October – Illuminating Virtuosity Composers
Quinn Mason (b 1996)
A Joyous Trilogy (2019), 15 minutes
Flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba, timpani, crotales, vibraphone, glockenspiel, xylophone, triangle, suspended cymbal, bass drum, tam-tam, harp, strings
This is the first performance of this work by the GJSO
Quinn Mason was born in Dallas and showed an early and intense interest in music, which was nurtured by his mother. He learned piano, cello, and percussion and began teaching himself everything he could about music, memorizing all of Beethoven’s symphonies and reading all the books about music in his school library. By age twelve, he had written his first piece. He completed his first symphony at eighteen and won his first composition contest, where his piece was performed by a professional orchestra, at nineteen. He spent two years at Richland College before transferring to Texas Christian University, however, he struggled with his non-music classes. He switched to Southern Methodist University where he took music classes as a non-degree seeking student. He continued composing, receiving his first commission at age twenty. After writing a variety of works that emulated various composers, Mason showed his style clearly in Inner City Rhapsody, commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 2020. Since then, he has received commissions from over 160 different orchestras. Mason served as Artist-in-Residence of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra from 2022-23 and as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Classical Roots Composer-in-Residence. He is a conductor, as well, studying with Marin Alsop and made his major orchestra debut conducting the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in 2023. John Axelrod, a composer and mentor of Mason’s wrote, “Two hundred years from now people are going to look back at the twenty-first century and say, ‘This is the age of the composer-conductor Quinn Mason.”
Mason composed A Joyous Trilogy in 2019 as a commission for Orchestra Seattle and Seattle Chamber Singers and is dedicated to Will White, the group’s conductor. Mason wrote about the piece that he “wanted to create a composition that was the very embodiment of happiness and cheerfulness, an accessible work that would put any listener in a good mood. The first movement, ‘Running’ is so called because of its always-moving and seemingly never-waning energy that keeps going and going. The second, ‘Reflection,’ is a gentle and introspective meditation featuring solo trombone. The third, ‘Renewal,’ picks the energy back up, but a little more spirited and zestful this time, and keeps it going to the very end, complete with dynamic and vibrant interplay between all the orchestral sections.”
What to listen for:
“Running”
- underlying rhythmic motion throughout
- flowing, colorful melodies with brief solo sections
- steadily builds to the end before quietly transitioning
“Reflection”
- shimmery beginning with string harmonics
- lyrical trombone solo
- lovely, introspective moments
“Renewal”
- rhythmic motifs passed around the orchestra
- steady building of tempo, texture, and dynamics
- ends with a colorful flourish
Notes From the Director
This piece is just pure fun from beginning to end. It was recommended to me by William C. White, whose Harmonia orchestra premiered the work a few years ago in Seattle. Mr. Mason’s career is skyrocketing with premieres all over the country. I was originally going to put this piece with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony at the end of the season – the “Joy” connection was obvious – but “A Joyous Trilogy” requires a much larger orchestra, so it fits better in this concert.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Piano Concerto in G Major (1931), 24 minutes
Flute, piccolo, oboe, English horn, clarinet, E♭clarinet, horns, trumpet, trombone, timpani, bass drum, suspended cymbal, snare drum, triangle, tam-tam, woodblock, whip, harp, strings, solo piano
In 2002, the GJSO performed this work featuring David Korevaar, piano, and Kirk Gustafson, conducting
Maurice Ravel was born in 1875 in a Basque town in southern France. The family moved to Paris when Ravel was three months old. Ravel began piano lessons at seven and started learning harmony and composing at twelve. Early on he heard the music of Rimsky-Korsakov and of the Javanese gamelan, a native percussion ensemble, both of which influenced his later compositions. Ravel enrolled in the Paris Conservatory at fourteen. However, his new ideas were not always compatible with the conservative faculty, leading to his eventual expulsion, subsequent reinstatement, and a second expulsion. Ravel found more success after leaving the conservatory, forging his path by bringing in many influences, such as jazz, and exploring the boundaries of musical form. Ravel worked slowly and had a small output compared to his contemporaries. Often he would write his works first for piano and then orchestrate them. Ravel served during World War I which compromised his physical and mental health. His slow method of work became even slower after the war, often he completed only one composition per year. His quantity of work was not indicative of the quality of his writing, some of his finest works come from after the war.Injuries sustained in a taxi accident in 1932 left Ravel unable to compose for the last five years of his life. Ravel is often called an “impressionist,” a description he disliked. His work is filled with complex melodies, interesting tonalities and chords, and is highly descriptive. Ravel was the most popular musician in France during the last decades of his life.
Ravel had long considered writing a piano concerto. He finally got around to it late in his career, beginning work on the Concerto in G Major in 1929. He hoped to play the work on a grand world tour, however, by the time Ravel finished the work, his declining health prevented him from performing the work. Marguerite Long served as the soloist while Ravel conducted the orchestra at the work’s premiere in 1932. Ravel wanted the work to be “…in the same spirit of those of Mozart and Saint-Saëns. The music of a concerto should, in my opinion, be lighthearted and brilliant, and not aim at profundity or at dramatic effects.”
What to listen for:
Movement 1:
- opening whip-crack followed by the main tune in piccolo and trumpet
- lyrical melodies juxtaposed with jazz-inspired sections
- fast virtuosic piano riffs that ends with a rhythmic flourish
Movement 2:
- long opening improvisatory-sounding piano solo
- 6/8 pattern in the accompaniment against a 3/4 pattern in the melody which creates tension
- movement gradually builds in intensity before an exquisite, poignant ending
Movement 3:
- two short chords begin a witty movement
- march-like melodies and brass fanfares
- virtuosic piano passages
- movement ends with a bang!
Notes From the Director
This is my favorite piano concerto, bar none. The first movement is full of live and vigor and jazzy stuff, and the second is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard. Spencer Myer is just the right guy to come play it with us. I’ve known Spencer since 2013. I had just been hired as Director of the Kent/Blossom Music Festival, and I was told by my new colleagues “You can do and program whatever you want, but the one rule is that we have to hire Spencer Myer to come play every year.”
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Symphony No. 5 (1919), 32 minutes
Flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, timpani, strings
This is the GJSO’s first performance of this work
Sibelius was born in 1865 in Russian-controlled Finland to ethnically Swedish parents. His father died when Sibelius was only three. Facing financial difficulties, his mother sold the family home and they moved in with his maternal grandmother to a home filled with music. His aunt taught him piano lessons and an uncle bought Sibelius his first violin. He began writing his first compositions as a young boy.
After completing high school, he spent a year studying law before transferring to the Helsinki Music Institute to study composition. After four years at the conservatory, Sibelius continued his studies spending time in Berlin and Vienna, where he started his first orchestral works which included Finnish themes. He returned to Helsinki in 1892 where his work Kullervo, a five-movement symphonic suite based on a Finnish epic poem, was premiered. Although his works were successful, he struggled to earn enough money and had to take a job teaching, which severely limited his composing time. Soon after, the Finnish government stepped in giving him a stipend that allowed Sibelius to compose full-time. Shortly thereafter, Sibelius completed his first symphony.
Sibelius was active as a composer and conductor, often spending long concert tours abroad in order to support an extravagant lifestyle. Following two surgeries to remove tumors from his throat, Sibelius gave up drinking and began a happy and productive decade. He composed numerous concert works and traveled widely to conduct. Sibelius spent the duration of World War I in Finland but traveled regularly again after the war. He completed his final major work, Symphony No. 7 in 1924. Sibelius completed a few small works, but never again wrote another large work. He told friends “If I cannot write a better symphony than my Seventh, it shall be my last.” There is circumstantial evidence that Sibelius attempted to write another symphony, however, he destroyed any manuscripts he had written before his death. Sibelius largely spent the last thirty years of his life quietly in the country and his home, often called the “Silence of Järvenpää.” He generally avoided commenting on new music and composers, however in private he expressed admiration for Bartók and Shostakovich. Sibelius died at his home at the age of ninety-one.
Sibelius was the best-known and most beloved composer in Finland. His birthday was declared a national holiday and the government commissioned a new symphony in honor of his fiftieth birthday. Part of the symphony was based on an experience Sibelius noted in his diary. In April 1915 he wrote,“Today at ten to eleven I saw 16 swans. One of the greatest experiences. Lord God, that beauty!” The main theme of the last movement became known as the “swan theme.” Symphony No. 5 premiered on December 8, 1915, however, Sibelius wasn’t completely happy with it. Over the next few years, he revised the symphony, completing the final version in three movements in 1919.
What to listen for:
Movement 1:
- slow beginning with horn calls and rippling woodwind melodies
- the movement gradually speeds up
- following a trumpet solo the movement ends in a scherzo-like flourish
Movement 2:
- pizzicato strings and staccato flutes over a second melody in winds and horns
- theme and variations format with different versions of the melody
- lovely, delicate music
Movement 3:
- rustling wings and bird calls
- “swan theme” in the horns
- building and rising momentum as the swans take flight
ends with six exclamatory chords
Notes From the Director
I’ve conducted Sibelius’ 1st and 2nd symphonies before, and studied the 3rd and 7th, but I’ve never performed the 5th. I love Sibelius, especially in the way his music conveys a sense of grandeur and vast open spaces. But the last few measures of this piece are probably the scariest thing we’ll play all year – just big huge chords surrounded by unpredictable silences.