Last Thursday evening the National Symphony Orchestra under the
baton of Leonard Slatkin gave concert that included two premiers:
the US premier of Kaija Saariaho's "Nymphea Reflection", and the World
Premier of Rautavaara's Clarinet Concerto, with soloist Richard Stoltzman.

Finnish composer Kaijo Saariaho, who celebrated her 50 birthday this
month, wrote Nymphea Reflection for string orchestra.  She wrotet that
she started with the idea of arranging her string quartet (with electronic
accompaniment) "Nymphea", but ended up extensively revising the earlier
work.  In introducing the work, Maestro Slatkin urged the audience not
to listen for melody, rhythm, or harmony, and, after some chuckles from
the audience, noted that many contemporary composers are reaching for
"pure sound".  Well I think I can agree with the maestro that listening
for melody or harmony would have been wasted effort.  Maestro Slatkin
also noted the piece, which runs about 15 minutes, required six rehersals,
an unusual amount of rehersal time.  My sense was it probably was not
technically demanding on part of the assembled string musicians, but the
challenge may have been in creating novel sounds and getting them to
come together in a musically satisfying way.

The piece, which was commissioned by the Schleswig-Holstein Festival and
received its world premier in Germany last year, reminded me of a stream
of consciousness- perhaps Finnigans Wake set to music.  It is divided
into six aptly named sections: sostenuto, feroce, dolcissimo, lento
expressivo, furioso, and misterioso, the last section being particularly
effective in my mind.  I don't have anything to compare it to, so at
least to me it was a novel musical form.  It seemed to me to be an
unconnected series of eeie sounds and phrases that lacked any sense of
a beginning, middle, or end.  I cannot say it was quite my cup of tea,
but, perhaps revealing, my 22 year step-daughter, who is not prejudiced
by extensive exposure to the classical tradition in music, found it
exciting.  The composer was warmly received by the audience after the
concert.  The NSO will repeat this work at Carnegie Hall in two weeks.

In his pre-concert comments, Maestro Slatkin notd that Einojuhani
Rautavaara has adapted a romantic aura in his recent compositions, and
I think the clarinet concerto follows that tendency.  This was a lyric
work in three movements: Drammatico (ma flessibile), Adagio assai, and
Vivace, but lacking what I could identify as memorable melodies.  The
dramatic first movement had a very interesting interplay been the clarinet
soloist and the vibraphone.  While I suspect the composer did not intend
for that to dominate the movement, to my ears it was the most striking
element of the movement, which also included a musical conversation
between the solo instrument and the bass clarinet.  The second, andagio,
movement is meditative, with a certain melodic beauty.  The final movememt
is a spirited vivace movement that harkens back to the spirit of the
first movement.  Although I am no judge of limits of the clarinet, my
impression was that this piece pushed the instrument to its limits.
Certainly Mr.  Stoltzman appeared to be working very hard during the
performance, although at no point could I discern any sense in which he
did not have the work well under his control If anyone is particularly
interested, I would email him or her the four paragraph note about the
work written by the composer that was included in the program notes.
Unfortunately, at the advice of his doctors, Mr.  Rautavaara was unable
to journey to Washington for this premier of his clarinet concerto, which
was commissioned by Theodiore Friedmna and Tamar Lieberman in momory of
the mother, Mary Kerewsky Friedman, with support from the International
Arts Foundation.

For the benefit of traditionalists, this concert concluded with Tchaikovsky's
Little Russian Symphony.

Larry