“The first words you’ll hear in composer Michael Gandolfi’s new piece ‘In America’ are those of Mark Twain,” writes Zoë Madonna in Thursday’s (7/19) Boston Globe. “ ‘Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak,’ the singers exhort…. ‘In America’ will premiere Monday during the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra’s concert at Seiji Ozawa Hall. TMC fellow Gemma New is scheduled to conduct…. Gandolfi explained that the TMC had charged him with writing a ‘contemporary version’ of ‘Songfest: A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra’ in celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday… Like ‘Songfest’ … Gandolfi’s piece is written for orchestra and six vocal soloists.… Gandolfi’s sources span centuries [including] Americans such as Walt Whitman, H.L. Mencken, Martin Luther King Jr., poet Brenda Hillman, and Emma González, the survivor of the February school shooting in Parkland, Fla…. One portion includes open harmonies reminiscent of Aaron Copland’s Americana fantasy ‘Appalachian Spring.’ … At certain points, percussionists shake maracas at the audience … ‘like you’re trying to shock them…. What if Bernstein were around now?… He probably would be far more over the top than what I did,’ Gandolfi said.”
Posted July 23, 2018
