Lukas Foss

New World 80375-2

Renaissance Concerto For Flute and Orchestra

The Renaissance Concerto was jointly commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for
Music Composition at Brigham Young University and the Buffalo Philharmonic
Orchestra, Semyon Bychkov, Music Director, with assistance from the Cameron Baird
Foundation and the Williams Gold Refining Company
Flutist Carol Wincenc has known Lukas Foss since her youth in the 1960s, when
he was music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic. When she asked him to write a flute
concerto for her in 1985, he was faced with the problem confronted by every composer in
this genre: how to create an orchestral texture that would not overwhelm the solo
instrument. Recalling that the flute “was a favorite instrument in the Renaissance and
Baroque eras... [and] in ancient Greece, where the Olympic Games included flute
playing,” he sought the sound he wanted in early music. The work, says Foss, is “an
homage to something I love, a handshake across the centuries.” He completed the
Renaissance Concerto on March 17, 1986.
In addition to the solo flute, this work calls for four woodwinds, four brass
instruments, harp, optional harpsichord, percussion, and strings—an ensemble that can
range in size from 19 to 62 instruments, depending on the number of strings. The
concerto is in four movements:
I. Intrada. The ceremonial “entering piece” of the 16th and 17th centuries was
usually a march. The present Intrada is something else: “part flute cadenza, part chorale,
and part circus music,” the composer calls it. When the brass add their chorale, the
composer specifies trumpets on high perches at opposite corners of the stage, evoking the
“tower music” that, during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, was played from
atop the town walls at dusk.
II. Baroque Interlude (after Rameau). This scherzo is based on Rameau's
harpsichord piece “L'Enharmonique.” Foss altered the tune, harmony, and structure, and
scored it with a delicacy that allows even the little pedal glissandos on dying-away
timpani notes to add their color.
III. Recitative (after Monteverdi). Time seems to stop in this movement. The low
flute notes are freely derived from a recitative in Monteverdi's Orfeo. One body of strings
gently echoes the other from offstage (canon of the harmony) and the orchestra's flute
also picks up a phrase or two from the soloist; the overlapping effect is disorienting,
trance-like.
IV. Jouissance. The incisive opening canon comes from Melville's 1612 madrigal
“Musing.” The clear, spare scoring, bright with brass, the chords built up from the fourths
in the Melville tune. There is a cadenza for flute and Renaissance drum, and when the
music dwindles to pianissimo tapping of flute keys and the drum, the light changes, and
the ghosts of Galilei, Gesualdo, and Peri briefly appear one by one. An insistent rhythm
lingers as the ghostly mood returns amid eerie string glissandos. The soloist, who has
been commenting volubly on all this, now does a disappearing act, walking offstage as
the flute dwindles to a breathy whisper and finally to mere key-clicks. A gentle chime
stroke announces the end of the séance.
Salomon Rossi Suite

Salomone Rossi, who lived in Mantua from about 1570 to about 1630, called
himself “L'Ebreo,” and set a number of Hebrew texts to music in a collection punningly
titled The Songs of Solomon. His madrigals resemble those of his contemporary
Monteverdi, but some of his orchestral works point clearly to the trio-sonata form of
Baroque chamber music.
Lukas Foss's Salomon Rossi Suite, composed in 1975 and dedicated to the
Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, follows the example of Stravinsky's Monumentum pro
Gesualdo di Venosa ad CD annum in recomposing a Renaissance composer's music for
modern instruments without romanticizing it.
I. A festive intrada for brass.
II. A three-way antiphonal dialogue among choirs of woodwinds, brass, and
strings.
III. Harp and pedal timpani mimic lute and drum. IV. An intimate conversation,
for oboes on one side and a strange and wonderful mixture of piccolo, viola, trumpet,
double bass, and harp on the other.
V and VI. Parts of three Rossi pieces are combined to make a slow introduction
and a lively fugal finale.

Orpheus and Euridice

The first Italian operas, of which Monteverdi's L'Orfeo: favola in musica is the
outstanding example, were an attempt to revive the classical Greek drama. Following a
different idea of “authenticity” from ours, Renaissance musicians dressed their ancient
Greeks in 16th-century Italian raiment. Twentieth century listeners, on the other hand,
might be drawn to the sensation of strangeness that a modern observer would surely
experience in witnessing a Greek ritual of the 6th century B.C.
With Orpheus, a work composed in 1972 and incorporating elements of
pantomime, Lukas Foss sought to evoke that feeling of an unfamiliar time and place,
through the use of unusual staging and unconventional instrumental timbres. The result
was not a benign trance or a Disney-like pastorale, but a celebration of the awesome
power of mousikee, the calling of the muses, a synthesis of Apolonian discipline with the
savage power of the Dionysian rite.
In 1983 Foss added an extended violin duet to the piece, creating a new work,
Orpheus and Euridice, dedicated to Yehudi Menuhin and Edna Michell (premiered in
Gstaad and Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1985). The effect of the new material is to humanize
the work, to balance its alienated, otherworldly character with moments of warm-blooded
passion, and to heighten the sense of loss at the end.
Although the players of this score have considerable discretion as to what pitches
to play and when, Foss is very specific about the musical and visual effects he wants.
[The visual effects are meant for live performance only.]
As the music begins, Orpheus (solo violin) stands on a raised portion of the stage
behind the string orchestra. Flanking him are harp and chimes, whose curved shapes,
Foss writes, “seem to extend his lyre, like wings!' He plays a dirge for his lover, Euridice,
on his “lyre!” Behind him, one or more oboes, representing angels of death, play
menacing sounds, with their bells held close to Orpheus' head. The oboes lead Orpheus
down among the string players, who represent the souls of the dead. Strange sonorities of
doom are heard, made with a chime mallet on the piano's metal frame. Gently at first,
then urgently, Orpheus pleads for the return of Euridice.
The soft entrance of the second solo violin signals Euridice's awakening. The
moment seems to hold the entire kingdom of the dead spellbound. Then the orchestra
builds up an urgent ostinato, fueling the passion of the lovers' duet as it rises to a
fortissimo, marked “ecstatic!' As this wave breaks, the color suddenly drains from the
soloists' tone: Orpheus has taken the forbidden look at Euridice, and she sinks back into
eternal sleep. Orpheus responds with a spasm of rage and grief. The wail of the oboes
again signals the approach of death, as we hear the Furies pursue Orpheus; in a sudden,
violent climax, they tear him to 2 pieces. His music from the beginning of the piece is all
that remains, now played on chimes and harp. The violinist-Orpheus walks slowly
offstage past suspended bells, playing them with a bow as he goes. —DAVID
WRIGHT

David Wright is a music journalist whose articles appear in The New Grove Dictionary
of American Music and The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia.

YEHUDI MENUHIN is one of the most widely acclaimed violinists of this century. He
has been active as a performing and recording artist, conductor and educator. Several
works have been written for him, among them Béla Bartók's Sonata for solo violin and
William Walton's Sonata for violin and piano. Menuhin has received numerous awards
and honors throughout the world from governments, universities, and humanitarian
organizations. In 1962 Menuhin founded his school at Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey, for
musically talented children.

EDNA MICHELL, violin, studied with Ödön Partos in Tel Aviv before coming to the
attention of Yehudi Menuhin who, along with Max Rostal, awarded her a scholarship to
study with them in London. She pursues an active career as a soloist and chamber
musician in the United States, Europe, and Central and South America, as well as in her
native Israel. Michell founded the Adirondack Festival, the Helena Rubenstein Concerts
and the Cantilena Chamber Players.

CAROL WINCENC, flute, has collaborated with many distinguished artists, among
them Jessye Norman, Elly Ameling, Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma and the Guarneri and
Cleveland string quartets. She was First Prize Winner of the Naumburg Solo Flute
Competition in 1978. She also founded the first International Flute Festival in St. Paul,
Minnesota. A faculty member of the Juilliard School and a professor at Indiana
University, she has recorded for Nonesuch, Musical Heritage Society and MusicMasters.

LUKAS FOSS has been music director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic since 1971.
Previously he was music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Milwaukee
Symphony; he was also a professor at UCLA. He studied composition with Paul
Hindemith and conducting with Fritz Reiner at the Curtis Institute and with Serge
Koussevitzky at Tanglewood. An outspoken advocate of contemporary music, Foss has
conducted most of the leading orchestras in the United States and Europe.

THE BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC has been acclaimed for incorporating

contemporary music into the mainstream of symphonic repertoire. For eight of the past
nine years it has received ASCAP awards for creative and adventuresome programming.
The Brooklyn Philharmonic has premiered works by many composers, among them John
Cage, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, Morton Gould, Krzysztof Penderecki and Steve
Reich. The orchestra has recorded for CRI, Gramavision and Nonesuch.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chase, Gilbert, and David Wright. “Foss, Lukas.” In The New Grove Dictionary of
American Music. H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie, eds. London and New York:
Macmillan, 1986.
Gagne, Cole, and Tracy Caras. “Lukas Foss.” Soundpieces: Interviews with American
Composers. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1982.
Kupferberg, Herbert. “Lukas Foss: Newfound Focus for the Composer-Conductor.”
Ovation 5 (April 1984): pp. 12-17.
Salzman, Eric. “The Many Lives of Lukas Foss.” Saturday Review I., No. 8 (February 5,
1967): p. 73.
Wright, David. “Lukas Foss: The Nimble Prankster at 60.”Keynote 6, No. 6 (August
1982): p. 8.

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
Baroque Variations. Buffalo Philharmonic, Lukas Foss conducting. Elektra/Nonesuch H-
71202.
Capriccio for Cello and Piano. Gregor Piatigorsky cello; Lukas Foss, piano, New World
NW 281.
Percussion Quartet. New Music Consort. New World 80405-2.
Psalms. Milwaukee Symphony, Wisconsin Conservatory Chorus, Lukas Foss conducting
Pro Arte CDD-169.
Round a Common Center. Orson Welles, narrator; Yehudi Menuhin, violin; Elaine
Bonazzi, mezzo-soprano; Cantilena Chamber Players. Pro Arte CDD-120.
The Song of Songs. Jennie Tourel, soprano; New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein
conducting. CRI S-284E.

Producer: Elizabeth Ostrow

Engineers: John Newton, Henk Kooistra
Assistant engineers: Karl Held (Orpheus and Euridice), Paul Zinman (Renaissance
Concerto, Salomon Rossi)
Recorded at the Great Hall, Cooper Union, New York. Orpheus and Euridice recorded
May 12, 1988; Renaissance Concerto and Salomon Rossi recorded September 27, 1988.
Cover design: Bob Defrin

THIS RECORDING WAS MADE POSSIBLE WITH GRANTS FROM THE MARY
FLAGLER CARY CHARITABLE TRUST, FRANCIS GOELET, THE RITA AND
STANLEY H. KAPLAN FOUNDATION, JOSEPH MACHLIS, THE NATIONAL
ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS,THE NEW YORK STATE COUNCIL ON THE
ARTS, ARNOLD L.SABIN, AND STARRETT CITY HOUSING CORPORATION.

RENAISSANCE CONCERTO FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA

(publ. Carl Fischer, Inc.)

[1] I. Intrada (4:58)

[2] II. Baroque Interlude (3:37)
[3] III. Recitative (5:13)
[4] IV. Jouissance (6:43)

CAROL WINCENC, flute

SALOMON ROSSI SUITE

(publ. Editions Salabert)

[5] I. Moderato con moto (:52)

[6] II. Allegro (:49)
[7] III. Andante (1:38)
[8] IV. Allegretto sostenuto (1:10)
[9] V. Lento (1:38)
[10] VI. Allegro (1:20)

[11] ORPHEUS AND EURIDICE (21:31)

(publ. Editions Salabert)

YEHUDI MENUHIN AND EDNA MICHELL, violins

BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC
LUKAS FOSS, conductor

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