Commissions

Aaron Jay Kernis, composer; Double Concerto for Violin & Guiar; Air for Violin; Lament and Prayer; Joshua Bell, violin; Pamela Frank, violin; Sharon Isbin, guitar; Cho-Liang Lin, violin; St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; David Zinman, conducting; Hugh Wolff, conducting

In October of 2000, friend Nat C. asked me to attend a concert with him at the Library of Congress. The concert featured two master performers: Carter Brey, principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic, and Christopher O’Riley, award winner at the Van Cliburn Piano Competition and host of NPR’s “From The Top”. They played two works of Beethoven and a Sonata by Francis Poulenc.

When reading the program biographies of these two fellows, I noticed that Mr. O’Riley had commissioned and premiered several works for piano. The composer that caught my eye was Aaron Jay Kernis. I remembered his name from having won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1998 for his second string quartet called “musica instrumentalis”.

I enjoy the evocative mental visions that the titles of his creations invite:

“100 Greatest Dance Hits” for guitar and string quartet

“Quattro Stagioni dala Cucina Futurisimo (The Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine)” for narrator, violin, cello and piano

“Garden of Light”, a choral symphony commissioned by Disney

“Still Movement with Hymn”, a piano quartet

“Before Sleep and Dream”, a suite for piano.

In the biography showed that Mr. O’Riley had given the world premier of a Kernis piece for solo piano called “Superstar Etude No. 1”. It draws its inspiration from the piano stylings of rock ‘n roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis. A few measures from the end, while tremoloing on a particularly spicy chord, the pianist yells out “Oh, baby! Oh, baby! Oh, baby! Oh, baby!”

The pieces on this album take themselves much more seriously. Joshua Bell commissioned the “Air for Violin”. Violinist Pamela Frank commissioned the Lament and Prayer”. Sandwiched between these two contemplative essays is a fascinating piece commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Sharon Isbin. Without allowing the piece to become quaint, the violin receives mostly classical treatment and the guitar receives mostly jazz treatment, although each instrument receives plenty of crossover.

I see that Mr. Kernis has composed two more “Superstar Etudes”. At one time, I was interested in learning the “Superstar Etude #1”, but I didn’t know proper "Superstar Etude" etiquette. Do you become a superstar first so that you can play the etude? Or do you play the “Superstar Etude No. 1” in order to prove that you CAN be a superstar?

Credits: To Pulitzer Prize winners everywhere. Congratulations!