Charles Ives' From Hanover Square North... - La Jolla Symphony and Chorus

07/19/19 • 12 min

Charles Ives' "From Hanover Square North..." commemorates the sinking of the British liner Lusitania by a German submarine in 1915. That moment when Ives and his fellow commuters heard the news on a Manhattan subway platform - a sudden fusion of grief, anguish, and community spirit – became the inspiration for Ives' composition, but in typically idiosyncratic fashion Ives didn't render the scene realistically; rather, it was the starting point for a musical meditation in which Ives registered the emotional impact of what he had witnessed. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 35008]

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Rand Steiger's Template for Improvising Trumpeter and Orchestra - La Jolla Symphony and Chorus

As noted by the title, this piece centers on the talents of virtuoso trumpeter Peter Evans in a performance that is largely (though not entirely) improvised in performance. Evans’ tones are manipulated at times by the composer through digital signal processing, in what amounts to another interdependent and improvised performance; indeed, the watchwords for the entire enterprise are exploration and collaboration. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33855]

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Maurice Ravel's La Valse - La Jolla Symphony and Chorus

Though suspicious of German music in general Maurice Ravel was an unabashed fan of the waltz, and wrote several pieces that incorporated that distinctive rhythm. Of "La Valse," the composer wrote that “I had intended this work to be a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, with which was associated in my imagination an impression of a fantastic and fatal sort of dervish’s dance.” Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 35007]