News Archive
Scribner's Ringing Endorsement
By Joseph McLellan
Washington Post February 26, 2000
Bells were ringing last night in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. The Choral Arts Society, Norman Scribner conducting, gave a program that began with "wild bells," concluded with funeral bells and included sleigh bells, wedding bells and (most spectacularly) fire-alarm bells in between.
The program opened with the world premiere of the brilliantly imaginative, rich-textured "Ring out, wild bells to the wild sky" of Augusta Read Thomas, a setting of selected texts by Alfred Lord Tennyson, notably "In Memoriam" and "Crossing the Bar." It began, appropriately, with prolonged bell sounds, not only on metallic percussion but also in the choral voices that held the first syllable, "Ring," with a bell-like resonance.
Whether or not Thomas took some of her inspiration from Rachmaninoff's "The Bells," which concluded the program, there were resemblances. Both composers gave particular attention to sound textures, using brilliant orchestration and choral fireworks. Both went in for maximum contrast and both end with a sort of elegy after moments of wild exhilaration. Both also gave soprano Carmen Pelton rich opportunities to display her clear, silver-bright soprano tone.
Thomas's work seems destined for a busy future with choruses that, like the Choral Arts Society, can depend on virtuoso technique and strong emotional expression. Rachmaninoff's setting of Edgar Allan Poe's classic poem (in Russian translation) shows what he could do when not writing for the piano. Its third movement, a vocal tone poem about fire, had enormous impact. Between these two extroverted display pieces, the chorus sang Benjamin Britten's tenderly moralistic "Cantata Misericordium," a treatment of the story of the good Samaritan with a sometimes very dramatic Latin text. Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey and baritone Christopher Robertson sang expertly in this and the Rachmaninoff.
Augusta Read Thomas signs with G. Schirmer
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
27 November 2000
G. Schirmer, Inc. announces the signing of Augusta Read Thomas to an exclusive five-year composer contract, in which the company will represent the music formerly in Thomas's own company ART Musings, as well as her future compositions.
"We are thrilled to welcome Augusta Read Thomas to G. Schirmer and the affiliated companies of the Music Sales Group worldwide," states vice president Susan Feder. "A tremendously gifted composer, Thomas has had a meteoric rise to success on an international level and has been championed by musicians as diverse as Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Mariss Jansons, Seiji Ozawa, Mstislav Rostropovich, John Nelson, Christian Lindberg, David Finckel, Chanticleer, and the Avalon Quartet. Her music has also frequently been heard at the Aspen Music Festival, Cleveland Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony, where she is composer-in-residence." Feder continues, "Thomas's music is at once intelligent and intense, urgent and impassioned, structurally complex and immediately accessible. With seemingly limitless energy, she is also a dedicated teacher at the Eastman School and a passionate advocate for new music through her position in Chicago. We hope to give Augusta more time to compose, and we look forward to working closely with her to further her career and disseminate her music to the widest possible audience of performers and listeners."
Thomas comments, "For years I have admired G. Schirmer's dedication to the music of our time. It is a privilege to join this distinguished company, which represents many wonderful composers. I look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with G. Schirmer."
In the past 12 months alone, Thomas has had six major premieres: Aurora: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, co-commissioned and premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony (with Daniel Barenboim as soloist); Invocations, performed by the Miami String Quartet at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival; Fugitive Star, performed by the Avalon String Quartet at the Caramoor Festival; Ring Out Wild Bells to the Wild Sky (with texts by Tennyson) for the Washington Choral Arts Society at the Kennedy Center; Song in Sorrow for soprano, chorus and orchestra commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra, and the orchestral work Ceremonial for the Chicago Symphony, led by Barenboim. A fervent champion of her music, Barenboim adds, "I consider Augusta Read Thomas one of the most talented composers today, and I feel privileged to have premiered several of her works both as soloist and conductor. I'm confident that wonderful things will grow out of this relationship between Augusta and G. Schirmer." Thomas's upcoming premieres include a work for Mariss Jansons and the Pittsburgh Symphony, to be presented in May, and Daylight Divine for soprano, children's chorus and orchestra commissioned by John Nelson and Soli Deo Gloria, which will be premiered at the Festival Saint Denise in Paris in June. She will also write a new work for Germany's NDR Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach for a premiere in November 2002.
Thomas began her musical career with studies at Northwestern University, Yale University, and at the Royal Academy of Music. She has received prizes from ASCAP and BMI; the NEA; the Naumburg, Fromm, Guggenheim, and Koussevitzky Foundations, and was awarded this year's Siemens Foundation Prize in Munich. Previous works include: the choral work Love Songs, commissioned by Chanticleer whose Teldec CD (TELC# 24570) received a 2000 Grammy Award; the concerto Vigil, for cellist Norman Fischer and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony; and the Chicago Symphony's commissioned works Concerto for Orchestra ‹ Orbital Beacons and Words of the Sea.
G. Schirmer is one the oldest publishing houses in America, having been founded in 1861. Having acquired Associated Music Publishers in 1964, today G. Schirmer counts among its roster of living composers such elder statesmen as Elliott Carter, Karel Husa, Leon Kirchner, Gian Carlo Menotti, and Gunther Schuller; contemporary leaders like John Adams, John Corigliano, John Harbison, Peter Lieberson, André Previn, and Joan Tower; as well as younger figures such as Richard Danielpour, Anthony Davis, Aaron Jay Kernis, Bright Sheng, and Tan Dun. G. Schirmer is also the home of such legendary names as George Antheil, Samuel Barber, Henry Cowell, Duke Ellington, Morton Gould, Charles Ives, Arnold Schoenberg, William Schuman, and Virgil Thomson. The company publishes nearly one-third of the Pulitzer Laureates who include: Stephen Albert, Samuel Barber, Elliott Carter, Morton Gould, John Harbison, Karel Husa, Leon Kirchner, Gian Carlo Menotti, Walter Piston, Mel Powell, Gunther Schuller, William Schuman, and Virgil Thomson.
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