A concert at 3 pm Sunday, Jan 29 in the Dalton Center Recital Hall called Modern Marvels will include a new concerto for horn co-commissioned by the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. Music director Julian Kuerti discussed the hallmarks of modern music with Cara Lieurance.
Kuerti believes that modernity in music began around 1913, just before the First World War, with the performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. He explains how music took a turn and splintered after this point, and how the First World War produced a lot of difficult and challenging art. They talk about how modernity is changing in the 21st century by composers who have a huge toolbox of musical methods to work with.
The first work on the program is called Critical Moments by George Perle. Kuerti notes that Perle was a close friend of his family and was a Chicago native and a scholar of the 12-tone surrealist composers, particularly Alban Berg. The piece is described as "Haydn-esque," "clever," "intricate," and "beautiful."
The second work on the program, Carmagnole, is by Gerard Plesson, who is a living composer working in France. According to Kuerti, his approach is unique in using instruments in unconventional ways, such as having the musicians breathe in rhythm and using bells on the floor that the musicians play with their feet.
Principal trombonist Kip Hickman will be featured in the third piece. Three Proclamations for Trombone and Strings is by John Duncan, an African-American composer born in Alabama in 1913.
Horn soloist James Sommerville, who played principal horn for the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 25 years, and Canadian-born composer Kati Agocs also join Cara Lieurance to preview the Michigan premiere of Agocs' new Horn Concerto.
Kati Agocs is from rural Ontario, and has a house in Newfoundland that she uses as a writing studio. She has been living in Boston since 2008. She and Sommerville discussed the type of piece they wanted to write and that gave rise to the project. The concerto was commissioned by five orchestras and the KSO came on board early in the process. The concerto has already been premiered in Sioux City, Halifax, and Winnipeg and Sommerville is excited to present it in southwest Michigan for the first time.
