Overture Magazine - 2018-19 Season BSO_Overture_NOV_DEC | Page 20

COPLAND SYMPHONY NO. 3
Instrumentation: Three flutes including
piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two
clarinets including bass clarinets, E-flat
clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four
horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba,
electronica, timpani, percussion, harp, piano,
celesta and strings.
MOONLIGHT (SECOND CONCERTO
FOR OBOE AND STRINGS)
Kevin Puts
Born in St. Louis, MO, January 3, 1972
To celebrate its 100 th anniversary in
2016, the BSO turned to composer
Kevin Puts to create a new work, The
City (which was also co-commissioned
by Carnegie Hall to salute its own 125 th
anniversary). Puts was hardly a surprising
choice, for not only has he been on
the faculty of the Peabody Institute
since 2006, but over that decade he has
become one of the nation’s most sought-
after composers. And his Network, River’s
Rush and Symphony No. 4, “From
Mission San Juan,” had already been
popular visitors to the Meyerhoff stage.
Puts’ opera Silent Night, premiered
at the Minnesota Opera in 2011, won
the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Music and
has subsequently been produced at
major houses in the U.S., Canada and
Europe. In 2015, he followed this success
with another opera for Minnesota,
The Manchurian Candidate, based on
Richard Condon’s famous novel.
This past June, Puts’ new Oboe
Concerto, Moonlight, was premiered
by Katherine Needleman at the BSO’s
New Music Festival and now makes its
subscription season debut. Kevin Puts
explains how it came into being:
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OV E R T U R E / BSOmusic.org
“Immediately following her
performance of the beautiful Oboe
Concerto of Christopher Rouse at the
Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
in August 2016, I approached Katherine
Needleman about doing a project
together, and, to my great delight, she
was enthusiastic.
The piece was written in the wake of
the 2016 presidential election during a
time of great upheaval and division in
the country and—for me—a profound
feeling of disillusionment. I floundered
for several months, searching for
inspiration until the discovery on a
cross-country flight of the 2016 film
Moonlight in the in-flight entertainment
guide. I found it exquisitely made, and
the film’s demonstration of tolerance
and compassion in the midst of a tough
environment stayed with me for some
time, giving me cause for hope.
My concerto is in three parts, played
without break. I call the first movement
(and the whole piece) Moonlight,
because …why not? Beethoven did it
— or his publisher did. Anyway, I heard
this opening music every time I thought
of the film, though it does not sound like
the soundtrack to the film (which I
loved, by the way).
The second part, Folly, is driving
and sinister, at turns threatening and
grotesque, obsessively hanging onto a
repeating two-note motive throughout.
The third part follows a short cadenza
for the oboe out of which a long-breathed
melody emerges. Theodore Roethke
wrote, ‘In a dark time, the eye begins to
see.’ I continue to strive for vision and
understanding in the midst of our great
national division.
My most sincere gratitude and
admiration go to Katherine Needleman
for her guidance in shaping the oboe
part, and to Bette and Joseph Hirsch for
their friendship and generous support
for this project. And as always to Marin
Alsop for her belief in my work.”
Instrumentation: String orchestra.
SYMPHONY NO. 3
Aaron Copland
Born in Brooklyn, NY, November 14, 1900;
died in North Tarrytown, NY,
December 2, 1990
Aaron Copland’s music reflected his
own personality: plain, straightforward,
honest and idealistic. Born in Brooklyn,
a DJ for electronic dance music and a
techno artist in Oakland, CA. The title
Mothership comes from his conception
of the orchestra as a large mothership in
hyperspace at which various soloists –
featured in virtuoso riffs – continually
dock throughout the piece. Because
these solo riffs are improvised on
the spot, no two performances of
Mothership will be the same.