New Zealand Symphony -
Bruce Hangen,
Conductor
Recording and sheet music at euphonium.com:
http://www.euphonium.com/store/index
.php?search%5Bkeywords%5D=
Feinstein&_a=category
Versions available for euphonium accompanied by orchestra, wind ensemble, or piano.
The concerto received the
Harvey Phillips Prize for
Composition Excellence from the
International Tuba Euphonium Association as the best work featuring euphonium written between
2002 and
2006. It was inspired by an ancient
Greek poem by
Archilochus. The poem, reprinted in a new translation below, is a response to a total eclipse of the sun. In it, the poet reflects that if
Zeus can darken the skies, then anything is possible. The poem was an inspiration to other poets who wrote about the theme of possibility and impossibility.
We'll hope for everything, refuse no thing;
We dare you to astonish us, now Zeus
has hid the daytime brilliance of the sun,
has made night out of noon: a dreadful awe
has come to us.
Impossibility
turns possible, and credible, and true.
Don't wonder now, if any of you sees
the beasts on land adopt the watery ways
of dolphins, and the thundering sea become
more dear to them than drier pastures were.
The dolphins, then, will seek the mountain glen.
-- translation by
Robin Orttung
The concerto is loosely programmatic
. In the first movement, the euphonium is Zeus: surveying, enjoying, and commanding his realm. The second movement depicts the eclipse (the euphonium is muted), the emergence of stars in the darkness, and then the return of the sun. The third movement playfully explores musical possibilities and impossibilities, featuring interactions between the euphonium and the piccolo, timpani, and violin. The concerto is performed without a break between movements.
The idea for the concerto came from
Daniel Feinstein, age 3, who one day began chanting “swimming in the mountain, swimming in the mountain, swimming in the mountain
...” for no discernible reason, other than perhaps to inspire his father. When this phrase was repeated to classics scholars Robin Orttung and
Judson Herrman, they pointed out the reference to dolphins swimming in the mountains in the ancient Greek poem, and the theme of possibility/impossibility. The concerto was commissioned by and is dedicated to
Adam Frey, who premiered it in
December 2004, at
Northeastern University in
Boston.
- published: 11 Apr 2015
- views: 638