Jazz meets Classical Music

The Cyprus Symphony Orchestra continues its concerts with 20th century music. The first cycle of concerts, with title “Jazz meets Classical Music” includes 2 evening concerts, under the music direction of the orchestra’s conductor Alkis Baltas and with narrator Petros Georgadjis. The soloists who will collaborate with the orchestra for this programme are: Michalis Michael (trumpet), Charis Ioannou (alto saxophone), Chris Byars (tenor saxophone), Irenaeos Koullouras (double bass) and Ioannis Vafeas (drums).

The programme includes works of famous composers of the 20th century such as Stravinsky and Ives. More specifically we will hear the works: I. Stravinsky: Eight Instrumental Miniatures, Ch. Ives: The Unanswered Question, R. Hovanesyan: Jazzino (concertino for clarinet and orchestra), Soloist: Dusko Zarkovic (clarinet), 3 Ragtimes: There is a tavern in the town (traditional, orch. Α. Baltas), Easy winners (Sc. Joplin, orch. Α. Baltas), Entertainer (Sc. Joplin, orch. V. Stylianou) and G. Schuller: Journey into Jazz.

Two evening concerts will take place on Friday 12 October 2012 at the Markideion Theatre, Paphos and on Saturday 13 October 2012 at the Strovolos Municipal Theatre, Nicosia.

Tickets: €12 (adults) / €7 (under 26 years old and pensioners) will be available at the Theatres’ box office (Tel. 26 932571, 22 313010). Free entrance for children and students under 18 years old. Information: 22 463144 and www.cyso.org.cy

THE PROGRAMME:

Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971): Eight Instrumental Miniatures
Stravinsky, deliberately limiting himself to a set of five notes for each movement, produced in 1921 the work Les cinq doigts (The Five Fingers) for piano, in which he explored the melodic possibilities offered by the use of five notes in the right hand. The work consisted of eight short movements. More than 40 years later, in 1962 he reworked Les cinq doigts to produce the work Eight Instrumental Miniatures for fifteen players. The piece reflects Stravinsky’s preference for small-scale ensembles, sparse and transparent textures which began in the period after his ballet The Rite of spring calling for a massive orchestra.

Charles Ives (1874 – 1954): The Unanswered Question
At the very beginning of the 20th century, in 1906, the American composer Charles Ives composed a set of two pieces for small orchestra under the title Two Contemplations. Ives revised the first piece sometime around 1930-35, today known with the simplified title The Unanswered Question (originally it was given the titles A Contemplation of a Serious Matter or The Unanswered Perennial Question). The question is none other than one of the composer’s own philosophical searchings about the meaning of existence.

Robert Hovanesyan (b. 1958): Jazzino – concertino for clarinet and orchestra
Robert Hovanesyan is a violinist, violin pedagogue and composer. From 1981-1988 he was the leader of the Armenian National Opera Studio Symphony Orchestra and from 1994-1999 the sub-leader of the Armenian Radio Television Symphony Orchestra. Since 1999 he is a 1st violins member at the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra and since 2005 a violin pedagogue at the Strings Workshop.

JAZZINO was written in July 2004 in Nicosia. It has not been performed or recorded so far. Tonight it receives its World Premiere. The general idea of this piece is to show that two absolutely different musical styles (classical & jazz) can co-exist in absolute harmony. Also, my wish was to show that the symphony orchestra is such a flexible and powerful musical organism that it can perform with equal effect music other than classical. And this was one of the reasons why I used the bass clarinet as a solo instrument in the 2nd movement (Arioso).

3 Ragtimes
Ragtime is an original genre and is considered to be a type of early jazz music. Its popularity was extremely high between 1897 and 1918. It started as dance music in the Afro-American communities of Saint Louis and New Orleans. Ragtimes are usually in 2/4 or 4/4 and are distinguished by their syncopated and strong polyrhythm. The texture is composed by a main motive in the bass which accompanies a rhythmically syncopated melody. According to some sources, the word ragtime is probably derived from the word “ragged” which means “syncopated rhythm”.

Gunther Schuller (b. 1925): Journey into Jazz
The composer, conductor, performer, educator, historian, theorist, author and record producer Gunther Schuller began his professional life as a horn player in both the jazz and classical worlds which enabled him to could work equally at ease with Miles Davis, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Arturo Toscanini and Dimitri Mitropoulos. Through his activity as a composer, from the 1950’s, he succeeded in combining stylistically progressive factions of jazz and classical music, thus developing a new style which he dubbed “Third Stream”. In this direction he collaborated with John Lewis (with whom he also created the Jazz and Classical Music Society in 1955), the Modem Jazz Quartet, and others. Representative of the “Third Steam” are his compositions Teardrop and Jumpin' in the Future that combine the total-chromatic language of Schoenberg and the structural sophistication of the contemporary classical composer with the ensemble fluidity and swing of jazz.

Journey into Jazz also belongs to his “Third Stream” works. It combines a speaker/narrator, a symphony orchestra and a jazz combo and successfully unites the structural complexities found in contemporary classical music with the improvisational elements of jazz.