The last of the festivals presented by Lucerne Festival in the calendar year, Forward is a fall weekend devoted exclusively to contemporary music and begins today.
Designed and performed by the young musicians of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO), this year’s edition of Forward features the work of such composers as Julius Eastman, Fausto Romitelli, Rebecca Saunders, Liza Lim, Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir, and Charles Uzor (who discusses his new composition commemorating George Floyd, Katharsis Kalkül, in the video above.
Aaron Zigman’s Émigré is a 90-minute oratorio that tells the story of refugees finding a home and community in Shanghai; the libretto is by Mark Campbell. On Friday 17 November, Long Yu and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, along with musicians from the New York Philharmonic, will give the world premiere at the Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall.
In the late 1930s, Jewish refugees escaping Nazi Germany found a home and a community in Shanghai, China — one of only two countries in the world that would accept them. While Shanghai had previously served as a haven for Jews escaping persecution, the many refugees who fled to the city directly after Kristallnacht arrived on the shores of a country affected by the occupation of Japan and the atrocities of the Nanjing Massacre committed less than a year before.
This moment in history is the backdrop of Émigré, an oratorio in two acts that dramatizes the experiences of two Jewish brothers who arrive in Shanghai as refugees in 1938. As the young men navigate their new life, bonds are formed between the Jewish and Shanghainese communities that test the social boundaries and traditional ideas of both. Émigré reaches its tragic conclusion in a love story that mirrors the larger world, its message emerges: that our survival as a race depends on diverse communities learning to embrace our shared humanity. See detailed synopsis below.)
Commissioned by Long Yu, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, Émigré calls for nearly 150 musicians, including members of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic Chorus, and Lanzhou Concert Hall Choir, as well as seven soloists. The solo parts will be sung by Matthew White, Arnold Livingston Geis, Huiling Zhu, Meigui Zhang, Shenyang, Diana Newman, and Andrew Dwan. The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Long Yu will also record the oratorio for Deutsche Grammophon, with a release date scheduled in 2024. The New York Philharmonic will give the US premiere of Émigréon 29 February 2024.
Long Yu, Music Director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, said: “Émigré will shed light on humanity and provide a valuable lesson to us through the immense kindness and tolerance this city once released in history. From working on the draft idea to finally premiering the work this week, this new production has been carefully crafted over four years. We have musicians of different races and beliefs gathered in Shanghai to collaborate on the stage, and the piece will be performed by other orchestras in years to come, further conveying this message of love and hope to the world. This is the power of art.”
Aaron Zigman is a classically-trained American composer who has written scores for films and TV shows including The Notebook, Wakefield, Bridge to Terabithia, and the Sex & The City franchise whilst also writing, arranging and producing songs for top recording artists such as Ray Charles, Sting, Tina Turner, Seal, and more. Zigman has also composed a number of chamber, orchestral, and vocal works. His -award-winning Tango Manos has been touring the world with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.
Mark Campbell is a Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist who has created 40 opera librettos alongside lyrics for 7 musicals and the text for 9 song cycles and 4 oratorios. The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, an opera featuring libretto by Campbell, received a 2018 GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording.
Synopsis of Émigré
Act One
Two brothers—Josef and Otto Bader—have escaped Nazi Germany in 1938 and arrive at Shanghai harbour on a ship with other Jewish refugees. They express their sorrow at having to suddenly leave their parents and their homeland but find hope as they approach the city that has welcomed them. Josef, a medical doctor, urges Otto, a rabbinical student, to look ahead to their new life in Shanghai.
Several weeks later, Josef seeks to expand his knowledge of Eastern medicine and visits Wei Song’s herbal medicine shop where he meets two sisters, Lina and Li Song. Josef and Lina immediately feel an attraction to each other, but their flirtation is interrupted by the sudden entrance of Wei, the sisters’ father, who has been attacked by soldiers. Wei rails against the devastating effects of the Japanese occupation of his beloved Shanghai.
Yaakov, a rabbi and Josef and Otto’s uncle, leads a class, including Otto, in a lesson at the yeshiva. After the lesson is done, Tovah, a woman who volunteers at the yeshiva, engages in a conversation with Otto. Otto reveals his anguish at the disappearance of his parents in Germany. Tovah invites him to the Jewish Relief Fund dance and attempts to cheer him by musing on what the world might be like if women were allowed to be in power.
A few months later, while lighting candles at Longhua Temple, Lina and Josef discover parallels between their lives and cultures, deepening their relationship. Otto and Tovah attend the Jewish Relief Dance when Josef and Lina enter as a couple. Wei enters looking for his daughter and both he and Otto assail them for crossing cultural lines. Tovah, Lina and Josef counter their attack by asking for tolerance. As the argument escalates, Japanese soldiers enter the dance hall and announce that members of the Jewish community are to move to the Hongkew District in Shanghai.
Act Two
As Tovah, Otto and Yaakov move from the yeshiva and Lina and Josef look for a place to take them in, all affirm their need to hold on to hope. Josef and Lina visit the Song household and Josef asks Wei for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Wei angrily refuses and Josef leaves. Lina ardently expresses her love for Josef, then defies her father and runs after her fiancé.
Josef and Line are married and attempt to return to the Song home, but Wei shuts them out. Li implores her father to reconsider and both she and Wei go outside to search for Lina. Not long after, Josef and Lina appeal to Otto and Yaakov to shelter them at the yeshiva, but they refuse. After they leave, Tovah argues with Otto and runs into the street. A bomb explodes.
Several months later, Otto mourns the death of Tovah and Wei laments that of Li, both of whom died in the bombing. With Josef, Lina and Yaakov, they vow to preserve the memory of the two women and live in hope again.
Ask violinist David Harrington what he’s listening to these days, and you’ll get an instant glimpse into the insatiable hunger for discovery that defines and fuels Kronos Quartet, the trailblazing ensemble he founded in 1973. With Kronos Quartet, it’s the ears that are the window to the soul.
Abel Selaocoe and the Seattle Symphony; photo (c) Carlin Ma
What a memorable concert this was — my latest Seattle Symphony review:
“I feel very welcome here,” said Abel Selaocoe just before making his debut with the Seattle Symphony. Not only did he seem completely at home: in remarks introducing Four Spirits, his new work for cello, voice and orchestra, the young cellist-composer invited the audience to enter into his musical world, indicating that he would cue them when to sing along at the appropriate moment. “I’ll see you on the other side,” he winked, just before taking up his position to launch the piece.
This week the Nashville Symphony and Giancarlo Guerrero present the world premiere of Hannibal Lokumbe‘s boundary-breaking The Jonah People: A Legacy of Struggle and Triumph. This bold and uncompromising opera draws on Hannibal’s own family history and the biblical parable of Jonah and the Whale to tell and epic, visionary story that honors the countless Africans stolen from their homeland as well as their descendants through the generations.
You can find my program guide to this extraordinary collaborative work here:
John Luther Adams onstage at Carnegie Hall after the New York premiere of his ‘Vespers of the Blessed Earth’ by the Philadelphia Orchestra and The Crossing. (Photos by Chris Lee)
A most interesting concert at Carnegie Hall, pairing a new major work by John Luther Adams with the never-old Rite of Spring: my review for Classical Voice North America is now online.
Music from Samuel Adams’s Movements (for us and them) for the Australian Chamber Orchestra
The profound impact that the pandemic has had on contemporary composition will undoubtedly continue to be felt for years. Samuel Adams points to an important shift in his own musical thinking exemplified by his new work No Such Spring,the world premiere of which Esa-Pekka Salonen is conducting in this week’s program with the San Francisco Symphony, with Conor Hanick as the piano soloist. Salonen will also conduct the symphony Anton Bruckner deemed his “boldest”: the Sixth. My program notes for No Such Spring can be found here.
I was so taken with Seattle Symphony’s live performance of Tidalwave Kitchen this week that I searched out other upcoming projects by its wonderful young composer Gabriella Smith and discovered this. She’s one of three composers commissioned by the The Soraya/CSUN for its Treelogy project—including Steven Mackey and Billy Childs—to create work in response to California’s devastating wildfires. The commission was inspired by the New York Times writer John Branch’s 2020 coverage (who just wrote about the disappearing San Francisco fog).
Here’s some info on Treelogy, which will be premiered on 23 February 2023 at the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts on the California State, Northridge campus in Los Angeles County:
Treelogy: A Musical Portrait of California’s Redwood, Sequoia, and Joshua Trees is a celebration and a call to action to save California’s beloved and iconic trees. Inspired by California’s epic wildfires chronicled by The New York Times journalist John Branch, The Soraya’s Executive and Artistic Director, Thor Steingraber, and artist in residence Etienne Gara, have created a musical response to the fires, and a tribute to these precious trees. Renowned composers Billy Childs, Steven Mackey, and Gabriella Smith—all with deep California roots of their own — have each composed original music for this three-part concert. Produced, commissioned, and presented by The Soraya, Treelogy will tour the state bringing scientists, educators, activists, and advocates will come together and bring its inspiring message to campuses across California. This unprecedented multi-disciplinary effort will emphasize the pride of our state and the memories of every family’s national park vacation.
The 76th edition of the Ojai Music Festival begins today and runs through Sunday. I was honored to write the notes for the inspiring, original, “discipline-colliding” program curated this year by AMOC* (the American Modern Opera Company) and featuring its unparalleled team of artists. That a collective is serving in the role of music director/curator is one of the unique features of this summer at Ojai.
There are many fascinating tangents to AMOC*’s program: a focus on the legacy of Julius Eastman, whose music begins and ends the festival; perspectives on Minimalism, especially from Eastman, Hans Otte, and the young generation of composers emerging today; adventurous juxtapositions of music, dance, and theater; and the exciting convergence of early music sensibilities (on the part of today’s performers, that is) and “new music.”
Also in the lineup are several anticipated premieres: AMOC* co-founder Matthew Aucoin’s new cycle of “mini-concertos,” Family Dinner; Bobbi Jene Smith and colleagues’ intriguing latest dance-theater projects, Open Rehearsal and The Cello Player; Carolyn Chen’s music-dance work How to Fall Apart; and Anthony Cheung’s poetry-song cycle, the echoing of tenses. Also part of this cornucopia of premieres was to have been a new staging by AMOC* co-founder Zack Winokur of Olivier Messiaen’s song cycle Harawi (part of his “Tristan trilogy”), but this will not be able to happen because Julia Bullock is unable to travel from her home in Germany due to Covid. Harawi has been a long-in-the-making collaboration between the soprano and Winokur — it’s a major loss not to be able to present it at the festival. But such is the extraordinary team ethic and resilience of this company that member Davóne Tines and colleagues agreed to step in at the last minute to offer an entirely different program for the Friday night slot: Tyshawn Sorey’s For James Primosch and Tines’s own curated program Recital No. 1: MASS.
It’s hard to process the reality that Joel Sachs has decided to retire as of June 30 after 52 years of teaching and music making at Juilliard; he will hold the status of professor emeritus. Generations of musicians and musical thinkers have been mentored by Sachs, who as a conductor, pianist, and curator has also made invaluable contributions to new music. I’ve been immensely privileged over the years to benefit from his incredible wisdom while editing the programs he single-handedly writes for Juilliard’s always-stimulating Focus festival at the beginning of the year. Zachary Woolfe wrote about Sachs and the 2022 edition of Focus in TheNew York Timeshere.
Sachs tonight conducts the New Juilliard Ensemble, which he founded and has led for 29 seasons, in their final concert of the season and his own farewell concert (at 7.30 pm ET).
The program, which will be live-streamed, is characteristically intriguing and full of discoveries:
Yangfan XU Fantastic Creatures of the Mountains and Seas Lennox Thuy Duong, Narrator Paul FREHNER Sometimes the Devil Plays Fate Mary Beth Nelson, Mezzo-Soprano Diana SYRSE The Invention of Sex Diana Syrse, Soprano Paul DESENNE Sinfonía Burocràtica ed’Amazzònica
Writes Sachs in his farewell announcement: “Of course, I have mixed feelings–making music with our great young performers is always a huge pleasure. But having arrived at age 82 in excellent health, it struck me as time to move on to other projects–recording, performing as a pianist, and writing–and to indulge in luxuries that come with an open schedule, such as more traveling and more time with my children and grandchildren.”
I’m looking forward to the next project Joel Sachs will be sharing with us. In the meantime, warmest congratulations!
