Overture Magazine: 2017-2018 Season January-February 2018 | Page 23

CONCERTO FANTASY FOR TWO TIMPANISTS
/IMPRESSIONIST MASTERWORKS
concerto for him. Haas assembled a
consortium of five ensembles—the
American and Milwaukee symphony
orchestras and the St. Louis and Phoenix
symphonies, as well as Baltimore’s own
Peabody Symphony Orchestra—to co-
commission and perform the new work.
It was premiered on November 19, 2000
by the American Symphony Orchestra at
New York’s Avery Fisher Hall.
To match the firepower of his soloists,
Glass wrote this concerto for an exception-
ally large orchestra boasting four percussion
players of its own, as well as a pianist and
a harpist. All of them attack the first
movement’s ringing ten-note principal
theme, punctuated by blows from the
timpanists. This theme is developed before
the woodwinds calm the proceedings with
a gentler descending theme. The volume
and intensity ebb and flow, but ultimately,
the movement ends very quietly.
Opening with a distant call on the solo
trombone, the second movement maintains
this quieter dynamic but infuses it with
ominous drama. Reining in the volume,
the soloists nevertheless project a mood of
controlled menace. Though the tension
gradually increases, the movement finally
returns to the hush with which it began.
This movement is linked to the last
movement by a substantial cadenza for the
soloists, which is nearly a movement in
itself. Devised by Ian Finkel, it showcases
the timpanists’ versatility and power,
even asking them at one poi