“The World of yesterday”: Sir Stephen Huff we carries his new concert – and his virtuosity as a piano – Rutland Herald

During the pandemic, Sir Stephen Hau, the famous British pianist and composer, received an email from the film director in Los Angeles who wanted to make a composer movie who wrote a piano concert – and he wanted someone to write a piano concert who You will make it part of the movie script.

“So I was excited because, you know, all the concerts were canceled and I was at home and I made a lot of compositions, so I decided it would be an interesting challenge,” Huff said.

The movie never appeared in Vienna since World War II, but Huw wanted to write a concert that not only reflects music from that time, but it spoke to today’s audience.

“I want my music to communicate and people to engage and even remember it, perhaps when they leave the hall,” Huff said. “But also, on the other hand, I want it to be a challenge.”

Hough will be a soloist when Vermont Symphony Orchestra performs his piano concert on 19:30 Saturday, February 15, in Flynn in Burlington.

Music Director Andrew Krurst will also hold VSO with Hough at Felix Mendelssohn No. 1 in G Minor, OP. 25, as well as “OraWa” by Wojciech Kilar; And Anna Clin’s “sound and fury” with the story of the author MT Anderson. The conversation “Musically said” with the public classic host of Vermont Helen Lyons will be open to tickets at 6:30 pm.

“Very rarely is a soloist who is at the top of his profession around the world, which can also be an incredible composer,” Cross told How. “And even more often to find someone who writes interesting music for the orchestra. It takes a lot of special knowledge, beyond only the piano playing.

“So I have to say that this is a beautiful united piece,” said Cross for the 20-minute concert. “The form is really interesting and well structured. There are so many interesting choices and colors for orchestration and it’s not easy.

“But this is a big challenge for the orchestra, in a good way,” Cross said. “Often the concerts will be the orchestra as almost thoughtful. But it’s just a really well thought out piece full of great colors and a great variety. “

Entitled “The World of yesterday”, the Huff concert is inspired by the great pianists-composers from Mozart to Rahmaninov.

“I think he humbly tries to join their ranks,” Crust said, “and it’s just done a really incredible job.”

Macbeth and more

“The general topic of the program is actually literature,” Crust said. “We actually participate three authors.”

In addition to Shakespeare from the work of the wedge and Anderson, who will read, Howu himself wrote four books.

Clyne (p. 1980), which is also British, is represented by its “sound and rage for 2019”. A report from Shakespeare, the title is the last Soloki betrayed by Macbeth after learning about the death of his wife, which Anderson will read.

“This is a tour of force,” Cross said. “This piece has a lot of energy and a lot of intensity. Finally, he also refers to Haydn’s symphony everywhere because he was premiered with Haydn’s symphony.

“You can hear fragments of this symphony in the whole piece, but I decided it was a great link to the literary theme,” Krust said. “And it’s just a workout for the orchestra.”

The Polish Kilar (1932-2013) is best known for its score in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film “Dracula of Bram Stoker”, “Orava” since 1986. It is a completely different country of the composer.

“The plowing is a southern region in Poland or Northern Slovakia and is full of mountains and rivers,” Crust said. “And many of the techniques in this piece, which is only for strings, are really reminiscent of folklore crooks and this kind of folk dance. This is very minimalist at the same time. And my kind of picture of this piece is how a small small, small stream will develop on a mountain and then it grows and grows until it becomes a raging river. And this is something like the idea you have. “

“The whole piece has so much rhythmic energy,” said Cross, “and every time I perform it, after all, people are on their feet.”

Before the second second Vienna

The World of yesterday, the title of Huff for his concert, is borrowed from the eponymous memoir of Stefan Zweig with his holiday of Vienna culture before World War I – the world, as before, nostalgia as a literal and legend.

“But this title has become a tag for me, representing the very story of the piano concert form – invented to be a tour for composers, who were also a pianists, a guest card on the road,” Huff said. “From Mozart, his most fertile exponent, to Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, right next to the virtuosos of the mid-20th century, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Bartok, to be a pianist, he had to write a piano concert. The world of yesterday. “

The movie, which was the inspiration for the concert, was to be for the Austrian Baroness in the early 1930s, which invited a young American composer to his castle to write a piano concert.

“The first thing I did was write a topic that both of these two characters represented,” Huff said. “The track starts with some white notes, American 1932 – I think Aaron Copleland – you know, so this kind of world open sky. And then I wanted a topic for this old Austrian lady who would be more (Erich) Kongold, Richard Strauss, (Gustav) Mahler, this kind of world of decline from the early 20th century. “

Between these two topics, the whole concert is constructed.

“Now the movie has found itself like most movies ideas nowhere, and I just stepped down from the project,” Hau said. “But I had all these sketches and ideas for the score and I thought well that I could do a concert piece of it, because, you know, it would be a piano concert.”

So, Huff consulted with his manager, who consults with various orchestras and found a real interest in the project.

“So it happened,” Hau said.

Huffers performed the world premiere of his piano concert, with Donald Runals conducting the symphony in Juada in January 2024 in Salt Lake City, followed in May by two performances with the Halle Elder orchestra in Manchester, England.

“And these are actually the recorded concerts and that come out next month at Hyperion.”

One movement, three parts

“These are three movements, but they come across each other,” Hufort said. “The introductory movement, which is an introduction, a prelude to the orchestra; And then there is a large piano caden, which then encounters these variations of waltz, which is something like a Viennese part. And that becomes the last taranta. “

The film’s director said he wanted the end of the film to be the pianist on the stage with the full orchestra and would be about 4 minutes from this piano concert.

And the director said, “I want the audience to go crazy at the end!”

“So I knew it couldn’t end quietly,” Huff said. “It had to be a great virtuoso – so I did my best to try to bring it. There are horns Glissandos and shock and the whole orchestra and piano go crazy. “

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