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Virginian-Pilot, Oct 5
‘Rhapsody’ brings out viola’s deeper shades
BY APRIL PHILLIPS CORRESPONDENT
SATURDAY | NORFOLK
“PURPLE HAZE.” “Purple People Eater.” “Purple Rain.” One particular shade of the rainbow seems to have inspired musicians and composers – and enchanted music lovers – for decades.
Now, fans of the Virg Symphony Orchestra ca Joan Tower’s take on it.
The composer, who lives in New York’s Hudson Valley, has been hailed by The New Yorker as one of the most successful female composers of all time. She will be in attendance at Norfolk’s Chrysler Hall on Saturday when violist Paul Neubauer and VSO perform her “Purple Rhapsody,” a viola concerto written for, and dedicated to, Neubauer.
“I always think of the viola as having the sound of purple – a deep and luscious purple,” Tower said.
She had written “Wild Purple,” a solo viola piece, for Neubauer, which he premiered at a concert cel- ebrating Tower’s 60th birthday in 1998. That piece was dramatic and dissonant – a very different sound for his instrument, Neubauer said. The New York City-based musician enjoyed the experience so much that he asked Tower to write him a viola concerto. She was happy to oblige.
Tower said she felt that purple was still very much a part of the piece, so she kept the color in the title. Neubauer suggested “Rhapsody” to complete the name of the one-movement concerto.
“Various themes permeate the whole movement. There is a unifying force throughout, and to me, that’s what a rhapsody is,” Neubauer said. “Also, there is a romantic feel to it. The idea of rhapsody includes a certain romantic freedom.”
VSO is the seventh orchestra to perform “Purple Rhapsody,” which premiered last year. Tower has been in the audience on all but two occasions.
Although this piece has come together well, Tower, who is also a performing pianist and conductor, said the experience of hearing her compositions is often “torture.”
“It’s sort of like you’re an architect with a blueprint and suddenly the building goes up and you realize the pink windows don’t work so well. The reality is visceral. I put a lot into my music, carving every centimeter.”
Neubauer said having Tower at the early concerts allowed them to improve the piece. Over the course of the first performances, Tower made many changes that made the rhapsody stronger.
“It’s great to play a new piece more than once,” Neubauer said. “When you’re composing, you don’t have the luxury of hearing a symphony orchestra. Plus, for me, the more I live with a piece, the better I play it. Every time I play it, I bring that additional experience, and the hope is that every time it will sound better.”
Tower, who has created compositions in nearly every genre of instrumental music, said her pieces are like the children she never had.
“Some are boring, some are delinquents and some are stars. The stars get played often, the delinquents get played rarely and the boring ones never get played.”
The compositions, she said, start out as ideas or images that take shape in her head through the process of composing.
“The baby takes a life. Sometimes it dances around the world, sometimes it goes to sleep and sometimes it just flops around. But the conception is always pretty interesting!”
In addition to Tower’s “Purple Rhapsody,” the VSO program will include Franz Schubert’s famous “ Unfinished” Symphony No. 8. Schubert completed two movements, then mysteriously set the work aside and never completed it before his death in 1828.
A Schubert scholar finished the work by adding the scherzo, and VSO will perform the symphony in this “finished” state.
Reach April Phillips at apes1@cox.net.
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The Virginia Symphony Orchestra with a complement of 79 professional musicians under the direction of Grammy-nominated Music Director JoAnn Falletta performs 140 concerts annually, reaching 200,000 concert goers every season in venues throughout the region. Our education and outreach programs reach 53,000 students and adult learners every year. The Virginia Symphony Orchestra is the cultural cornerstone of the performing arts in Hampton Roads.
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