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

Hi! I'm a 35-year-old writer living in Chicago who dabbles in classical music. I've been writing music since I was 18, amassing a good amount of chamber works and a few orchestral pieces, too, though I now primarily focus on arranging pieces for woodwinds. I'm particularly fond of video game music and have spent much of my free time creating suites for classic 90s JRPGs. I've been fortunate to have my music performed worldwide, and I'm always looking to connect and collaborate with other musicians to help bring a new life into neo-classical music.

Concerto for Flute and Orchestra

Geoffrey Gordon Composer