Maestro Leon Botstein shares the stories behind the music in a lively 30-minute Conductor’s Notes Q&A at 7 PM in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. Free for all ticket holders.

GEORGE PERLE
Adagio
At ease. Perle’s “yearning,” “lyrical,” and “tender” composition has been hailed by critics as “a masterly work” (The Boston Globe), “lovingly poetic” (The New York Times), and “accessible in its appeal to a general audience, but never condescendingly populist in the way it directs that appeal” (Newsday).

WILLIAM SCHUMAN
New England Triptych
Pulitzer Prize winner Schuman, who served as president of both the Juilliard School and Lincoln Center, called this tribute to early American composer William Billings a “fusion of styles and musical language,” rather than “variations” on Billings’ themes. Though none of the melodies here are his own, this remains his most popular work.

AARON COPLAND
Orchestral Variations
20 variations in 12 minutes! 27 years after writing his modernist Piano Variations, Copland was commissioned by the Louisville Symphony Orchestra to transcribe them for orchestra. He took this opportunity to reconceive the work, adding new rhythms and color through full use of the ensemble’s instruments.

GEORGE PERLE
Transcendental Modulations
Perle quoted Paul Desmond and Italo Calvino in saying that among the things he hoped to achieve in this piece were clarity, emotional communication, and a sense of infinite possibilities. Transcendental, indeed. The New York Times called it “a stream of subtle contrasts” in mood, pitch, tone, and more.

LUKAS FOSS
Baroque Variations
Dreamy. Foss deconstructed themes by Handel, Scarlatti, and Bach for this work, removing notes, adding overlapping percussion and organ, and “composing the holes” as he put it, all to form a surreal dream-like state where you recognize the music, but in a deliberately distorted way.

VIDEO

WQXR’s Elliott Forrest & ASO’s Music Director, Leon Botstein, discuss American Variations

Schuman: New England Triptych