MCO’s Daybreak can be heard on Thursday 6 March 7:30pm and Sunday 9 March 2:30pm at Melbourne Recital Centre.
Matt Laing (b 1998)
This waking moment#
#MCO PREMIERE COMMISSION
The composer writes: This waking moment is a work written for the strings of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.
The commission brief was to write a work befitting the opening of MCO’s 2025 season, one of new beginnings, of forward looking optimism.
This waking moment is a multilayered, textural work depicting a sunrise over water from land as a metaphor for change from a singular, physically grounded vantage point. The piece captures points of micro and macro focus of sunrise, and through particular textures and dynamics blurs other parts of this imaginary scenery as the light changes. It also balances the predictable inevitability of sunrise with the unpredictability of how it might manifest on any given day, through its composition and the inherent nature of a delicately balanced work for 16 individual voices.
My thanks to Artistic Director Sophie Rowell and MCO for commissioning this work, and for many years of musical friendship.
WA Mozart (1756–91)
Clarinet Concerto in A major K622 (arr string orchestra Gottwald + Salamon)
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Rondo: Allegro
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756–91) Clarinet Concerto dates from October 1791 and was one of his final completed works; it was composed around the time of Die Zauberflöte and La clemenza di Tito. The concerto was written for Anton Stadler who gave its premiere in Prague that year. The work was scored for the basset clarinet with its additional four semitones lower than the modern clarinet.
The concerto is in the usual three movement form and is notable for its delicate interplay between soloist and orchestra, and for the lack of overt display on the part of the soloist. Possibly the most memorable movements of Mozart’s music is the beautiful and profound Adagio in ternary form. The closing rondo has a wonderful cheerfully restrained theme that is contrasted by episodes that recall the darker tones of the opening movements.
George Walker (1922–2018)
Lyric for Strings
George Walker (1922–2018) was an American pianist, composer, and teacher. He studied with Nadia Boulanger, Robert Casadesus, Clifford Curzon, and Rudolf Serkin and was the recipient of Fulbright, Whitney, Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and MacDowell fellowships and, in 1996, a Pulitzer Prize.
Lyric for Strings was originally the slow movement from the composer’s String Quartet No 1 composed in 1946 and dedicated to his grandmother. A string orchestra version of the work was later premiered under the title Lament. In 1990 he expanded the work and retitled it Lyric for Strings. This became his most performed composition.
In an interview with the New York Times, the composer said, “There’s no way I can conceal my identity as a black composer, I have a very strong feeling for the Negro spiritual and have also drawn from American folk songs, and popular and patriotic tunes, which I believe merit inclusion in serious compositions.”
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Petite Symphonie à cordes (after String Quartet in F)
I. Allegro moderato. Très doux
II. Assez vif, très rythmé
III. Très lent
IV. Vif et agité
Maurice Ravel (1875 –1937) composed the string quartet in F in 1903 and first performed in Paris in the following year. The work was dedicated to his teacher Gabriel Faure.
The work is in four movement: the first in sonata form with its two contrasting themes. This is followed by a spirited scherzo, then a lyrical slow movement and the finale is a rondo that brings together themes from the earlier movements.
The Russian conductor Rudolf Barshai arranged the quartet for small string orchestra in 2003. In addition to Petite Symphonie à cordes, Barshai also arranged works of Shostakovich and Prokofiev for string orchestra.
Read more on the interviews of David Griffiths and Sophie Rowell.
Program Notes (except Laing): David Forrest