This is the world premiere performance of Geoffrey Gordon's Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, commissioned for soloist Carol Wincenc and the Buffalo Philharmonic, from April 5, 2013,  Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, New York. Making his US debut, Christoph-Mathias Mueller is the guest conductor.

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     Geoffrey Gordon has produced a rich catalog of new music in diverse genres including chamber and orchestral, works for voice and solo instruments, and various scores for theater, dance and film. As a winner of the Aaron Copland Award, he twice served as  composer-in-residence at the Aaron Copland House. His music has been sponsored by the Barlow Endowment, the National Endowment for the Arts, the United Performing Arts Fund, the Concert Artists Guild, and the American Composers Forum, among many others.

     The Flute Concerto is dedicated to Carol Wincenc and the BPO, commissioned by the Orchestra and an anonymous donor. This world premiere represents a creative homecoming, in that both Ms. Wincenc and Mr. Gordon are former residents of Western New York.

     The new Concerto reveals a composer who has found a singular voice in the very large milieu of serious contemporary music. Today's manners and modes are very different from those which comprised the so-called avant-garde in the middle and later 20th century. The former was a time when 'anything goes' provided a chic calling card for composers who believed that in order to be 'new' they had to disavow as much 'past' as possible. But the idea of 'freedom of expression' for its own sake is now passe. In the last decade or two, many composers have embraced the idea that fine music should be 'about something' - as Tchaikovsky had the courage to say.

     Indeed, with Gordon's new setting for flute and orchestra, we have an up-to-date tone-tableau which conjures a snapshot of a much-beloved scene in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, i.e. in Act II when Oberon describes how Cupid delivers his charm. From the scene, Gordon attached two lines to the title page of the score:

    And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
           To hear the sea-maid's music.

     In full context:
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
That the rude sea grew civil at her song,
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maid's music.

That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid, all arm'd; a certain aim he took
At a fair vestal, throned by the west,
And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;

      Gordon develops the motif in the solo line by providing a continuous narrative of tuneful fragments, all woven together in a long garland of evocative effects. To support the lyrical journey in the flute, the score calls for a large orchestra, with piano and celeste, and two very rich sections of percussion including: triangles, bell tree, mark tree, woodblocks, glockenspiel, marimba, tubular bells, bass drum, various cymbals, gongs, tam-tams and tom-toms, crotales, vibraphone, xylophone, and bongos.

     The work is scored in one movement with a tantalizing cadenza for the soloist. In order to blend the many musical episodes into a continuous musical chain, the composer employs many changes in tempo and meter. Rather than functioning as an accompanying escort, the orchestra serves to embellish the flow of the musical imagery conjured by the sea-maiden solo flute.

     Flutist Carol Wincenc takes on the role quite naturally, writing: "In Astrological terms, I am a born Cancerian - or moon child. As a lover of the water and an avid swimmer, a sea maiden is what I am. And as for the stars shooting madly, that is a very powerful image - luminescence and the forward force."

- Edward Yadzinski
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

Concerto for Flute and Orchestra

US/UK composer Geoffrey Gordon’s contributions to the contemporary music repertoire have been and continue to be exceptional.  Intense and luxuriant harmony, passionate melody and superb handling of instrumentation and sonic textures define his music.  His works include orchestral, chamber and vocal works, recognised and performed by the world's top musicians and ensembles.  His music has been called "darkly seductive" (The New York Times), "complex, richly-satisfying " (BBC Music Magazine), “stunning” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “iridescent and glowing” (Chicago Tribune), “taut and exhilarating” (Classical Ear), “haunting” (Strings Magazine), "gripping" (Bachtrack), "fierce and uncompromising" (MusicWeb International) and “magnificent” (Fanfare).  The Philharmonia identifies “his infectious style" and “an ear for melody”; the New York Times his “zest for sonic experimentation”.  

Recently and upcoming, the BBC Philharmonic will premiere Mr. Gordon's new bassoon concerto, Anima Mia, during the 2022-23 concert season; the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Hong Kong Sinfonietta will premiere a jointly commissioned chamber concerto for Bb clarinet and ensemble, Fumee; and the Antwerp Symphony will premiere Mr. Gordon's Mad Song, which they commissioned for soloist Dimitri Mestdag. 

In 2018, the Philharmonia gave the premiere of Geoffrey’s Gordon’s bass clarinet concerto “Prometheus” after the treatment by Franz Kafka, at the RFH, with US and Nordic premieres following in 2019 with the Minnesota Orchestra and Malmo Symphony.   His superb setting of Keats' “Ode to a Nightingale” for choir and cello premiered in May 2018 in Copenhagen by Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir and a new CD of three of his major cello works, Cello Libris,  was released on the BIS label in early 2020, featuring the Copenhagen Philharmonic under Lan Shui.  His song cycles, “Peter Quince at the Clavier” and “Sonnets from Neruda” premiered in March 2018 at the Arnold Schoenberg Center, Vienna, and in October 2017 the Munich Philharmonic under James Gaffigan premiered his trumpet concerto, "CHASE," after the sculptures of Giacometti.  His cello sonata “FATHOMS” premiered at Carnegie Hall in  December 2015  and his “Winterleben” for horn, mezzo and piano (commissioned for Los Angeles Philharmonic principal horn, Andrew Bain), premiered in August 2015 as part of the 47th International Horn Symposium in Los Angeles.  Honoured by a number of residencies internationally, he has twice served as composer-in-residence at the Aaron Copland House and is winner of 2017 Mario Merz Prize for Music Composition. In 2018, he was commissioned by the Curie Institute in Paris, part of the Muse-IC project. A new chamber work, featuring musicians from the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, premiered at the  Salle Cortot Theatre in Paris in March, 2019. 

Future performances and commissions include new works for the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic and many others.

Find more links to Geoffrey Gordon's music, as well as bio and reviews etc. at www.geoffreygordoncomposer.com

NEW CD, Cello Libris, out on BIS Records!  
Find it here:
https://bis.se/performers/moldrup-toke/cello-libris-works-by-geoffrey-gordon

Ympyrätalon kulmilla - podcast luovuudesta ja oppimisesta. Twitter: @AnttiSunell

I compose in accordance with either a classical or baroque idom, which reflects my love for music from those periods.  I use Notion 6 currently to compose my music, and in the real world I play the classical guitar as well as the piano (though to a lesser extent).

If you enjoy my music please share to the world as I would like my "beats" to be heard farther than they are at present.

Best wishes,

"..agility and a buttery tone.“ - New York Times
"...tonal beauty and exacting technique.." - New York Times
"...agile" - Washington Post
Flutist Eric Lamb is in demand internationally as a soloist, recitalist, concert curator and chamber musician. In 2013, Eric left his post as a core member of the New York/Chicago based International Contemporary Ensemble - ICE to pursue a career as soloist and chamber musician.  Eric is a member of Ensemble Reconsil (Vienna), performs regularly with Orchester Wiener Akademie, is principal flutist of the Chineke! Orchestra London (Associate Orchestra of the Southbank Centre) and co-artistic director of ensemble paladino (2017 Chamber Music New Zealand Artists).
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In the last decade, Eric has premiered more than 200 works and has worked closely with composers John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, George Lewis, Marc-Andres Dalbavie, HK Gruber, Matthias Pintscher, Reinbert de Leeuw, Michel van der Aa, Nico Muhly, Ben Foskett and conductors like Sakari Oramo, Franz Welser-Möst, Vladamir Ashkenazy, Ludovic Morlot, Pablo Heras-Casado, Steve Schick, Susanna Mälkki and Pierre Laurent-Aimard. As a recording artist, his discography as a soloist and chamber musician is ever growing. He has recorded over 15 commercial available CD's for various labels including Kairos, paladino, SONY, NMC, mode, New Amsterdam, NAXOS,  Bridge, Starkland and Nonesuch. This repertoire expands one of the widest of his generation - from Bach, Mozart and Schubert to Xenakis, Jason Eckhardt and Passion Pit. Eric has performed with a long list of the worlds most important orchestra's and ensembles including the Cleveland Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Orchestra, ASKO Schoenberg Ensemble, Radio Orchestra Frankfurt and has been invited to perform at festivals in Darmstadt, Graz, Salzburg, Lockenhaus, Acht Brücken in Cologne, Mostly Mozart Festival, Heidelberg Spring Music Festival and the Bucharest Festival for New Music, to name but a few. His chamber music partners include some of Europe's most celebrated vocalists, instrumentalists and artists. Among many other projects,  Eric is working in close collaboration with the Stockhausen Stiftung and the Theater Basel to re-create the role of Luzifer in Stockhausen's opera 'Donnerstag aus Licht'.

Eric Lamb's research includes a very broad sweep of musical styles. Along with his on-going commitment to expanding the 21st century flute repertoire, he most recently has been deeply involved with the study and exploration of 17th and 18th century performance practice. This work has culminated, so far, in the discovery and editing of several long lost concerti, etudes, solo pieces and sonatas. His recent research output includes editions of solo works of Johann Joachim Quantz, Johann George Tromlitz, Johann Martin Blochwitz, Michel Blavet and arrangements of JS Bach and Mozart for flute and cello, all published for paladino music.  His critically acclaimed debut solo CD 'Quantz: Solo Flute Music' features the premier recording of Quantz's 8 caprices. 

Eric completed his musical studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he was a student of Michel Debost and studied chamber music with Kathleen Chastain. He then completed  his studies at the Hochschule für Musik Frankfurt am Main with Thaddeus Watson (Diploma and Concert Soloist Diploma) and later at the Sculoa di Musica di Fiesole, Italy (Diploma) with Chiara Tonelli . He studies baroque flute with Sally Tibbles and was heavily influenced by Irena Grafenauer (Salzburg), Robert Langevin (New York) and Viçens Prats (Paris). 

Eric performs on both Sankyo Flute made of Grenadilla Wood and an Altus Limited Silver Flute. He lives with his partner and dog in Austria and New Zealand.



Concerto for Flute and Orchestra

Geoffrey Gordon Composer