Sunday afternoon’s program featured something far better than a risky premiere.  Instead, it was Jennifer Higdon’s Violin Concerto, which was written in 2009 and received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music.  That award doesn’t always mean enduring quality but Higdon’s concerto has got the stuff.

One of today’s most widely performed composers, Higdon writes in the current style that might be dubbed post-ugly.  The concerto, like most of her music, is lively, fluent and engaging, but also extraordinarily demanding on the players, both soloist and orchestra alike.

It was written for and recorded by star virtuoso Hilary Hahn, a former student of Higdon’s at the Curtis Institute.  Sunday’s soloist was another Curtis student, 21-year old Benjamin Beilman.  He’s the first performer to take up the work after Hahn and this was his debut in the piece. He delivered with distinction and flair.

The first movement’s cadenza is a genuine tour de force, with a pilling up of themes and showy devices.  Higdon, who spoke before the piece, said she wondered if it was actually playable but Beilman tackled it with ease and confidence

After a stretch of romantic relaxation in the central movement, based on the form of the chaconne, comes the finale, which Higdon likened to a violin in a race at the Olympics.  The hurdles on the track were the colorful explosions from the orchestra.  The Glens Falls players shined in the numerous brief solos.

Beilman’s encore, from Prokofiev’s Sonata, revealed one of his gifts that was largely missing from the hyperactive concerto, a warm radiant tone.

After intermission, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral” sounded like a different orchestra had taken the stage. The woodwinds were sour and out of tune at the launch of the first movement and the babbling brook of the second had a meager flow rate.  But Peltz added momentum with each movement and the playing got better for it.

Despite the struggles, or perhaps because of them, it was an engaging performance over all.  In other words, there was always something to listen for, good or bad, rather than just sitting through another accurate but rote account of the familiar classic.

Originally appeared in the Times Union.

IN OTHER HIGDON NEWS:

The long awaited opera (Higdon’s first) for the San Francisco Symphony will no longer be in San Francisco.  The Sante Fe Opera has stepped up to take on the commission.  After a long search for the right subject, and then a protracted negotiation for rights, the source material is in place:  ”Cold Mountain,” the best-selling novel by Charles Frazier.  The Opera Company of Philadelphia is a partner in the commission and production and the premiere is slated for 2015.

Here are more details from the Sante Fe Opera’s press release:

COLD MOUNTAIN – Jennifer Higdon, composer; Gene Scheer, librettist

2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.  Cold Mountain is Charles Frazier’s powerful account of one soldier, W. P. Inman, who deserts the Confederate army as the war is coming to an end and makes his way back to his home on Cold Mountain.  The novel won the 1997 National Book Award and was made into a film in 2003. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards.

The Civil War has a special resonance for New Mexicans.  The New Mexico Territory was the site of one of the final and westernmost battles of the Civil War, fought at nearby Glorieta Pass in 1862.  Historians have called it a major event in the history of the Civil War.  The village of Pecos is the site of an annual reenactment of the skirmish.

Cold Mountain composer Jennifer Higdon is one of the most in-demand composers today.   She was awarded the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto and a Grammy the same year for her Percussion Concerto. blue cathedral, written in 2000, on the death of her brother, has become one of the most performed modern orchestral  works.  Her compositions have been performed by leading orchestras throughout the country and she has received commissions from numerous instrumental ensembles.

The versatile American librettist and composer Gene Scheer is the librettist.  Among his many projects are several with composer Jake Heggie, the latest being Moby Dick for the Dallas Opera which was premiered in 2010.  He collaborated with Tobias Picker on two operas, An American Tragedy, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera, andTherese Raquin for the Dallas Opera.  He has written songs for singers including Renée Fleming, Sylvia McNair and Stephanie Blythe, and a song cycle, Voices from World War II for Nathan Gunn.

Nathan Gunn, who will sing the role of W.P. Inman, is one of the country’s leading operatic baritones.  He has performed in virtually every major opera house in the world and is admired as an interpreter of new works including operas by Tobias Picker, Daron Hagen, Andre Previn and Peter Eötvös.  He collaborated with Gene Scheer on the opera An American Tragedy, and the song cycle Voices from World War II.  Gunn is also a distinguished concert performer and recitalist.  He appeared in the 1998 production of Berlioz’ Beatrice and Benedict and the following year in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos in Santa Fe.  He is currently Professor of Voice at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Kristin Norderval has come a long way from the received expectations of what sopranos should do.

“I remember singing Frasquita in ‘Carmen’ in Sarasota,” she told the New York Times in 2001 (“Downtown Divas Expand Their Horizons.”)  ”I couldn’t bear the end of the opera, passively watching Carmen become a victim. I always wanted to run out on stage and yell: ‘There he is. Call the cops.’… I pulled back from this repertory also because I wanted to have more of a hand in shaping the artistic product, to work in a collaborative way with people who wanted to hear my opinion.”

Today Norderval is as much a composer as a vocalist.  She specializes in electro-acoustic music and many of her works have a social-political bent and are collaborative stage works.   Yet at least half of her recordings are performances of music written for her by composer colleagues, including Anne LeBaron and Matthew Rosenblum, to name a few.

What are you working on these days?
I’m finishing an electronic score for an upcoming dance performances by jill sigman/thinkdance at the 92nd St Y on March 11-13, and a new chamber work that will be premiered by Ensemble Pi at Cooper Union on March 19th.

What’s a typical workday for you?
Unfortunately more email and administrative work than I would like!   I tend to divide my days – either I’m making music (composing and rehearsing) or I’m focusing on administrative tasks, applications and grant writing. Either way it’s a lot of time on the computer, since the majority of my music involves electronics.  I try to get in regular vocal practice.  On my breaks I love to go for walks in Inwood Park, which is one of my favorite spots in the city.

Technology is a big part of my work.  My music often involves combining electronics and live audio processing with acoustic instrumentals or vocals. I enjoy experimenting with different programs, but I work primarily with Max/MSP because of the flexibility it allows.

How much do you travel for your work? Do you find it stimulating or a hassle?
I travel a fair amount. I’ve been dividing my time between Oslo and New York for the last few years, so there’s a lot of back and forth to Norway, and I’ve been fortunate to have projects and collaborations in other places as well. I do enjoy traveling, especially when it’s connected to work. It’s a great way to see new places and get to know local artists.

Have you ever experienced discrimination in the music business because of your sexuality?
It’s hard to distinguish between sex discrimination and discrimination based on sexual orientation. They’re both linked to prescribed roles for women, roles that are very conservatively hetero-normative. It was difficult when I was primarily earning my living as a soprano soloist, because I didn’t identify with the kind of persona I was expected to project, or with the types of characters that were delegated to my voice type. I just didn’t do a very good job of playing dumb and sexy, or sweet or girlish.  In as much as that was in demand I suppose I was discriminated against. It wasn’t a conflict between heterosexual and lesbian sexuality though, it was a conflict with the stereotyped portrayal of women in opera in general. The gender roles in opera are fairly limited and there’s very little repertoire yet that reflects a feminist sensibility, let alone one that’s radical or queer!

As a composer, there are other issues, mostly having to do with networking. Things have improved greatly in the last 20 years, but it’s still a given that almost all of what music students learn is the work of male composers, and what is programmed by institutions – orchestras, chamber music ensembles, etc – is still largely works by men. There are fewer examples of women composers so people don’t necessarily have that in mind as a possibility. The discrimination comes not so much from anything malicious, but more from just not being thought about. Guys ask their friends to make music with them, without necessarily reflecting on how most of those friends are men. But I think the increase of female composer-performers and the increased access to technology that allows self-publishing has helped get more and more work of women out there and that really helps.  And I have to say that I have received a lot of support from other women in music, so maybe it evens out.

Are you single or coupled?
Happily coupled.

Do you give PDAs (public displays of affection)?
Absolutely.

What’s on your bed table?
Jane Mayer’s “The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals”

Do you watch TV?
I’ve never owned a TV. I watch news shows on my computer.  I’m a big fan of Democracy Now‘s Amy Goodman and Grit TV‘s Laura Flanders.  During the Egyptian protests in these last weeks I was fascinated to follow events live on Al Jazeera English on YouTube.

Is there a relationship between your sexuality and your creativity?
I’m sure there is.

What’s the gayest musical thing you’ve ever done?
Hard to say. If I’m singing one of my works without words, it may be a very sensual love song in my mind, and hopefully the emotions of love and eros will come through, but will it be heard as lesbian? I don’t know. When I set text, however, my choices of material reflect both my politics and my identity. This last decade has seen a lot more political texts than love songs, but I recently set a paragraph from Monique Wittig’s “The Lesbian Body” as part of a DVD project called “Sounding Out!” a compilation of works by 6 lesbian/queer composers on Everglade.  That’s fairly overt.

Who was your most influential teacher and why?
As a vocalist, Don Stenberg.  For composition, Pauline Oliveros.  They both modeled superb musicianship, attention to detail, risk-taking, openness and loving kindness.  I feel very fortunate to have had these teachers who were also mentors.  And I’ve been very pleased to be a mentor to a couple of younger female composers.

Was coming out tough or a pleasure? Sudden or gradual?
It’s so long ago, it’s hard to remember!  My first coming out was to my mother, when I was still a teenager.  She thought it would be a phase.  It’s been a long phase.

Previously on MyBigGayEars:

Concert review: Kristin Norderval at iEAR

Monday, February 14
Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center

Tuesday, February 15
Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall

Click on the following picture to be taken to YouTube for videos of the pair talking about the Concerto:

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In other Hahn news, the violinist has commissioned a series of 27 short works to serve as encores.  She will tour these new works over the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons and then record them. The project is called In 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores. The composers are:

Franghiz Ali-Zadeh

Lera Auerbach

Richard Barrett

Mason Bates

Tina Davidson

David Del Tredici

Avner Dorman

Søren Nils Eichberg

Christos Hatzis

Jennifer Higdon

James Newton Howard

Bun-Ching Lam

David Lang

Edgar Meyer

Paul Moravec

Nico Muhly

Michiru Oshima

Krysztof Penderecki

Einojuhani Rautavaara

Max Richter

Somei Satoh

Elliott Sharp

Valentin Silvestrov

Mark-Anthony Turnage

Gillian Whitehead

Du Yun

A final, 27th composer will be decided in a non-traditional fashion later this year.

ADDENDUM: Allan Kozinn’s review of the concerto performance for the Times.

Higdon won the Pulitzer for her Violin Concerto, which was written for Hilary Hahn, who performs it on a new Deutsche Gramophone disc with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The three-movement score is grandly romantic in shape and form. But the opening movement, despite the name “1726,” has a tough, smashing intensity.

The central movement, a lyric chaconne, is followed by a brief, highly rhythmic finale that recalls the bouncing conclusion to Barber’s Violin Concerto.  An ideal pairing on the disc is the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. The pieces share an orchestral grandeur and are each played by Hahn with a flawless technique and attractive tone.

Strictly speaking, “The Singing Rooms” is another violin concerto, this time written for soloist Jennifer Koh. But the substantial writing for chorus – settings of poems by Jeanne Minahan – give it the feel of an oratorio.  It appears on a new Telarc disc with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Robert Spano.

There’s more breathing room in this piece, which is cast in seven moments and lasts almost 40 minutes.  Higdon’s style, still melodic and tonal, is more heartfelt than demanding here.  But the rather distant sound of the recording gives everything the feel of a soft landscape.  Koh’s violin playing sounds sweet but thin and the chorus is warm but vague.

Upstate New York appearance and premiere

Higdon will be in Saratoga Springs this week as a guest at Skidmore College.  She’ll conduct a flute masterclass on Friday (11/12) at 7 p.m., to be followed by a composition class at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday morning (11/13).  Both events are in the Zankel Music Center and are free and open to the public.

Then on Saturday evening a concert by Skidmore faculty recital will feature the premiere of Higdon’s “Flute Poetic,” to be performed by flutist Jan Vinci and pianist Pola Baytelman. Vinci was Higdon’s high school flute teacher and both studied flute with Judith Bentley while attending Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

The piece is three-movement re-working and expansion of Higdon’s “String Poetic,” originally for violin and piano and premiered in 2006 by violinist Jennifer Koh. “Flute Poetic” was commissioned by the Skidmore President’s Discretionary Fund, the Skidmore College Music Department, the Brannen-Cooper Fund, and John and Judith Bentley.

• Nico Muhly and host Nadi Sirota play and discuss music of John Corigliano, Benjamin Britten and Lou Harrison

• Alex Ross (The New Yorker) and Ann Powers (Los Angeles Times) and host Terrance McKnight examine the out artists as well as the secretive/coded histories in 20th century music.

• Pauline Oliveros retraces her life from dance halls in Houston Texas to the experimental scene of California and New York.

• Gretchen Phillips and Kenny Mellman (Kiki and Herb) talk with David Garland and spin a wide range of favorites.

The entire thing is archived and available for listening. Sit back and enjoy.

Here are a few excerpts from the discussions.

I was born in 1981 which for a lot of purposes is after a lot of the really interesting stuff in the history of gay rights happened.  the battles of the 60s are sort of over…

As a young gay composer you have a lot of grandfathers and great grandfathers who you can look to. I imagine myself in a kind of constant dialogue with Benjamin Britten for instance because I find the coding of his homosexuality so interesting… I’m such a language nerd that I find myself doing the same things now, even though it’s sort of old fashioned.

– Nico Muhly

There have always been distinct links between classical music and gay culture going back to the days of Oscar Wilde. All the way through the 20th century and even the latter part of the 19th century, classical music has been an oasis, a refgue for gay men and women. Growing up you try to identify with pop music, but it has an explicit heterosexual context – boy meets girl. If you’re listing to something like Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique” Symphony, It’s all abstract…

Then in the 1930s and 40s, it suddenly seems there’s this great surge of gay male composers in such numbers that they almost become the dominate party.  Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Samuel Barber, Gian Carlo Menotti, Lou Harrison, Henry Cowell, Harry Partch, Leonard Bernstein on certain days of the week. Classical music became a beachhead for a more mature gay identity.

– Alex Ross

Thanks to Gay Ears reader Limor Tomer for alerting me to this terrific program.

The performers have already recorded the work and Eighth Blackbird will perform it soon with the eight other orchestras that participated in the commission, including the Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Toronto symphonies.

Higdon and Spano in rehearsal

“On a Wire begins with the six musicians gathered around the open-lidded piano, most of them ‘bowing’ the interior strings with horsehair to eerie, almost electronic-music effect. As the concerto evolves into a full-blown orchestral work, the musicians have their own virtuosic solo moments, none alike in temperament, some dense and excited, others like philosophical soliloquies.”  – David Patrick Sterns in lengthy and thoughtful story in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“The concerto is pure Higdon, with jaunty rhythms that evoke Copland’s Americana at the beginning and end, contrasted in the middle by a tender, fragrant lyricism. Marimba flutters sounded like a breeze passing through a bamboo forest.  Many of Higdon’s fans are waiting for her to cross an artistic threshold and turn out a masterpiece. With emotions kept in reserve, ‘On a Wire’ isn’t there yet.” – Pierre Ruhe, Access Atlanta, reviewing the concert which also included a premiere by Michael Gandolfi.

Eighth Blackbird

BY THE WAY: Since this posting went up, representatives of Eight Blackbird emailed to say hey and inform that two of its members – violinist Matt Albert and clarinetist Michael J. MacCaferri – just happen to be gay.

Previously on MyBigGayEars:

Higdon Wins Pulitzer Prize for Violin Concerto (April 2010)

Jennifer Higdon Comes Out on Top (August 2009)

What are you working on these days?
In music, I’m working on a live processing composition using Max/MSP, collaborating with composer Frances White on a new piece for trombone and tape funded by a MAP grant (scheduled to premiere next spring), and discussing with the theater director Valeria Vasilevski how to make an upcoming solo trombone program into “concert theater,” where every element in the concert space informs the audience and influences the performer.

Do you keep up with technology?  What tools work for you and which ones have you found to be overrated?
I’m rather geek-ish and friends have even described me as their “pusher” when I am excited about this or that new technology.  However, what people often forget is that any kind of tool (a pencil, say, or a spatula) is technology of a sort.  So was fire and the wheel!

It’s what we do with these tools that is important, not what the tools are in themselves.   I still have high hopes of eventually being able to use speech recognition software to do my typing for me, and with a smart phone in my pocket I do venture out on occasion without my laptop.

Though I’m a rather private person I often wonder why I even have a blog, much less various social networking accounts, I do.  I learned recently that during a concert a couple of weeks ago at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, where I was performing my composition “Subtle Winds,” there was a real-time tweet on whether or not I was playing in just intonation.

Have you ever experienced discrimination in music business because of your sexuality?
Yes, especially when I was younger, just starting out and working in the orchestral world and as a free-lance trombonist. The stereotype assumes that a woman brass player is lesbian but I’ll add the caveat that the difference between discrimination based on sexual orientation and discrimination based on gender can at times be difficult to discern.

Now that I work new music/live-processing and perform as a soloist or in small chamber music groups, this has not been an issue. Still, discrimination through tokenism (and ghettoization) in programming and hiring remains a reality for women along with other visually identifiable minorities.

Is there a relationship between your sexuality and your creativity?
How could there not be?

Where did you grow up and has that affected your sensibilities as a musician?
I grew up on the coast of southern California where I could stand at the edge of the ocean and see nothing in front of me until the curve of the earth, with nothing above but open sky.  I’m sure this relates to my preference for musical expansiveness, of distance in vertical harmonies and long horizontal lines.

Was coming out tough or a pleasure?  Sudden or gradual?
When I was in my early 20s I fell in love with another woman, who loved me back.  While I was probably always a lesbian (noun), until then I hadn’t given any thought to what that meant.  The expression “coming out” carries implications of knowledge of an “other” sexual orientation; the repression, or denial,  of that orientation;  and then feelings of release or relief when that knowledge is revealed to oneself and/or others.  For me, it was more simple:  I loved this person and she loved me – and if the word for our love was lesbian, okay, then I was lesbian (adjective).

Yet in retrospect I was probably the last person to realize that being a lesbian was a part of me.  I was a complete tomboy, and as a little girl I wanted to be the first woman professional baseball player when I grew up.

How do you perceive the relationship between different generations of gays and lesbians?
It seems as if there is gap between the experiences of older lesbians and that of the younger generations.   My elders support and value very strongly lesbian and women’s organizations, which do not seem to be of much interest to youth.

The first time I played in an all-woman orchestra was in the mid-1980′s, for the Bay Area Women’s Philharmonic (which later became simply the Women’s Philharmonic).  I felt a tremendous rush when I walked onto the stage – for about five minutes.  Then it was just like any other orchestral engagement.   I had a similar experience the first time I played in a GLBT orchestra, for the Gay Olympics in New York in the mid-1990s.    I don’t discount the importance of these events for others – both in the orchestras, and in the audiences – and the implications such ensembles have, both as role models (or for marketing purposes). Yet for me the bottom line is the musical experience – what my ears hear – not what community is represented.

What’s the last thing that made you cry?
Just today I saw a video online for the “Puppies Behind Bars” program (where prisoners are given puppies to raise for service programs) that brought tears to my eyes.  I’m a soft touch.  Playing in the orchestra pit for opera, I used to always tear up during the father-daughter recognition/reconciliation duets in Verdi operas.

The concerto is published by Lawdon Press, which is run by Higdon’s longtime partner Cheryl Lawson. Read Higdon’s program note on the piece here.

In January, Higdon, 48, received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her Percussion Concerto, recorded by Colin Currie and the London Philharmonic.

Previously on MyBigGayEars:
Jennifer Higdon Comes Out on Top (Aug 09)

Along with the as-yet-untitled piece, the program will feature Monk’s 3-minute hit “Panda Chant” (1984) and another work for orchestra and chorus, “Night” (1996/2005).  Monk and members of her vocal ensemble – including Allison Sniffin, Katie Geissinger, Thomas Bogdan and Theo Bleckmann — will be part of the performances. The program opens with Stravinsky’s Momenutum pro Gesualdo and ends with Bartok’s Music for Strings Percussion & Celesta.

Monk’s first orchestra work was “Possible Sky” commissioned in 2003 by Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony.  According to Paul Schiavo‘s program notes the new piece presents Monk working in a new long-form, in contrast to larger works in the past that were made up of discreet sections. The new piece will be, says the composer, in a “continuous woven form.” Monk is also aiming for an integration of voices and orchestra. “Monk has no interest in the traditional paradigm of vocal melody with instrumental accompaniment,” writes Schiavo.  The orchestrations for both the new piece and “Night” are credited to Allison Sniffin with Monk.  The full program notes can be viewed here.

Monk’s new work was co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, which perform it on April 11 in Walt Disney Hall. That program also includes “Night” and excerpts from Monk’s “Songs of Ascension,” along with Arvo Part’s “Miserere.”

The prize “honors the lifetime achievement and lasting significance of a contemporary American composer” and comes with a $50,000 purse. A celebratory concert and tribute will be given in Miller Theater on Saturday March 27.

The retrospective marathon program starts at 8 p.m. and runs approximately 3.5 hours with two intermissions.  Program notes can be viewed here.

Program:
Deep Listening: Lear (1988) (CD recording)
Fed Back II (1966)  (audio playback)
Sounds from Childhood: Sonic Meditation (1992) (for audience participation)
The Gender of Now: There but not There (2005)
Variations for Sextet (1960)
Who’s Playing What (2010)
Bye Bye Butterfly (1965) (audio playback)
The Inner / Outer Matrix (2007)
IO and Her and the Trouble with Him: A dance opera in primeval time (2001) (video excerpt)
Oracle Bones: Mirror Dreams (2009)
Lunar Opera: Deep Listening For_Tunes (2000) (video excerpt)
Ghostdance (1995) (video excerpt)
Njinga the Queen King: Return of a Warrior (1993) (video excerpts)
DroniPhonia (2009)

Performers:
International Contemporary Ensemble
Deep Listening Band
Timeless Pulse
Tom Buckner, baritone; Monique Buzzarté, trombone; Jonas Braasch, soprano saxophone; Sarah Cahill, piano; Stuart Dempster, trombone and didjeridu; Margot Farrington, visual performer; David Gampner, piano and electronics; Heloise Gold, dancer; Ione, spoken word/sonic vocals; Tony Martin, visual composer and performer; George Marsh, percussion; Miya Masaoka, koto/electronics; Doug Van Nort, laptop; Jennifer Wilsey, percussion; and David Wessel, electronics

Speakers:
Carol Becker, Dean, Columbia School of the Arts
David Bernstein
Michael Century
David Felton
Linda Mary Montano
Renée Levine Packer
Frances Richard
Jenneth Webster