This is the premiere performance of Geoffrey Gordon's song cycle, Winterleben, a setting of five texts by poet Friedrich Rückert, for mezzo, horn and piano, commissioned for Los Angeles Philharmonic principal horn, Andrew Bain, through the gracious support of Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting.

Friday, August 7, 2015
Zipper Hall, Los Angeles

Andrew Bain, horn
Renee Rapier, mezzo
Nic Gerpe, piano

PROGRAM NOTE:

Friedrich Rückert, (1788-1866) – German poet, philologist, orientalist – was a profound source of inspiration for Gustav Mahler. The composer identified deeply with the directness and refined sensibility of his verses, declaring that ‘after Des Knaben Wunderhorn I could not compose anything but Rückert – this is lyric poetry from the source, all else is lyric poetry of a derivative kind’. Mahler set many of Rückert’s texts—Rückert-Lieder, Kindertotenlieder—but of course there are many Rückert texts which he did not set, including the five poem collection known as Winterleben (Winter Life). What follows is a new work, for mezzo soprano, French horn soloist (sharing equal prominence throughout the work) and piano, based on these beautiful and evocative Rückert poems.

-Geoffrey Gordon

TEXT:

II.Winter-Lerchenton

In Lüften hängt ein Lerchenton,
 Mein Ohr hat staunend ihn vernommen.
 Ist's eine, die noch nicht entflohn?
 Ist's eine, die zurückgekommen,
 Gelockt von Frühling schon,
 Da rings die Schöpfung noch von Winter ist beklommen?

 Durch meine Seele zieht ein Schwung,
 Den jener Ton hat angeschlagen.
 Ist's Ahnung, ist's Erinnerung
 Von künftigen, von vor'gen Tagen?
 Ich fühle nur mich jung,
 Ob wie ich's war, ob wie ich sein werd'? ist zu fragen.

 Verklungen ist die Melodie,
 Verschlungen von Schneewolkenherden;
 Und Winter ist's im Herzen, wie
 Am Himmel Winter und auf Erden,
 So Winter, als ob nie
 Gewesen Frühling sei und nimmer sollte werden.


GORDON Winterleben II

This is the studio recording, on the Signum label, of Geoffrey Gordon's double concerto, Saint Blue, commissioned for the English String Orchestra and soloists Simon Desbruslais and Clare Hammond, through funds provided by Arts Council England. Inspired by the works of Russian visual artist and visionary, Wassily Kandinsky, Saint Blue (scored for trumpet, piano and strings) is divided into two contrasting sections, with the second essentially embedded in the first—a kind of sonic exploration of the sacred and profane—in a fairly straight-forward A-B-A design. The first section is a reaction to Kandinsky’s 1911 All Saints I (part of the Stadtische Galerie’s permanent collection in Munich), and features the soloists and full string orchestra in a shared expression of this colorful masterpiece. The contrasting B section draws the orchestra’s principal double bass into a trio with the trumpet and piano soloists, creating a kind of extended, jazz-infused cadenza, after Kandinsky’s In Blue (1925; part of the Kunstsammlung Museum’s collection in Dusseldorf). An animated return to the tutti string orchestra and some (evolved) thematic music from All Saints I, concludes Saint Blue. 

"Geoffrey Gordon’s Saint Blue, inspired by two Kandinsky paintings ('All Saints 1' and 'In Blue', well worth a web search), is by far the best work on this engaging disc; a taut and exhilarating single movement concerto, wonderfully played by soloists Simon Desbruslais and Clare Hammond."

–Chris Achenbach
Classical Ear (UK): 30 April 2018

"Geoffrey Gordon's Saint Blue is inspired by two Kandinsky paintings, All Saints I and In Blue and constructed as 'a sonic exploration of the sacred and profane,' with the trumpet deployed first as an instrument of heavenly summons, then as the bluesy soul of jazz in this complex, richly-satisfying work."

-Kate Wakeling
BBC Music Magazine: January 2018

Saint Blue (double concerto for trumpet, piano and strings after Kandinsky)

Listen to extracts from three characteristically fiery works by Danish composer Carl Nielsen: the Flute and Clarinet Concertos and the Aladdin Suite.

Recorded live in London's Royal Festival Hall, the album will be available from 3 March 2017.

01 Flute Concerto | I. Allegro moderato

Recording  in The Banff Centre of Arts, Alberta. Canada. August 2018

My Residencies in The Banff Centre was located in the Leighton Artists´ Studios Independent Residency area. A sacred places offer to delve into our work as well the option to engage within the Banff Centre community. A unique experience I will keep in the bottom of m heart !

Audio engineers: Henry Ng , James Clemen-Seely and Albert Picknell

Recording in grand piano concerto Steinway & Sons

La maja y el Ruiseñor. E. Granados. The Banff Centre of Arts and Creativity, Alberta. Canada.

World premiere performance by Friction Quartet on March 29, 2019.

Recorded live at the Center for New Music in San Francisco.

Abaciscus:
noun
1. (Archaic) One of the tiles or squares of a tessellated
pavement; an abaculus

The movement titles for the first three movements refer to mosaics
found primarily in the Villa Romana del Casale and the Piazza Vittoria
de Palermo in Sicily, and date from the early 4th century. The title for
the fourth movement comes from the Daphni Monastery in Athens,
circa 1100 AD.

The sacred and profane elements, taken together, are of particular
interest, and form the philosophical framework for this piece. (Musical
references to the Beach Boys’ California Girls and the Viderunt Omnes
of Pérotin are designed to underline this point.)

Commissioned by Third Angle Ensemble

ABACISCUS: IV. The Angel Before St. Joachim

ABACISCUS: III. Bikini Girls

ABACISCUS: II. Orpheus

ABACISCUS: I. Circus Scene

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

GORDON Winterleben II

Geoffrey Gordon Composer

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