I’m back home for good now, and have finally had time to put my thoughts together around my latest premiere, which took place on November 18th in Budapest.
About the Event
The American Composers’ Podium is the brainchild of conductor Alberto Santana, stemming from the odd reality that American music is largely unknown in Hungary. This is something I observed there in the early 90’s, and I was surprised to learn that it is still the case. When I lived there the only American music people seemed to know about was John Cage and Steve Reich. So, as an American composer, I naturally welcome this idea.
Photo credit: Robin Carduner
This year’s Podium included world premieres of three newly commissioned works (mine included), plus the Hungarian premiere (!) of Barber’s Symphony No. 2. In addition to my Letter to Hungary, which opened the concert, we had the priviledge of hearing Sara Doncaster’s very beautiful Song of Nature and Three Maidens, an impressive horn concerto by Malcolm Hawkins. Alberto closed the concert with Barber’s Adagio for Strings. We three composers had never met before. I was glad to meet both of them and thoroughly enjoyed both of their company during the days leading up to the concert.
Sara’s work was for soprano and string orchestra, and featured a young American soprano, Nanci Weneck, who’s lived in Budapest for five years now. Remember that name. Trust me. Although we’d never met before, Nanci and I have in common the same Philadelphia mentor, Sean Deibler, who was responsible for both of us studying in Budapest, albeit during different eras.
Many thanks to the American Embassy in Budapest, who gave this event its full support. Not only did the embassy provide a lovely reception, but the ambassador himself was present and made a speech before the concert.
About the Venue
The building now used by the Italian Culture Institute in Budapest was the home of the Hungarian Parliament from 1867-1902. When I lived in Budapest, the Italian Institute either didn’t exist, or was not used as a concert venue, so I originally responded with a shrug to the news that this would be the venue. In the time since, however, it has become not only one of the main classical concert venues, but also a sought-after recording space. The acoustics in the concert hall are phenomenal. Except for a mural on the wall behind the stage (which I did not take the time to study), it’s a relatively plain room with an extremely high ceiling.
HCSO Rehearsal at the Italian Institute
How did my piece go?
As far as I can tell, Letter To Hungary was very warmly received. I mean, no one was going to come up to me and tell me the piece was terrible, so I only got positive feedback. Of course, a couple of things were working in its favor. For one thing, since it was specifically written as a concert opener, it’s a bit of a crowd pleaser, on top of which the basis on Hungarian folk music was sure to endear it to a Hungarian audience. Also, in my brief talk before the piece was performed, I opened with a bit of Hungarian, which is something Hungarians always appreciate. In fact, I’d gotten as far as “jó estét” (good evening) before they erupted into applause, to my delight and embarrassment.
Alberto Santana led a spirited and emotional performance. It was particularly gratifying to hear his reading of the slow opening, which had been particularly hard to listen to on my Sibelius playback. His approach to the scherzo at the end was suitably energetic — swashbuckling even, and the orchestra responded with vigor. So regardless of what the audience may have thought, I was a happy camper.
The orchestra was quite a bit smaller than what I was picturing while writing the piece, so there were some spots that didn’t quite work as desired. There are some places in the piece where the sections divide into as many as four parts. But these guys were pros, and they figured out how to make it work. So, while some of it wasn’t as robust as what I was picturing, the overall effect was just fine.
The only real sad news is that no recording was made of the concert. I’ll now be working on some minor revisions and seeking out future performances, so hopefully it will be recorded someday.
Categories:One Response to “About the Concert, Finally”
Dang, you got to get a mp3 player with a recording feature.
