The Road home: American Journeys (Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra)
By Robin McNeil
The Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra will finish its concert series entitled Season of Journeys on April 12 and April 13. The previous two concerts were entitled Mozart Travels to London, Mendelssohn Goes to Scotland. This final concert is entitled The Road home: American Journeys.
As you might guess from the title of American Journeys, this final concert will feature American composers. The three works to be performed are Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 3, and Rounds for String Orchestra by David Diamond.
The two performances of this concert are as follows:
April 12, 2013, Friday
St. Paul Lutheran, 1600 Grant St. Denver, CO 80203
April 13, 2013, Saturday
First United Methodist Church, 1421 Spruce Street, Boulder, CO 80302
Daniel Silver, Clarinet
Ticket prices are: $20 General ($18 in advance), $5 Students
Copland’s Clarinet Concerto was first performed November 6, 1950, with the NBC Symphony of the Air Radio Broadcast conducted by Fritz Reiner. It is in a two-movement, slow-fast format which is similar to his piano concerto. The two movements are linked by a solo cadenza. Since this work was commissioned by Benny Goodman, it is full of jazz elements, and, according to Copland, it has some Brazilian folk tunes in it, because Copland began writing this work while he was in South America. This is an incredibly difficult work for the clarinet, particularly in the cadenza.
The clarinet soloist for the Copland will be Daniel Silver, who is on the faculty at the College of Music at CU in Boulder.![DAN_PROMO1.250180838_std[1]](https://www.thescen3.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/DAN_PROMO1.250180838_std1-199x300.jpg)
“Mr. Silver has performed with the Baltimore Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, including Carnegie Hall concerts with David Zinman and Lorin Maazel. He has been a concerto soloist with the Washington Chamber Symphony, The National Chamber Orchestra, the Roanoke Symphony and others. He has played under many of the leading conductors of recent decades, including Seiji
Ozawa, Leonard Bernstein, and Andre Previn. His festival credits include Tanglewood and Aspen and he now spends his summers at the Interlochen Arts Camp, where he has been a faculty member since 1991. He has recorded for Marco Polo and CRI.”
“A graduate of Northwestern University and the University of Michigan, his teachers have included Thomas Peterson, Robert Marcellus and Deborah Chodacki. Mr. Silver has taught previously at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, Towson University (MD), and the Baltimore School for the Arts. In demand as a clinician and adjudicator, he has served on panels in the United States, Asia and Australia.”
The Symphony Nr. 3, by American minimalist composer, Phillip Glass, is a four movement work for chamber orchestra which glass finished in 1995. It was commissioned by the Würth Foundation for the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and received its premiere on February 5, 1995. This chamber symphony was written for ten violins, four violas, three cellos, and two string basses. It is very interesting work, because part of the commission was the requirement for Glass to write solos for each of the nineteen string players. In addition, this is one of Philip Glass’ most traditional compositions.
The final work on the program will be Rounds for String Orchestra by American composer, David Diamond. Diamond (1915–2005) belongs to a group of composers that include Samuel Barber, Howard Hanson, Walter Piston, Aaron Copland, and Virgil Thomson, and though his compositions are considered conservative from today’s viewpoint, it is my opinion that he must be considered a much underrated American composer, and one of the best. This work was first performed by the Minneapolis Symphony with Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting on November 24, 1944.
For further information, or to purchase tickets by phone, call: 720-443-0565. The Pro Musica website is: www.promusicacolorado.org
