© Max Whittaker
Sandeep Das appears by arrangement with Middleton Arts Management.
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The Program
Wojciech Kilar - Orawa
Dinuk Wijeratne - Concerto for Tabla & Orchestra
Camille Pépin - Vajrayāna
Igor Stravinsky - The Firebird Suite (1919)
Sandeep Das’ appearance is made possible by the WW Symphony Guest Composer/Artist Fund - Underrepresented Voices
Concert Snapshots
Wojciech Kilar is known best for his film scores, including Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) and The Pianist (2002).
Dinuk Wijeratne’s Concerto for Tabla & Orchestra was written specifically for tabla virtuoso Sandeep Das, one of the world's leading tabla players.
The tabla is a pair of small hand drums used in Indian music. One drum makes a high sound, and the other makes a lower sound. Musicians play the tabla by tapping on the drums with their fingers and palms to create different rhythms.
Vajrayān refers to the Tibetan religion and the cosmic energies symbolized by the five elements: earth, water, fire, wind and space.
The Firebird is based on a Russian fairy tale about a magical bird with glowing feathers. The bird helps a prince defeat an evil sorcerer, leading to a happy ending.
Want to learn more? Click the button below to explore articles about the composers and the pieces, and read the program notes.
Explore the Music
WINE SPONSOR
Wine from our wine sponsor will be available before the concert and during intermission for $5/glass (all proceeds benefit the Walla Walla Symphony).
About the Guest Artist
Sandeep Das, tabla
Sandeep Das is one of the world’s leading Indian Tabla virtuosos, celebrated for his “Houdini-like skills” (The Sydney Morning Herald). A protégé of Pt. Kishan Maharaj ji of the Banaras Gharana, he debuted at 17 with Pt. Ravi Shankar and has since built a prolific career spanning over three decades. Das has collaborated with top musicians and ensembles, including Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, and performed with major orchestras like the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony.
A Grammy-winning musician and Guggenheim Fellow, Das has performed his original compositions in over 50 countries at prestigious venues like the Sydney Opera House and the Hollywood Bowl. He is the founder of Harmony and Universality through Music (HUM), a nonprofit promoting global understanding and supporting visually-impaired children in India. Das also teaches at Das Tabla School and is an active public speaker.
Sandeep Das appears by arrangement with Middleton Arts Management
To learn more, visit www.sandeepdas.com.
Dig Deeper
Wojciech Kilar, Composer for Movies and Symphony Halls, Dies at 81 (New York Times)
The Old and the New: An Interview with Composer Dinuk Wijeratne (Toronto Symphony Orchestra)
Meet the Musician: Sandeep Das, tabla (Modesto Symphony Orchestra Interview)
Camille Pepin one of a rare breed: female composers (Taipei Times)
Stravinsky’s “The Firebird”: A Shimmering Musical Fairy Tale (The Listeners’ Club)
Program Notes
WOJCIECH KILAR
Born July 17, 1932, in Lviv, Poland
Died December 29, 2013, in Katowice, Poland
Orawa (1986)
Last WWS Performance: March 6, 2007
Approximate length: 9 minutes
This work was premiered in 1986 in Zakopane, Poland. It is scored for string orchestra.
Born in Poland in 1932, Wojciech Kilar remained there until he was 12. Because of the German occupation, the family fled Lviv and traveled around the country to eventually settle in Katowice. Kilar studied in various Polish music schools, but the major event in his musical development was in 1957 when he took part in the International Summer Courses of New Music in Darmstadt. From there he went on to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger.
Throughout the 1960s and ‘70s, Kilar often appeared as a pianist usually performing his own music. In 1977 he became a founding member of the Karol Szymanowski Society in Zakopane and was its vice-president for two terms. He also served as vice-president of the Main Board of the Polish Composers’ Union from 1979-81 during a time of great political uncertainty.
Kilar’s later years brought much recognition. He became active in writing for film, perhaps most notably in his scoring of Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In 1999 the composer received an honorary doctorate from University of Opole and was admitted as a full member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Letters. In 2002 he received the Commander’s Cross with a Star of the Order of the Restoration of Poland.
Wojciech Kilar was a member of the Podhale Highlanders’ Union, which celebrates the life and art of the inhabitants of the southern mountains of Poland. His interest in highland folklore emerged in his 1986 composition entitled Orawa. Kilar reflected on the work by saying that he “dreamed of creating a piece inspired by highlander band and realized this dream in Orawa…It is pretty much a piece for a magnified folk band and one of the rare examples where I’ve been happy with my work.”
The piece is superficially a folk setting, but the importance of the southern Tatra Mountains—the source of the musical style—cannot be overestimated, as they are the spiritual homeland of the Polish people.
©2024 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
www.orpheusnotes.com
DINUK WIJERATNE
Born 1978 in Sri Lanka
Concerto for Tabla & Orchestra (2011)
Last WWS Performance: First performance at tonight’s concert
Approximate length: 27 minutes
This work was premiered on February 9th, 2012, at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, Halifax, Nova Scotia, by Symphony Nova Scotia conducted by Bernhard Gueller with Ed Hanley as soloist. It is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, one trombone, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings.
Canadian composer Dinuk Wijeratne, born in Sri Lanka, has had in illustrious career. He made his Carnegie Hall debut with Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble in 2004. Dinuk grew up in Dubai before studying composition at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK. In 2001 he began studies with Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano at New York’s Juilliard School.
Wijeratne is a JUNO-award-winning composer, conductor, and pianist who has become increasingly important in recent years. His music draws upon classical and folk influences, as well as modern popular and dance styles. Dinuk also served as Music Director of the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra for thirteen seasons.
The Concerto for Tabla and Orchestra is best described in the composer’s own words,:
“While the origins of the Tabla are somewhat obscure, it is evident that this ‘king’ of Indian percussion instruments has achieved global popularity for the richness of its timbre, and for the virtuosity of a rhythmically complex repertoire that cannot be separated from the instrument itself. In writing a large-scale work for Tabla and Symphony Orchestra, it is my hope to allow each entity to preserve its own aesthetic. Perhaps, at the same time, the stage will be set for some new discoveries.
“While steeped in tradition, the Tabla lends itself heartily to innovation, and has shown its cultural versatility as an increasingly sought-after instrument in contemporary Western contexts such as Pop, Film Music, and World Music Fusion. This notion led me to conceive of an opening movement [I. Canons, Circles] that would do the not-so-obvious by placing the Tabla first in a decidedly non-Indian context. Here, initiated by a quasi-Baroque canon in four parts, the music quickly turns into an evocation of one my favourite genres of electronic music: ‘Drum-&-Bass’, characterised by rapid ‘breakbeat’ rhythms in the percussion. Of course, there are some North-Indian Classical musical elements present. The whole makes for a rather bizarre stew that reflects globalisation, for better or worse!
“A brief second movement [II. Folk song: ‘White in the moon the long road lies
(that leads me from my love)’] becomes a short respite from the energy of the outer movements and offers a perspective of the Tabla as accompanist in the lyrical world of Indian folk-song. Set in ‘dheepchandhi’, a rhythmic cycle of 14 beats, the gently lilting gait of the Tabla rhythm supports various melodic fragments that come together to form an ephemeral love-song.
“Typically, a Tabla player concluding a solo recital would do so by presenting a sequence of short, fixed (non-improvised) compositions from his/her repertoire. Each mini-composition, multi-faceted as a little gem, would often be presented first in the form of a vocal recitation. The traditional accompaniment would consist of a drone as well as a looping melody outlining the time cycle – a ‘nagma’ – against which the soloist would weave rhythmically intricate patterns of tension and release. I wanted to offer my own take on a such a recital finale, with the caveat that the orchestra is no bystander. In this movement [III. Garland of Gems], it is spurred on by the soloist to share in some of the rhythmic complexity. The whole movement is set in ‘teentaal’, or 16-beat cycle, and in another departure from the traditional norm, my nagma kaleidoscopically changes colour from start to finish. I am indebted to Ed Hanley for helping me choose several ‘gems’ from the Tabla repertoire, although we have certainly had our own fun in tweaking a few, not to mention composing a couple from scratch.”
©2024 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
www.orpheusnotes.com
CAMILLE PÉPIN
Born November 17, 1990, in Amiens, France
Vajrayāna (2015)
Last WWS Performance: First performance at tonight’s concert
Approximate length: 12 minutes
This work dates from 2015. It is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, percussion, and strings.
Born in 1990, Camille Pepin is one of the most successful rising young composers of her generation. At the crossroads of French impressionism and the American repetitive music, her distinctive sound-world finds its inspiration in nature or painting. Her art of color is expressed with as much science of orchestration as poetic imagination.
After studies at the Amiens Conservatoire, she obtained five first prizes in Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (orchestration, analysis, harmony, counterpoint and fugue & forms). She studied notably with composers such as Guillaume Connesson, Marc-André Dalbavie and Thierry Escaich, drawing from the French line.
Her music is regularly played by numerous orchestras and conductors.
Prizes include the Île de Créations competition and the Sacem’s Prize in 2015, as well as a prize from the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 2017. The following year, she is one of the 30 Éclaireurs Vanity Fair. In 2020, she was composer of the year at the Victoires de la Musique Classique. She was made Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2022.
In 2023, Renaud Capuçon premiered her violin concerto with the Orchestre National de France and Simone Young, the Hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt also premiered one of her new works with Alain Altinoglu, and Renaud Capuçon and Guillaume premiered a new work for violin and piano.
Connection to nature is essential for Camille. She also likes cooking, Harry Potter, and her favorite color is blue.
Camille Pepin describes her Vajrayāna in passionate detail:
“If it can be said that there are five elements in Tibetan Buddhism (earth, water, fire, wind, and space), they define themselves as fundamental and sacred energies of existence encountered in the psychic dimension of [human] beings. The first four are the constituent material of nature, while the fifth contains all the others. The microcosm of the body is thus joined with the macrocosm of the Universe. These cosmic energies are at the origin of the worlds of earthly and spiritual existence: that is the Vajrayāna.
“I conceived the piece as a progression through the different stages of the spiritual world. I have designated these states by means of rhythmic musical motifs – more often than not – because rhythm is at the heart of nature and energy. Each element corresponds to a [different] musical motif.
“Ratna (Earth) is a primary, powerful but repressed, energy. In such ways, all the mysteries of the Earth are intertwined.
“Vajra (Water) expresses anguish in its defensive aspect – the storm – which fades into a peaceful body of water.
“Padma (Fire) is the spiritual place reached by violent, burning emotions, lacking inner control: it is the place of disorder.
“Karma (Wind) corresponds to an impalpable element, weightless and fleeting.
“Finally, Vairocana (Space) combines all these elements. Existing outside time, it is the most powerful state in this quest for transcendence; the ineffable fulfillment of the elevation of the soul; healing.”
Materials provided by the composer
IGOR STRAVINSKY
Born June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov), Russia
Died April 6, 1971, in New York, New York
Suite (1919) from The Firebird
Last WWS Performance: May 10, 2016
Approximate length: 22 minutes
The ballet from which the composer extracted this suite received its premiere on June 25, 1910, at the Théâtre National de l'Opéra in Paris conducted by Gabriel Pierné. It is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, celesta, and strings.
Igor Stravinsky maintained that music is not a language for the communication of emotion but exists solely to establish order among sounds. It is surprising to many that Stravinsky regarded himself as a conservative and sought for clarity and simplicity above all else. One consequence of his devotion to tradition has been an unparalleled ferocity of attack against him by those who regarded him as an anarchist who was out to destroy the very foundations of music.
Stravinsky’s career spanned over 70 years. In that time, he witnessed the ever-changing reaction – often resistance – to his newest pieces. Despite the opinions of those who found his music to be cacophonous (an accusation that seems ridiculous today), Stravinsky’s allure is found in his eruptions of dazzling colors and in his inventive rhythms, stark harmonies, and barrenly beautiful melodies.
His early style descends from the music of Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. From the former he learned to be fearless in the manipulation of his harmonies and rhythms; from the latter he learned colorful orchestration. As he matured and studied Classical and Baroque music, his style underwent many changes. He reached back into the remote past for old ideas that he incorporated into his own system. A Neoclassical style occupied his works from the 1920s through the early 1950s. During this period, he found inspiration in Baroque musical forms and textures. Stravinsky’s final period, spanning from the early 1950s until his death in 1971, embraced a form of serialism loosely modeled on Arnold Schoenberg’s 12-tone techniques, in which musical materials are determined by the manipulations of numerical formulas.
Stravinsky’s first major success was The Firebird from 1910, an exotic ballet that he wrote for the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. This magnificent company introduced many stage works by the period’s foremost composers – Claude Debussy and Manuel de Falla among them. Diaghilev had discovered Stravinsky’s music and began to promote him. This partnership brought the young composer’s works to the ears of European listeners and was responsible for elevating Stravinsky’s music to the world stage. Their first large-scale collaboration, The Firebird, was commissioned for the 1910 season of the Russian Ballet at the Paris Opera. Michel Fokine was the choreographer and Thamar Karsavina performed the principal role. Gabriel Pierné conducted.
The action of the ballet tells the story of Ivan and Tsarevna and their fantastic adventures with the ogre Kastchei. Ivan has discovered a marvelous golden bird picking golden apples from a silver tree. He seeks to capture the bird but releases her after much pleading. In return the bird leaves one of her feathers. Ivan finds himself at Kastchei’s palace where he discovers thirteen lovely princesses who warn him to leave before Kastchei turns him to stone. But he falls in love with the thirteenth princess and will not leave. He opens the gates of the castle and confronts a grotesque throng of monsters, slaves, and Kastchei himself. The golden feather prevails against Kastchei’s black magic, and after the Firebird advises Ivan of Kastchei’s secret – he keeps an egg which, if broken, will destroy him – Ivan rescues the princess, the castle comes tumbling down, and the captive knights who have been turned to stone are restored.
The Firebird started Stravinsky on his international career. Debussy and Ravel greeted the young composer as a powerful new voice. Public enthusiasm ran high. The success of the production led Stravinsky to subsequently extract three suites from the score for concert performance – one in 1916, a second in 1919, and a third in 1945. It is the 1919 version that is performed most frequently
A brief outline follows:
I. Introduction. Muted strings glide back and forth over a thematic fragment. Bass drum, trombones, woodwinds, and horns add soft fragments. An eerie passage for strings, in harmonics, a repeat of the gliding theme and the introduction is over.
II. Kastchei’s Enchanted Garden and Dance of the Firebird. The dance at first is rapid but a variation slows the tempo for a while. The ballet at this point found the Firebird pecking at the golden fruit, frightened away, but caught by Ivan.
III. Round of the Princesses. Three melodies are used: the first by woodwinds over a sustained sound in horns, the second by oboe over harp arpeggios, and the third by the strings.
IV. Infernal Dance of Kastchei and His Subjects. This, the longest section of the suite, is one of Stravinsky’s most characteristic masterpieces of his early style. It abounds in ferocious and dazzling effects of melody, harmony, and rhythm. The main dance figure is driven forward, interrupted by a secondary subject, returned more insistently, again interrupted by a second dance figure which is treated half lyrically, half percussively, and finally returned for a shattering close.
V. Berceuse. Bassoon sings a plaintive tune over a persistently repeated sequence in harp and muted violas. The section comes to a shimmering close.
VI. Finale. Horns begin the theme, a haunting, dirge-like melody over tremolo strings. It is built up to an impassioned, full statement then altered rudely by a squarely rhythmed presentation that is supposed to suggest victory over the evil Kastchei. The ending broadens out with a series of tremendous, slashing chords.
©2024 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
www.orpheusnotes.com