm praise, remarking, "Orchestration is a strong point of Mr. Stucky. At least, he shows a welcome awareness of the need for contrasts in sonority and intensity. At first hearing, however, his piece left an impression of restlessness and fragmentation, of music waiting to be born." [6]

Related Research Articles

Samuel Barber American composer

Samuel Osmond Barber II was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator. One of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century; music critic Donal Henahan stated, "Probably no other American composer has ever enjoyed such early, such persistent and such long-lasting acclaim." Principally influenced by nine years of composition studies with Rosario Scalero at the Curtis Institute and more than twenty-five years of study with his uncle, the composer Sidney Homer, Barber's music usually eschewed the experimental trends of musical modernism in favor of utilizing traditional 19th-century harmonic language and formal structure that embraced lyricism and emotional expression. However, elements of modernism were adopted by Barber after 1940 in a limited number of his compositions, such as an increased use of dissonance and chromaticism in the Cello Concerto (1945) and Medea's Dance of Vengeance (1955), and the use of tonal ambiguity and a narrow use of serialism in his Piano Sonata (1949), Prayers of Kierkegaard (1954), and Nocturne (1959).

Pulitzer Prize for Music

The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted into a prize: "For a distinguished musical composition of significant dimension by an American that has had its first performance in the United States during the year."

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. It differs from sinfonia concertante in that it has no soloist or group of soloists that remains the same throughout the composition.

Karel Husa was a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Music and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. In 1954, he immigrated to the United States and became an American citizen in 1959.

Steven Stucky

Steven Edward Stucky was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.

Jennifer Elaine Higdon is an American composer of classical music. She has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her Violin Concerto and three Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, in 2010, 2018, and 2020. She was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2019. She has been a professor of composition at the Curtis Institute of Music since 1994.

Christopher Chapman Rouse III was an American composer. Though he wrote for various ensembles, Rouse is primarily known for his orchestral compositions, including a Requiem, a dozen concertos, and six symphonies. His work received numerous accolades, including the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He also served as the composer-in-residence for the New York Philharmonic from 2012 to 2015.

Stephen Albert American composer

Stephen Joel Albert was an American composer.

Caroline Shaw American composer

Caroline Adelaide Shaw is an American violinist, singer and composer. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 for her a cappella piece Partita for 8 Voices.

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.

Son et lumière is a symphonic poem by the American composer Steven Stucky. It was commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and composed between June and December 1988. The work was premiered in Baltimore by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under conductor David Zinman, May 18, 1989.

The Symphony is a symphony for orchestra by the Israeli-American composer Shulamit Ran. The work was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Riccardo Muti in 1987 and was given its world premiere on October 19, 1990. The piece was awarded the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Music and took the first place Kennedy Center Friedheim Award that same year. It was composed in a primarily atonal style.

The Classical Style: An Opera is an American comic opera in seven scenes, with music by Steven Stucky and libretto by Jeremy Denk. The opera was a joint commission from the Aspen Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, the Ojai Music Festival, and Ojai North!, and was premiered under the conductor Robert Spano on June 13, 2014 at the Ojai Music Festival in Ojai, California. The opera is inspired by the musicologist and pianist Charles Rosen's 1971 book The Classical Style and thus follows composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven as they descend from heaven into a modern-day classical music climate. The Classical Style was Stucky's last large-scale composition before his death in 2016.

The Concerto Mediterraneo is a concerto for classical guitar and orchestra by the American composer Steven Stucky. The work was completed in April 1998 and was written to commemorate the life of the Greek guitarist Sophocles Papas. It was first performed on September 17, 1998 at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore by the guitarist Manuel Barrueco and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Günther Herbig.

Concerto Fantastique is an orchestral composition in four movements by the American composer Ralph Shapey. The work was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who first performed the work under the composer on November 21, 1991. It was a finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Dialogues is a composition for solo piano and chamber orchestra by the American composer Elliott Carter. The work was commissioned by the BBC for the pianist Nicolas Hodges and completed in 2003. It was first performed on January 23, 2004 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Southbank Centre, London, by Nicolas Hodges and the London Sinfonietta under the conductor Oliver Knussen. The piece was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Music. In 2012, Carter composed a followup to the piece Dialogues II for the conductor Daniel Barenboim's 70th birthday.

The Piano Concerto No. 1 is a composition for solo piano and orchestra by the American composer Peter Lieberson. The work was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for its centennial. Lieberson started composing the piece in 1980 and completed it on March 2, 1983. It was written for the pianist Peter Serkin, who first performed the concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Seiji Ozawa on April 21, 1983. The piece is dedicated to Peter Serkin and Seiji Ozawa. It was a finalist for the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Phaethon is a symphonic poem by the American composer Christopher Rouse. The work was commissioned in celebration of the United States Bicentennial by the Philadelphia Orchestra with contributions from Johnson & Higgins. It was completed on February 22, 1986 and was given its world premiere at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Riccardo Muti on January 8, 1987. It is dedicated in memory of the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger, which broke apart on the morning of January 28, 1986 while Rouse was composing the piece. Since its premiere, Phaethon has become one of Rouse's most popular orchestral compositions.

Dreamwaltzes is an orchestral composition by the American composer Steven Stucky. The work was commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra for their annual Sommerfest series with support from the Jerome Foundation. The piece was completed in April 1986 and its world premiere was given by the Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Slatkin on July 17, 1986. It is dedicated to the violinist Sonya Monosoff and Carl Pancaldo. The piece brought Stucky to prominence in the contemporary classical community and remains one of his most popular compositions.

The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra is a piano concerto by the British composer Thomas Adès. The work was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the pianist Kirill Gerstein and was completed in 2018. It was first performed by Gerstein and the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer at Symphony Hall, Boston, on 7 March 2019. The piece is Adès's second piano concerto following In Seven Days in 2008.

References

  1. 1 2 Stucky, Steven. Concerto for Orchestra: Program Note by the Composer. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  2. Webster, Daniel (September 21, 1988). "Reflecting The Image Of Muti Orchestra's Season Starts Tomorrow Night". The Philadelphia Inquirer . Philadelphia Media Network . Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  3. Fischer, Heinz-Dietrich, ed. (2010). The Pulitzer Prize Winners for Music: Composer Biographies, Premiere Programs and Jury Reports. Peter Lang. p. 263. ISBN   3631596081.
  4. Child, Fred (April 5, 2005). "Steven Stucky Wins Pulitzer Prize for Music". NPR . Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  5. Keebaugh, Aaron (March 29, 2014). "BMOP offers a riveting, rhapsodic Lei Liang premiere". Boston Classical Review. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  6. Henahan, Donal (November 4, 1988). "Review/Concert; Dvorak, a Violinist and a Premiere". The New York Times . Retrieved June 16, 2015.