| |
Three U-M composer/faculty members are featured
on the new CD “Bassett, Bolcom, Daugherty”: from Equilibrium.
Hear an excerpt from "Strade
Vuote" (Empty Street)  mp3
(requires audio
plugin)
Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra by Leslie
Bassett (Clifford Leaman, alto saxophone).
 Leslie
Bassett, born in Hanford, California, in 1923, was a composer
and arranger for Army bands in the US, France and Germany during
World War II. He came to Michigan for graduate work in 1947 and
then joined the faculty. In 1966, he received the Pulitzer Prize
in Music for his “Variations for Orchestra,” and his
1976 US Bicentennial score for the Philadelphia Orchestra, “Echoes
From an Invisible World,” has received over 60 performances
by the country’s finest orchestras. He has been professor
emeritus of composition since 1991 and composed “Concerto
for Alto Saxophone” in 1999.
Lyric Concerto for Flute and Orchestra by William
Bolcom (Amy Porter, Flute)
William Bolcom joined the U-M faculty in 1973. He composed
“Lyric Concerto for Flute and Orchestra” for the Koussevitzky
Music Foundation in 1993, when its premiere performance featured
James Galway and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. “When James
Galway and I began discussing the idea of my writing a concerto
for him,” Bolcom says, “he was emphatic about wanting
a ‘Celtic Concerto,’ and he sang a little passage of
three descending notes followed by a descending fifth, which he
called ‘Celtic fall.’ I made use of this in the concerto’s
first movement, ‘Leprechaun.’” Bolcom, born in
Seattle in 1938, won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his “12
New Etudes for Piano.”
Spaghetti Western for English Horn and Orchestra by Michael Daugherty (Harold Smollar, English horn)
Michael Daugherty, born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
in 1954, is one of the most widely performed and commissioned American
composers of his generation. “Spaghetti Western” (1998)
typifies Daugherty’s ability to mine popular culture for compositions
whose kitschy titles belie the grandeur and beauty of his musical
exposition. His other major works include the “Metropolis
Symphony” (in honor of Superman’s hometown), “UFO,”
“Sing Sing: J. Edgar Hoover,” “Elvis Everywhere”
and the opera “Jackie O.” Daugherty joined Michigan’s
School of Music in 1991.
All pieces are performed by the University of Michigan Symphony
Orchestra, Kenneth Kiesler, conductor.
Order at www.equilibrium.com
|
