There wasn't room in my review for a number of things I would have liked to mention about Anna Thorvaldsdottir's new cello concerto, Before we fall, which Johannes Moser and Dalia Stasevska brought to life last week at San Francisco Symphony, mostly to do with the orchestration. The percussion included two thunder sheets, two bass drums (played by mallets including superball mallets), and bundles of dried eucalyptus leaves, but did not include timpani. The double reeds included an English horn and bassoons, but not oboes. There were a pair of flutes and alto flute.
The scores takes several pages to explain different playing techniques, including tongue ram (flutes) and tongue slap (clarinets). Lastly, if you read my review in the S.F. Chronicle, you'll see the work styled as "Before We Fall," where SFCV has Before we fall. Style guides differ! The score has:
Before we fall
Neither Stasevska nor Thorvaldsdottir is on next year's SFS schedule, which I'm sorry about.
- Lisa Hirsch, SFCV
- Joshua Kosman also heard a relationship between RVW's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and Before we fall and is enthusiastic about the concerto.
- DB at Kalimac's Corner.
- Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio
1 comment:
Thorvaldsdottir's CATAMORPHOSIS is coming to Cabrillo on August 9. I wish I could have gone to this SFS concert; thanks for the review!
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