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Piano Concerto in Six Movements (1969)
Ned Rorem:
"Each of the six movements [of the Concerto] is based on the same material, the kernel planted by the soloist during the first two measures of the entire work ... Each [movement] suggests either a kind of action or a kind of sound: Strands, Fives, Whispers, Sighs, Lava, Sparks. [...]
"Strands, a long slow opener, is so-called precisely because it is made up of strands: the piano plants a long hard seed from which orchestral tendrils emerge, one by one, until they form a Medusa's knot which is never unravelled (as, say, a fugue would normally be) but rather resolves itself through sheer exhaustion. In the entire first movement the pianist uses only his right hand.
"Fives is loud and fast and based on various combinations of quintuplet figures. Whispers is soft and fast and meant to sound like its title. Sighs, long and slow, a theme with variations. Lava, murky and slow, serves as an introduction to Sparks which is, expectedly, a glittering finale."
Ned Rorem (b. 1923) is best known for his nearly 400 art songs and many diaries and critical essays. Influenced by the music of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, and Billie Holiday, Rorem's compositions use a variety of techniques within a predominantly diatonic musical language. Rorem's output includes six operas, three symphonies, four piano concertos, and a number of orchestral, choral, and chamber works; his orchestral suite Air Music (1974) received the Pulitzer Prize in 1976.
Rorem was born in Richmond, Indiana and raised in a Quaker household in Chicago, Illinois. His musical education began with pianist Margaret Bonds and composer Leo Sowerby at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Between 1940-1949 Rorem studied in a number of places: Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois; with Rosario Scalero at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; privately with Virgil Thomson in New York City; Aaron Copland at the Berkshire Music Center (now Tanglewood) in Lenox, Massachusetts; and Bernard Wagenaar at the Juilliard School of Music, where he received two degrees.
From 1949 Rorem lived in Morocco and Paris, France, where he studied with Arthur Honegger at the Ecole Normale de Musique. In Paris he befriended Georges Auric, Jean Cocteau, Francis Poulenc, and the patron Marie-Laure de Noailles. Increasing commissions and performances led Rorem to return to the United States in 1958. He has since served as composer-in-residence at the University at Buffalo in New York, University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and has taught since 1980 at the Curtis Institute. Rorem currently divides his time between New York City and Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.
Rorem's orchestral music has been commissioned and performed by orchestras across the US; the Atlanta Symphony's recording of his String Symphony, Sunday Morning (1985) won a Grammy Award in 1989. Other awards include those from the Ford, Guggenheim, Koussevitzky, and Lincoln Center Foundations, Fulbright Program, and National Institute of Arts and Letters. Rorem has received the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award three times for his writings. His work is widely available on over 40 record labels.
related websites
http://www.nedrorem.com
Pianist Jerome Lowenthal studied in his native Philadelphia with Olga Samaroff Stokowski, in New York City with William Kapell and Edward Steuermann, in Paris with Alfred Cortot, and in Los Angeles with Artur Rubinstein. Lowenthal made his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1963; since then he has performed worldwide as an orchestral soloist, in duos with violinist Itzhak Perlman and pianists Ronit Amir (his late wife) and Ursula Oppens, and in quintets with the Lark, Avalon, and Shanghai Quartets. He has recorded for the Albany, Arabesque, Centaur, Columbia, First Edition, Music & Arts, Pro Piano, RCA, and Vanguard Classics labels. Lowenthal has taught for 14 years at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City and for 35 summers at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California.
The Louisville Orchestra in Kentucky was founded by conductor Robert Whitney in 1937 as the Louisville Philharmonic Society. It has since premiered and recorded works by over 250 composers including Benjamin Britten, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, John Corigliano, Alberto Ginastera, Jacques Ibert, Charles Ives, Ulysses Kay, Walter Piston, Joan Tower, and Heitor Villa-Lobos. Its performances can be found on the Albany, Centaur, CRI, Crystal, First Edition, Koch International Classics, and New World labels. Jorge Mester was the orchestra's second music director, a post he held from 1967 to 1969; its most recent director was Uriel Segal.
related websites
http://www.juilliard.edu/asp/fsnew/faculty_details.php?FacultyId=144&School=College&Division=Music
http://www.louisvilleorchestra.org
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