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Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Concerto Grosso 1985 in Japanese Premiere

May. 31, 2012

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s <em>Concerto Grosso 1985</em> in Japanese Premiere

On June 22, the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa led by Kazuyoshi Akiyama perform Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Concerto Grosso 1985 for the first time in Japan at the Ishikawa Kenritsu Ongakudo in Ishikawa, Japan. The composer and conductor are longtime collaborators: Mr. Akiyama conducted the first performance of an orchestral work by Zwilich at Carnegie Hall – her Symposium for Orchestra – with the American Symphony Orchestra in the 1970s. Written in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of Handel’s birth, Concerto Grosso 1985 is the composer’s “twentieth-century response to the spirit of George Frideric Handel.” Zwilich adds:

When I was commissioned to write a work in commemoration of the three-hundredth anniversary of Handel’s birth, I almost immediately thought to base the new work on that composer’s D-major Violin Sonata. I performed the work many years ago, and I especially love the opening theme of the first movement-the striking head motive and the beauty of the generative tension between the theme and the elegant bass line. My concerto is both inspired by Handel's sonata and, I hope, imbued with his spirit.

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Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
Concerto Grosso 1985 (1985)
for chamber orchestra
based on themes from the first movement of Handel’s Sonata in D for violin
fl.2ob(2.ca).bsn.2hn.hpd.str
14’

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