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分享03-Mar-2017
by Rita Davidson
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 Composer Sofia Gubaidulina’s new work “Triple Concerto” for accordion, cello, and violin received its world premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, February 25, 2017 and on February 28, 2017 in New York at Carnegie Hall as part of its ongoing 125 Commissions Project. The concerto was co-commissioned by the BSO and the North German Radio Philharmonic of Hannover. Swiss accordionist Elsbeth Moser, a longtime Gubaidulina collaborator, inspired the composition and is the work’s dedicatee. Picture right: Elsbeth Moser, Sofia Gubaidulina and Rita Barnea. Picture lower, Elsbeth Moser with the score. BSO artistic administrator Anthony Fogg helped to bring the concerto to the Boston Symphony. In addition to the violin, cello and accordion soloist, the score of the Triple Concerto calls for three flutes and piccolo, three oboes, two clarinets and bass clarinet, three bassoons and contrabassoon, six horns, four trumpets (first in D, second through fourth in B-flat), three trombones, tuba and contrabass tuba, four percussion (variously playing triangle, snare drum, tenor drum, five tom-toms, bass drum, three cymbals, and tam-tam), timpani, celesta, and strings. The duration of the piece is about twenty-six minutes, played without pause. Excerpt from the review of the February 25, 2017 concert by Dr. James C.S. Liu in The Boston Musical Intelligencer: "It was a work filled with the kind of sonic atmospherics that you’d expect from a veteran film score composer like Gubaidulina, and between the presence of three soloists, women from different countries and different generations, the exploration of unusual instrument combinations and the extremes of orchestral tessitura made for a fascinating probing of music’s margins. The crowd registered warm approval, and rose to its feet when the 85-year-old composer stepped to the front to take a bow. " As a student in Soviet-era Russia, Gubaidulina was criticized for exploring non-traditional sounds and tunings, but, as the story goes, famed composer Dmitri Shostakovich supported her boundary-pushing work. Like so many Russian artists and musicians she was scrutinized and remained behind the Iron Curtain, largely cut off from the West. In 1979, she was blacklisted by the composer's union as one of the so-called "Khrennikov's Seven" for taking part in Western music festivals. This meant she and the others were banned from radio, television and publishing their scores. “Gubaidulina was one of those figures during the Soviet-era that we knew a little of,” Fogg explained. “There was some recordings of her music, but she was almost a sort of mythical figure regarded as one of the important figures in the next generation after Shostakovich.” The BSO’s relationship with Gubaidulina began in 1988, as her international recognition was rising. She was able to travel to Boston for a festival of Russian music. The orchestra and composer have collaborated many times since then. In 1997 Gubaidulina was a composer-in-residence at Tanglewood.” The 85 year old composer attended rehearsals following the score and making suggestions to the BSO music director Andris Nelsons. Elsbeth Moser who teaches at the University of Music, Theater, and Media in Hanover Switzerland and Gubaidulina have been collaborating together for many years. Their first rehearsal together was in Lockenhaus, Austria prior to the Gubaidulina’s western premiere of “Seven Words.” Elsbeth assisted Sofia in leaving Russia in 1991 and going to Germany where Sofia presently lives. Accordionist and teacher, Elsbeth Moser studied accordion and piano at the Bern Conservatory and at the Academy of Music in Trossingen. In 1983 she was appointed as a professor at the University of Music and Theatre in Hanover. In 1998 she became an honorary professor of the Music Academy Tianjing and is a guest professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and at the University of Pula (Croatia). Top photo: Baiba Skride, Harriet Krijgh, Elsbeth Moser in Gubaidulina "Triple Concerto". (Winslow Townson photo) |