Voice of the Whale: Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts 2022

CRUMB Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale)

The groundbreaking Vox Balaenae, or Voice of the Whale, by Pulitzer Prize and Grammy award winner George Crumb calls for the amplification of the flute, cello and piano, to mirror sounds from the deep. It’s performed here as a tribute to the American composer, who recently passed away at the age of 92 after a long, and influential career.

During this performance of ‘Voice of the Whale’ each of the three musicians wore a black half-mask. In the score, Crumb directs the musicians to wear these and explains, “The masks, by effacing a sense of human projection, will symbolize the powerful impersonal forces of nature (nature dehumanized)”.

BACEWICZ Violin Sonata No 4

Grażyna Bacewicz was an icon of Polish composition in the 20^th century as well as a virtuoso violinist.

In the early 1930s she was a composition student of the great Nadia Boulanger in Paris. After completing her studies, Bacewicz returned to Poland where she became the principal violinist of the Polish Radio Orchestra, a position that gave her the chance to hear a lot of her own music performed. During World War II Bacewicz continued to compose and gave secret underground concerts in Warsaw.

She wrote her Violin Sonata No 4 for herself to play. Its moods range from highly gestural and expressive, to witty and flirtatious.

VILLA-LOBOS The Jet Whistle

Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos delved deeply into his country’s music to find a national musical voice. He often combined melodic and rhythmic elements from Brazilian music with Western classical music, which is true of Assobio a Jato, or ‘The Jet Whistle'.

Villa-Lobos composed The Jet Whistle in New York in 1950. He named his work to describe the technique he calls on the flutist to use during its last movement. To produce this effect, flutist, Bridget Douglas had to blow directly and forcefully into her flute with her mouth almost completely covering the mouthpiece. Combined with a glissando, the resulting whistle sounds like a jet taking off.

RACHMANINOV Piano Trio No 1 in G minor, Elegiaque

Sergei Rachmaninov composed his Piano Trio No 1 while he was still a student. It caused a sensation at its first performance but then the music was lost and was only rediscovered after Rachmaninov’s death. It features the sweeping melodies and depth of feeling for which the composer was well known for in his later works.

The Trio’s opening theme is a repetitive four-note rising motif, that played backwards apparently resembles the opening motif of Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto. As a student Rachmaninov was heavily influenced by Tchaikovsky and this may well have been intended as an homage to his older friend and mentor.