I was honoured to be asked by San Diego Symphony to write a celebratory fanfare in honour of their departing maestro Jahja Ling, who conducted the premieres of my Night Parade and the Violin Concerto Fragile Light. The former of these pieces Jahja also brought to Carnegie Hall for the orchestra's debut there, as well as on their tour of China in 2013. I enjoyed working with Maestro Ling, who had a firm but gentle approach, and the orchestra has clearly flourished under his tenure, with a raft of excellent younger players joining and creating his legacy for the future.
The fanfare is a 3 minute work for full orchestra, and I hope to have a recording available shortly. It's called Fanfarron, the Spanish word, said to be the origin of the word 'fanfare', which translates roughly as 'show-off' or 'loud-mouth' - a reference to the character of the music of course, rather than the man himself, who is anything but!
Mandolin rock-star Avi Avital and the leading US quartet Dover Quartet tour Cymbeline in North America throughout February, as well as recording the piece for a future release, alongside Bruce's The North Wind was a Woman. Described by the Financial Times as "a vibrant piece with a golden hue that finds much sonic variety in the instrumental combination", Cymbeline is inspired by the spiritual place the sun has had in human culture and forms three movements relating to positions of the sun - sunrise, noon, and sunset.
Tour dates:
Feb 7 2016 Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN (Avi Avital, Dover Quartet)
Jennifer Koh performs the premiere of David's new solo violin piece Marzipan and the NY Phil Biennial concert at National Sawdust in Williamsburg,NY this May 24th at 7pm, along with a collection of other new commissions from the likes of Kaija Saariaho, Andrew Norman and Vijay Iyer. The event will be broadcast live on WQXR and available to stream from this page.
I'm delighted that the excellent recording of Gumboots by Julian Bliss and the Carducci String Quartet has been released on Signum Classics. A couple of reviews already in:
... at first haunting, then breezy, catchy, exhilarating. The Financial Times ★★★★
... a vital journey towards exhilarating physical release. The Times
A new film from the director of the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom tells the extraordinary story of the Silk Road Ensemble musicians. The film and the closing section of the trailer shown below feature the piece they commissioned from David Bruce, Cut the Rug. The film opens in theatres across the US in June 2016.
From April 10-15, 2016, Camerata Pacifica will present the world premiere of “The Consolation of Rain” commissioned from David Bruce for Camerata Pacifica by Bob Klein and Lynne Cantlay.
The Consolation of Rain is a 20 minute work for oboe, cello, harp and percussion, and will be premiered by the Camerata Principal Artists Nicholas Daniel, oboe; Ani Aznavoorian, cello; Bridget Kibbey, harp; and Ji Hye Jung, percussion.
"We all take consolation from different things, and without wanting to be overly morbid, I would like to think that after I die, my loved ones could take consolation from the sense that I was quite literally all around them, in the air, water and earth as part of the natural cycle of things," said Bruce,
Among Bruce's inspirations is the poem "Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep" by Mary Elizabeth Frye, from which the composer connects experiencing emotion and observing nature.
The poem reads, "I am a thousand winds that blow. / I am the diamond glints on snow. / I am the sunlight on ripened grain. / I am the gentle autumn rain."
Bruce's resulting work focuses on an element all to common to the Englishman: rain.
"Taking Debussy's method of portraying the sea in La Mer as something of a model, the piece is primarily an abstract musical construction, but one that constantly and variously evokes different aural images of rain, whether it be rippling, glistening, dripping, rumbling, swooshing or showering; gathering pace or subsiding; distantly echoing or vigorously present," he said. "But throughout, the impression is of rain not as dark and depressing, but as something positive, consoling, life-affirming and renewing the 'gentle autumn rain' mentioned in the Frye poem."
Performances will be held in Ventura at 3 p.m. Sunday April 10; San Marino at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 12; Los Angeles at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 14; and 1 and 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 15, in Santa Barbara.
The concerts will also feature works by Nigel Osborne, Christopher Deane, Toku Takemitsu and Debussy. Adrian Spence, Melanie Lançon, Nicholas Daniel, Bridget Kibbey, Marcia Dickstein, Ani Aznavoorian, Ji Hye Jung, Lee Vinson, Egle Januleviciute and Caroline Bloom will also perform.
Sadness at the end of the magnificent production of Nothing at Glyndebourne is tempered by the totally overwhelming response from all quarters, and by the fact that the show is already booked for Danish National Opera next February as part of the European Capital of Culture celebrations.
I'm so grateful to everyone involved, and especially to the Glyndebourne team, both for taking the risk on this dark project, and for running such an amazing and professional operation. I could go on, but this would start to sound like an Oscar acceptance speech. Suffice to say...one happy bunny.
When I first started working on Nothing, Glyn Maxwell and I decided to create a version of Janne Teller's story which could be presented entirely by a young cast. Alongside the 50 or so young singers involved, there are 5 professional singers who all act as part of the class. In the pit alongside the 20-30 talented young amateur players are the South Bank Sinfonia, an orchestra made up of young professional players. So the original vision has come to pass that the entire story on stage and in the pit is told almost exclusively by young people. Given the nature of the story, (in which a class of school kids effectively stray further and further into a collective madness in an attempt to prove to their classmate Pierre that life has meaning) I hope that the feeling the young people are literally running the show will make the whole thing feel even more powerful. Their passion and committment to the project I hope will not just scare the life out of you, but also give you hope for the future of humanity. It's great to see them commit so fully to quite an intense and dark tale.
Dress rehearsals today, followed by opening night on Thursday. Radio 3 Music Matters came down to see the rehearsals and talk to us, and you can hear the feature on the iplayer here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0717282 about 13 mins in.
