In the season of his 80th birthday, Dutch composer Louis ANDRIESSEN remains an enduring and influential voice for multiple schools of composition, owing to his own ecumenical and self-reinventing approach. Elements of jazz, rock-pop and European High Modernism converge in his music to create a language both startling and familiar. Two of his more intimate and lesser-known pieces will anchor two programs that showcase the generational voices of New York-based Missy MAZZOLI and Puerto Rican-born Angelica NEGRÓN, alongside the winner of SFCMP’s annual SF Search for Scores educational program for composers under 30, who will write for a duo of players drawn from the instrumental forces of one of Andriessen’s more recent multi-media works. The concert also features the generational voice and world premiere of an SFCMP commission by Australian composer David CHISHOLM, responding to the post-High Modernist and multimedia strains of Andriessen’s work with a piece to be structured as a series of micro-concertos for a collection of instruments on the lowest end of the registral spectrum, coupled with electronics and deriving its inspiration from the realm of film. To bring the generational portrait into the immediate present, the series includes two works from a collaboration with the Technology and Applied Composition department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Programs
Fri, Mar 27
at SFCM Sol Joseph Recital Hall 50 Oak St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Angelica Negrón, Technicolor (2008) [6’]
solo harp + electronics
Kamran Adib, Cosmic Murmur: Whispers of Quantum Foam (2020) [5-7’] (TAC)(WP)
bass clarinet, electronics
Moya Gotham, Controller for Cello and Electronics (2020) (TAC)(WP) [5-7’]
cello, electronics
Louis Andriessen, Life (2009) [16’]
soprano sax or clarinet, percussion, piano, electric guitar, cello, bass
David Chisholm, deepfake (2020) [20’](C)(WP)
bass flute, bass/contra-bass clarinet, contrabassoon, piano, cello, double bass and 4-part electronics
Louis Andriessen, Zilver (1994) [15’]
flute, clarinet, percussion (2), piano, violin, cello
Sat, Mar 28
at Flight Deck 1540 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612
Missy Mazzoli, Tooth and Nail (version for viola) (2010) [9’]
solo viola (Meena Bhasin) + electronics
Taylor Joshua Rankin, Touch/Still (2019) [10-12’] (SF Search)
Cello, piano
Louis Andriessen, Life (2009) [16’]
soprano sax or clarinet, percussion, piano, electric guitar, cello, bass
David Chisholm, deepfake (2020) [20’](C)(WP)
bass flute, bass/contra-bass clarinet, contrabassoon, piano, cello, double bass and 4-part electronics
Louis Andriessen, Zilver (1994) [15’]
flute, clarinet, percussion (2), piano, violin, cello
Key:
*California composer, SFCMP Commission (C), World Premiere (WP), US Premiere (USP), West Coast Premiere (WCP), Student, Technology and Applied Composition Program. SFCM (TAC), SF Search Winner (SFSearch)
Notes
With a flair for the unconventional in terms of both instrumental resources and stylistic allusion, iconoclast Louis Andriessen has inspired generations of composers - from members of the Bang-On-A-Can collective to the youngest voices emerging on today’s scene. Part of a set of chamber works named after types of physical matter that also includes the piece Hout (‘wood’), Zilver (‘silver’) unfolds as a series of canonic gestures for an ensemble divided into two groups, beginning and ending with the metallic sounds of flute and vibraphone that the title references. The multimedia composition Life - written for the instrumentation of the Bang-On-A-Can All-stars - pairs four short movements of music with video clips of scenes from the everyday in a film by Marijke van Warmerdam - a kind of contemporary Pictures at an Exhibition. For a new work, exclusively commissioned by SFCMP, Melbourne-based composer David Chisholm also derives inspiration from a film - this time the short documentary “Powers of Ten” by Charles and Ray Eames - in addition to paying homage to the concepts of scale and proportion suggested by a now established classic of European Modernism, the Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op. 24 by Anton Webern. Missy Mazzoli’s Tooth and Nail and Angelica Negrón’s Technicolor both feature taped electronic materials paired with solo acoustic instruments - Mazzoli’s in augmentation of the viola’s voice through multi-tracked, pre-recorded accompanying strands, and Negrón’s with an aspect of everyday sounds coupled with ethereal, effectual gestures on the harp. In response to the ideas and instrumentation behind Andriessen’s Life, the winning selections from our annual SF Search for Scores by young composers in the Bay Area and nationwide, along with new works selected from a collaboration with the Technology and Applied Composition department at SFCM, help to bring the generational portrait into the immediate present.