Crashing on a friend's floor at Princeton, I was lucky enough to be in the room when the resident computer whiz stopped by to show off his latest computer animation. The three-minute work about a robot lost in a primeval electronic world earned him a job at Pixar, and - less importantly for moviegoers across America - it planted an intriguing notion in my head about a work featuring an electronic instrument.
The malleable quality of the synthesizer, with its endless variety of sounds, both intimidated and fascinated me. The concerto's relatively stable relationship between soloist and orchestra shatters when confronted with the synthesizer's limitless identities. Sometimes this makes it possible for it to be a chameleon within the orchestra, as it does in the opening "Whalesong of the Microjungle." The soloist and orchestra melt into each other while singing a bending melody, punctuated by primeval percussion. This whalesong returns throughout the work, contrasted by a second theme group introduced in the breakneck second movement ("Animation"). Ultimately, the synthesizer's role as a means of textural metamorphosis is articulated formally : in the workÕs final movement, "Ecstasy of the Machine," overlapping rhythmic patterns slowly morph across the orchestra. But the machine eventually dissolves into a trio of percussionists, who dominate the workÕs opening as well. Perhaps the synthesizer finds a kind of kindred soul in the percussion section, which also benefits from a kind of identity crisis.
The virtuosity required by the soloist is very different from that needed at the piano: it involves wheels, buttons, and even moments when one hand must change sounds while the other continues to play the keyboard. One cadenza is all fingers, while the other is a sort of slow-motion textural cadenza. In this capacity, Eric Huebner gave the piece a thrilling premiere under Joel Sachs with The New Juillaird Ensemble at Lincoln Center.
flute
oboe
clarinet
E-flat / B-flat clarinet
bassoon
contrabassoon
two horns
trumpet
trombone
tuba
percussion
synthesizer
string quintet