Many Thanks are due to Charleston Southern and USC for two splendid venues for the first performances of "La Mer" in the transcription by Lucien Garban. Charleston Southern has been generous in inviting me, and this year we had a full house. I presented my new Piano Portrait "Debussy and the Sea", and I found the audience entirely receptive and involved. At USC I returned to the "September Concerts", still going after almost 35 years, first as the Fall festival I organized for 5 years, and then, in the same format, September Concerts since the early 1980's. Columbia audiences can be difficult to predict, but this series draws out the best in the concert going public. You can tell when you walk on stage that this is a very special atmosphere, and that has existed since the beginnings. I have decided to document the genesis of this unique festival, and place this with my papers in the USC Music Library.
As for "La Mer", the thing that struck me was the many comments about the power of this score, even in the smaller frame of a piano solo. It transcends the medium, and comes across as a musical drama on its own terms.
I was amused when leaving USC to see a tremendous storm approaching. Indeed, parts of the city had a terrifying hour of pounding rain and wind. Such is the peril of playing "La Mer"....don't mess with Mother Nature!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Saturday, September 17, 2011
"LA MER"
JOHN KENNETH ADAMS performs "La Mer" by Claude Debussy
September 20, Charleston Southern University Band Hall, 7:30 PM FREE
September 25, September Concerts, USC Columbia, 3 PM Tickets required
December 11, Heritage at Lowman, 3PM FREE
March 30, 2012 Charlotte, NC Piano Teachers Forum (more info to follow)
(additional dates in progress)
Quite a few months preparation has gone into getting this score ready for performance. "La Mer" by Claude Debussy was first performed in 1905 in Paris, and was not an unqualified success, perhaps due to the advanced nature of its form and harmonic complexities, but also dragged down by Debussy's bad publicity for leaving his wife for another woman. That is a story within a story, but the work slowly made its way, and now is considered a landmark in 20th Century music.
The transcription is by Lucien Garban, an editor at Durand in Paris, and close friend of Murice Ravel. This transcription dates to 1938. Surely it is a daunting task to try to squeeze onto the keyboard the sweep and power of an orchestra, and Garban has not tired to do this in any overt way. Instead, he concentrates on the melodic and harmonic inventiveness, and in so doing, shows us the framework and the inventive ideas is a startling clarity of expression.
In preparing this score, I have concentrated on the sonority of the piano, and treated the score as an extension of his piano repertoire. When I performed all of Debussy's piano music in the 1980's I often looked at orchestral scores, and also that of "Pelleas and Melisande", his opera produced at the same time as "La Mer".
The fact that Debussy found the piano his muse in creating the bulk of his compositions makes this a logical path to follow.
I often think, after rehearsing this score, how very beautiful it is in this transcription. The Art of the Transcription has a long, distinquished history, and I hope to add to that with these upcoming performances.
September 20, Charleston Southern University Band Hall, 7:30 PM FREE
September 25, September Concerts, USC Columbia, 3 PM Tickets required
December 11, Heritage at Lowman, 3PM FREE
March 30, 2012 Charlotte, NC Piano Teachers Forum (more info to follow)
(additional dates in progress)
Quite a few months preparation has gone into getting this score ready for performance. "La Mer" by Claude Debussy was first performed in 1905 in Paris, and was not an unqualified success, perhaps due to the advanced nature of its form and harmonic complexities, but also dragged down by Debussy's bad publicity for leaving his wife for another woman. That is a story within a story, but the work slowly made its way, and now is considered a landmark in 20th Century music.
The transcription is by Lucien Garban, an editor at Durand in Paris, and close friend of Murice Ravel. This transcription dates to 1938. Surely it is a daunting task to try to squeeze onto the keyboard the sweep and power of an orchestra, and Garban has not tired to do this in any overt way. Instead, he concentrates on the melodic and harmonic inventiveness, and in so doing, shows us the framework and the inventive ideas is a startling clarity of expression.
In preparing this score, I have concentrated on the sonority of the piano, and treated the score as an extension of his piano repertoire. When I performed all of Debussy's piano music in the 1980's I often looked at orchestral scores, and also that of "Pelleas and Melisande", his opera produced at the same time as "La Mer".
The fact that Debussy found the piano his muse in creating the bulk of his compositions makes this a logical path to follow.
I often think, after rehearsing this score, how very beautiful it is in this transcription. The Art of the Transcription has a long, distinquished history, and I hope to add to that with these upcoming performances.
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