Modern Violin, Viola and Cello Concertos

Composer: Reena Esmail
Piano: Paul Kerekes
Trumpet: Jean Laurenz

01 Jhula Jhule

You can learn to play this piece. FREE scores and parts, among other materials, are available online: kronosquartet.org/fifty-for-the-future

Composed by Kala Ramnath on violin, arranged for string quartet by Reena Esmail 
© 2016 Inner Sunset Publishing
℗ 2016 Kronos Performing Arts Association
Commissioned for Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire

Produced by Kronos Quartet
Recorded July 2016 at Studio Trilogy, San Francisco, CA
Engineered and mixed by Laura Dean
Assistant Engineer: Alex Spencer
Production Assistant: Minna Choi
Mixed at Women's Audio Mission, San Francisco, CA
Assistant Mixing Engineers: Monica Bonilla, Ripley Young, Becca High, Victoria Fajardo, Hannah Valente and Victoria Fajardo

Amrit

Kala Ramnath - Amrit

In 2015, I decided to build a comment box and leave it in public places around New Haven, CT. On the outside of the box, I asked: "What would you do to change the world? What do we need?" The text in this piece is a compilation of those responses.

chainlink fences

Commissioned by the Manhattan Sinfonia and violist Karen Dreyfus. Premiered at Alice Tully Hall in 1993. Recorded here with the Warsaw Philharmonic under the direction of George Manahan and Karen Dreyfus as soloist.

Program Notes:
"I have had the good fortune to have worked with and composed for some of America's finest violists, among whom several stand out: James Dunham of the Cleveland Quartet, Marcus Thompson, Walter Trampler, Sol Greitzer, and, most recently, Karen Dreyfus, who will give the world premiere of my Viola Concerto No. 3.
"It is to the many lessons and experiences taught me by these wonderful violists that my new concerto owes its creative and spiritual stimulus. My third concerto seeks to compress the most resonant tonal areas inherent in the viola, and at the same time, expand these areas into a romantic weave of dialogue and argument.
"Cast in three movements, there are strong Baroque and Classical reminiscences which nourish the musical narrative in traditional fashion.
"Throughout the Concerto's extended development, the intrinsic difficulties of balance and compatibility between the solo viola and the orchestra are compensated for in several ways. There are many interspersed cadenzas of varying length, as well as antiphonal passages between solo and tutti and strong orchestral developments which allow the viola to remain silent from time to time.    
"I was not content with 'baby-fied' accompaniments behind the soloist. Rather, I sought a rich and texturally interesting orchestral backdrop, giving the orchestra players an interactive role in the narrative. At the same time, I hoped to preserve and showcase the richness of the viola's most sonorous properties, or dramatis personae if you will.
"Beyond all explanation, the Concerto strives for direct and visceral communication, so as to draw the listener into its action and emotional drama."
—William Thomas McKinley (© 1993), from 22 Feb 1993 and 23 Feb 1993 programs.

Concerto No. 3 for Viola and Orchestra (1992): III. Prestissimo e diabolico

Concerto No. 3 for Viola and Orchestra (1992): II. Largo

Concerto No. 3 for Viola and Orchestra (1992): I. Lamento

Commissioned by Sol Greitzer and premiered with Greitzer as soloist with Jorge Mester conducting the Pasadena Symphony Orchestra in 1987. Recorded here with Karen Dreyfus and the Silesian Philharmonic under the direction of Jerzy Swoboda.

Program Notes:
"Composing in a neo-tonal, euphonious, contemporary language, I owe much to the achievements of the American romantic composers such as George Gershwin and William Schuman filtered and synthesized through my own personal experiences in American jazz. Although this new concerto is not meant to be an overtly jazzy work, the listener who is familiar with certain modern tonalities of jazz and popular music will hear the expansion of these tonalities along with modernist rhythmic elements, cast within a wide palette of orchestral color.
"I envisioned Sol Greitzer's role in the manner of Harold in Italy. (We have occasionally teased with the idea of 'Sol in Los Angeles' or 'Sol in NewYork'). The viola part is quite continuous, seldom resting, and moves in and out of phase with the orchestra. Its presence is usually dominant, but sometimes the viola is meant to be heard only as part of the total fabric. This allows me to indulge occasionally in the large sound of the orchestra and, due to intrinsic problems of balance when the viola is used as a concerto solo instrument, I was faced with the traditional task of balancing the viola against the orchestra while at the same time justifying and enhancing the orchestral presence and involvement in the musical dialogue. Thus, as in Harold in Italy, my concerto may be viewed as a symphony with the cantus firmus or main thread of continuity throughout the work's entirety centered in the solo part.
"There are three movements, the first cast a la Haydn in a monothematic or distilled sonata form, the second a veritable presto vivo scherzo type, and the finale a chaconne cast in a very large, developing variation form not entirely unlike the form of the passacaglia in Brahms' Fourth Symphony. There are cadenzas in the first and last movements interspersed with smaller quasi-cadenza-like passages. The cadenza in the third movement begins accompanied and gradually evolves into solo. Although I have used principally classical structures for the concerto's architecture, the overall drama does indeed unfold in a long-lined, romantically lyrical manner. Melody is extremely important.  Only in the domain of harmony and color have I consciously sought a modern surface."
— William Thomas McKinley (© 1987), from 13 Mar 1987 program.

Concerto for Viola and Orchestra No. 2 (1985): II. Vivo

Concerto for Viola and Orchestra No. 2 (1985): I. Andante ma non troppo

Ghanana Ghanana: Shivani Bhatt, Sandeep Peddada
Chaiyya Chaiyya: Lauren Bonomo, Vivek Vishwanath, Vijay Narayan
Hips Don't Lie: Ila Nimgaonkar, Shunori Ramanathan, Marios Falaris

Arr. Reena Esmail

Sur et Veritaal 2013

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Ghanana Ghanana - Chaiyya Chaiyya - Hips Don't Lie

Turning Tables: Shunori Ramanathan
Alvida: Vijay Narayan

Arr. Reena Esmail

Sur et Veritaal 2013

www.facebook.com/suretveritaal

The Blue Room, mmt 2 - Concerto for Violin and Orchestra

reenaesmail

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