NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC’S
AUDREY WRIGHT PLAYS
ZWILICH VIOLIN CONCERTO

JESSIE MONTGOMERY
b. 1981
Starburst

ELLEN TAAFFE ZWILICH
b. 1939
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Audrey Wright, violin

There will be a 20-minute intermission between the first and second halves of the performance.

ERICH KORNGOLD
1897-1957
Suite from Much Ado About Nothing
I. Overture
II. Mädchen in Brautgemach [The Maiden in the Bridal Chamber]  
III. Holzapfel und Schlehwein [Dogberry and Verges]    
IV. Intermezzo (Gartenszene) [Garden Scene]                         
V. Hornpipe [Masquerade]    

MAURICE RAVEL
1875-1937
Le Tombeau de Couperin
I.  Prélude 
II.  Forlane
III. Menuet
IV.  Rigaudon

Classic Accents Two (February/March 2026)
by Michelle Pellay-Walker

Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981):  Starburst

Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst exists in three different versions:   one for string orchestra (the original version), one for full orchestra, and one for chamber ensemble.  It is the latter that will be performed on this concert set, featuring two flutes, two clarinets, harp, piano, and strings.  On her website, Ms. Montgomery describes the piece as follows:  “…a play on imagery of rapidly changing musical colors.  Exploding gestures are juxtaposed with gentle fleeting melodies in an attempt to create a multidimensional soundscape.  A common definition of a starburst:  ‘the rapid formation of large numbers of new stars in a galaxy at a rate high enough to alter the structure of the galaxy significantly’ lends itself almost literally to the nature of the performing ensemble who premiered the work, The Sphinx Virtuosi, and I wrote the piece with their dynamic in mind.”

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939):  Concerto for Violin and Orchestra

First performance:  March 1998:  New York City (Carnegie Hall), Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Hugh Wolff, conductor, Pamela Frank, soloist

“My new Violin Concerto is a very personal and deeply felt contemporary response to the instrument I have been closest to throughout my musical life.  Perhaps that's why I found the experience of writing my concerto at once a challenge and a labor of love…it is important that the orchestra play a crucial role in the dialogue, but I also want the violin to be free to be expressive in its mezzo piano range.  So, achieving good balances in a rich musical setting is a major challenge in writing a violin concerto.  And since I write directly on the orchestra (rather than "orchestrate" from a piano score), it is a question of having at all times a sense of the forces at hand and "sculpting" them as a part of the form of the piece.” [extracted from the composer’s website]

The “forces at hand” clearly show Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s interest in the sonic impact of the orchestra, and includes woodwinds in pairs plus auxiliary family members, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, harp, and strings.  The concerto is written in three separate movements.  The first movement features an early entrance by the soloist following a brief introduction, is loosely in A-B-A form (slow-fast-slow), and includes several cadential moments.  The influence of Johann Sebastian Bach will easily be heard in the second movement;  the first half of the movement features a repeated eight-bar phrase that recalls the chaconne at the end of the Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor.  Movement three is another loosely ternary form movement—and it’s really Off  To The Races in the middle section!!    

Erich Korngold (1897-1957):  Suite from Much Ado About Nothing, Opus 11

First performance:  Vienna (Schönbrunn Palace), 1920.

Erich Korngold's music for William Shakespeare's comedy, Much Ado about Nothing, Opus 11, recalls other composers who have provided well-known incidental music for stage works, most notably Felix Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream (also by Shakespeare), and Edvard Grieg’s two Peer Gynt (Henrik Ibsen) suites.  The music was composed in 1919 for a production of the play that would take place at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna a year later.  There are originally 23 musical selections;  five of these are included in this suite, which is scored for single woodwinds plus piccolo, two horns, trumpet, trombone, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, harmonium, and strings.   

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937):  Le Tombeau de Couperin

First performance (orchestral version):  February 1920:  Pasdeloup Orchestra, René-Emmanuel Baton, conductor

Le Tombeau de Couperin (The Tomb of Couperin) was originally composed by Maurice Ravel for solo piano over a three-year period between 1914 and 1917, with four of the original six movements orchestrated by the composer two years later.  Each movement is dedicated to the memory of a friend of the composer, who was lost during World War I.  The emphasis on dance forms, combined with the swirling woodwind figures, creates a joyful memorial to his fallen friends.  The orchestration for this work features woodwinds in pairs plus piccolo and English horn, two horns, trumpet, harp, and strings.  The four movements extracted from the original piano version are the Prélude, the Forlane, the Menuet, and the Rigaudon.