Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Symphony No. 5
BMOP/sound

On its ninety-eighth release, conductor Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) honour composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich with an hour-long disc featuring material written during the last quarter-century. That the most recent of the four works was composed in 2015 testifies to the creative longevity of the Miami-born Zwilich, who turned eighty-five earlier this year. The set rewards on multiple levels: in bookending two concerti with a fanfare-like piece and a symphony, the set offers an encompassing portrait, and the BMOP delivers the material with its customary zeal and fastidious attention to detail. While the release is titled after the symphony, it's the concertos that make the strongest impression thanks to terrific solo performances by the orchestra's own Sarah Brady (flute) and Gabriel Diaz (violin). In imposing their personalities on their respective pieces, they transform the release into something more than a portrait of a single individual.

Zwilich's appreciation for the importance of intuition is reflected in her statement that when faced with writing a concerto, “I try to discover the ‘karma' of the solo instrument and write to explore that.” Certainly her rational and analytical selves are invoked in the creation of a piece, but openness to intuition, inspiration, and imagination are key too. While her material sits comfortably within the Western classical music tradition, the imposition of a personal stamp individuates her work. Admittedly, she's no revolutionary; at the same time, she doesn't merely follow where others have gone. That's shown in the occasional incorporation of other genre elements and in the use of unusual instrumentation, such as the Middle Eastern dumbek and West African djembe that work their way into the fifth symphony.

Suitably sequenced first, Upbeat! (1999) is a spirited concert opener that uses the opening phrase (which, naturally, begins on an upbeat) from the first movement of J. S. Bach's Partita No. 3 for Solo Violin in E Major, BWV 1006 as a springboard for wildly creative invention. The four-minute piece's jubilant character makes for an instantly engaging start, especially when the BMOP attacks the material with verve and when its folk-tinged melodies dance in a manner that at moments recalls Copland and Bernstein.

The album's most poignant setting is undoubtedly the three-movement Concerto Elegia (2015), which came about when she received a commission to write a piece for flute and string orchestra following the death of her husband Erik LaMont. The mournful piece became a memorial to him, and in an amazing bit of serendipity she discovered after including a quote from Sophocles in the score that the flute was considered the instrument of elegy in ancient Greece. As Zwilich clarifies, it advances through stages of grief, from sorrow to ultimate acceptance and finally joy, however tentative. Brady amplifies the sorrow at the heart of the material in her poised performance, and the orchestra's strings match her in that regard with their own sensitive playing. After an understandably bereft “Elegy,” “Soliloquy” probes introspectively to confront despair head-on and “Epilogue” achieves some hard-won semblance of serenity and peace.

As per its title, Commedia dell'Arte (2012) draws for inspiration from the same-titled Italian improvisatory theatrical tradition whose interactions between stock characters have delighted audiences for centuries. To that end, three of the work's four movements were named after specific commedia dell'arte characters. In contrast to the sombre tone of the flute concerto, the one performed by the BMOP and violinist Gabriela Diaz (a newly appointed member of The Kronos Quartet) is theatrical and flamboyant. The slapstick-punctuated “Arlecchino” is mischievous and nimble-footed, qualities Diaz vividly conveys in her acrobatic performance. Titled for the coquettish mistress of Arlecchino, the slower, tambourine-accented “Columbina” is sultry, seductive, and rhapsodic; named for a braggart posing as a general, “Capitano” is animated by a variety of militaristic percussion instruments but in a somewhat lampooning manner. The entertaining work culminates in a “Cadenza and Finale” that convenes all the characters for a final romp along with a magnificent cadenza by the soloist.

Zwilich's Symphony No. 5 (2008) presents four contrasting movements that are titled, even if they don't appear in the score. Rather than the music constellating around a single lead (as in the concertos), here there's a plurality of voices and the enactment of a complex, fertile dialogue. The work opens with an intensely dramatic, angst-ridden “Prologue” teeming with tremulous strings and aggressive horns; Zwilich isn't a derivative artist, but it is possible to hear similarities between it and a prototypical Shostakovich adagio. “Celebration” is naturally upbeat by comparison, even if smatterings of dissonance find their way into the writing amidst the brass bluster and percussive frenzy. The tone diametrically shifts for the grief-stricken “Memorial,” written in “remembrance of composers whose voices were silenced by tyranny,” among them the Austrian-born Czech composer Viktor Ullmann who died at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The less oppressive “Epilogue” concludes the work on a semi-triumphant spirit, though dissonance and solemnity are still present as destabilizing factors.

Zwilich is a more than deserving recipient of the BMOP's attention. A composer of many firsts, she was the first woman to earn a doctorate in composition at Juilliard (in 1975), the first to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Music (1983), and the first composer-in-residence at Carnegie Hall (1995). That's but a sampling of the voluminous awards she's received for compositions that resist easy categorization. Rather than write in accordance with some predetermined scheme, she instead gives free rein to her imagination and allows her personal voice to emerge. What results are pieces distinguished by originality, polished craft, and accessibility, and no background in music theory is needed to appreciate her oft-eloquent material.

July 2024