Artifacts (2019)
[2222.4221.timp+2 perc.SOLO violin.strings]
Duration: 25’
I. Prelude (after Berio)
II. Aria (after Paganini)
III. Intermezzo (after Ysaÿe)
IV. Dance (after Sciarrino)
Commissioned by the California Symphony
Premiered May 5, 2020 at Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA
Robyn Bollinger with the California Symphony; Donato Cabrera, conductor
Audio excerpts available through the California Symphony
One particularly pleasant corner of the repertory is occupied by works that composers have written for good friends, often with that friend’s input and contributions. The Brahms Violin Concerto comes first to mind: Brahms wrote it for Joseph Joachim, one of Brahms’s earliest boosters and a faithful collaborator down the years, and it was the result of so much give-and-take between the two artists that one rather wonders if it might warrant a hyphenated attribution of Brahms-Joachim. Felix Mendelssohn wrote his genre-changing Violin Concerto for his close colleague Ferdinand David; Bartók composed his warm and lyrical Third Piano Concerto for his wife Ditta. It’s a sizeable list of terrific stuff, a testimony to the role that friendships have played in shaping music history.
Katherine Balch joins that select company in writing Artifacts, a violin concerto for Robyn Bollinger. “Robyn and I have been friends since our undergraduate years at New England Conservatory, and I’ve been wanting to write her a piece for a long time,” says Balch. “I wanted to take the repertoire Robyn and I love and have shared conversations over, and turn it into something not only in my own voice, but also into something I hope elevates/highlights the incredible personality Robyn brings to her performative practice.”
As a result, Artifacts takes as the departure point for each of its four movements a particular piece in the solo violin repertory—Berio’s ‘Sequenza’, the Paganini Sixth Caprice, the Sarabande from Ysaÿe’s fourth violin sonata, and Sciarrino’s sei capricci. Balch tells us that “while there are not really direct ‘quotes,’ there is often the illusion of quotation, or referencing the pieces in some personal way.” But it’s not necessary to recognize the pieces being referenced in order to enjoy the concerto. “I want to capture and try to share a bit of the magic I experienced listening to the music I love,” says Balch. Then she adds an altogether critical proviso: “filtered through my own voice.”
— Scott Foglesong
Press:
“...just as notable is the skill with which Balch writes for the orchestra, filling her score with engaging instrumental knickknacks and nuggets of imaginative whimsy that come at the listener from every corner of the stage. She’s like some kind of musical Thomas Edison — you can just hear her tinkering around in her workshop, putting together new sounds and textural ideas... the concerto’s lustrous, beating heart is its second movement, after the Capriccio No. 6 of Paganini. Here the violinist does almost nothing but sustain a long trill — but it’s a trill full of color and variety, which the soloist turns as if holding a jewel up to the light. The orchestra, meanwhile, whispers sweet enchantments into the audience’s ear, from little ticktock insinuations to gently smeared tonal harmonies. It’s a short but breathtakingly beautiful stretch...”
Previews:
California Symphony blog: A weekend with Katherine and Robyn
California Symphony blog: The Four Works That Inspired a World Premiere