Tippet Rise OPUS 2017: Daydream

DAYDREAMS IN A WHIMSICAL, IMAGINARY WORLD

Tippet Rise OPUS 2017 is the second compilation album to emerge from the summer music season at Montana’s Tippet Rise Arts Center, which features performance spaces of acoustic perfection amidst a sculpture-laden terrain of awe-inspiring beauty, nestled against a backdrop of the Beartooth Mountains near Yellowstone National Park. From the PENTATONE Oxingale Series, Tippet Rise OPUS 2017 inhabits the sphere of Daydreams, a sculpture by Patrick Dougherty where natural saplings organically emerge out of an eroding schoolhouse.

In this whimsical, imaginary world, composers open a visionary portal to the past and future. In the jazz-infused FIRST CLUB DATE, a world premiere by Aaron Jay Kernis and a Tippet Rise commission, cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Andrea Lam illuminate the musical playground of a boy on the cusp of manhood. The new work is dedicated to Haimovitz and the composer’s cellist-son Jonah, with double-entendre movement titles like “Puppy Love” and “Matt’s Monkish Machinations.” Violinist Caroline Goulding and pianist David Fung embody the youthful spirit of George Enescu’s Impressions from Childhood, while a pastoral mood reigns in Eugène Bozza’s Image for solo flute, performed by Jessica Sindell. An epic expansiveness saturates Red Arc / Blue Veil by John Luther Adams, featuring electronics and a wide array of sounds from pianist Vicky Chow and percussionist Doug Perkins. Opening the album is Jeffrey Kahane’s hopeful America the Beautiful, performed on piano by the composer himself, while works by Chopin and Bach, performed by pianists Yevgeny Sudbin and Anne-Marie McDermott, anchor the program with their sheer beauty and virtuosity.

TRACK LIST

Tippet Rise OPUS 2017 | DAYDREAMS

SAMUEL A. WARD (1848 – 1903) / Jeffrey Kahane (b. 1956)
1 America the Beautiful
Jeffrey Kahane, piano

AARON JAY KERNIS (b. 1960) 
FIRST CLUB DATE, for cello and piano
Tippet Rise Commission. World Premiere Recording.
2  I. Prelude to a Pizz. (or, Overture to a French Pizz.)
3  II. Puppy Love
4  III. Matt’s Monkish Machinations
5  IV. Elevating the (Jazz) Standard
6  V. Jonah’s Jive Jump
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Andrea Lam, piano

J. S. BACH (1685 – 1750)
7 Prelude from English Suite No. 2 in A minor, BWV 807
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano

EUGÈNE BOZZA (1905 – 1991)
8 Image for solo flute, Op. 38
Jessica Sindell, flute

GEORGE ENESCU (1881 – 1955)
Impressions from Childhood, Op. 28
9 Ménétrier (The Country Fiddler)
10 Vieux mendiant (The Old Beggar)
11 Ruisselet au fond du jardin (The Brook at the Bottom of the Garden)
12 L’Oiseau en cage et le coucou au mur (The Bird in the Cage and the Cuckoo on the Wall)
13 Chanson pour bercer (Lullaby)
14 Grillon (The Cricket)
15 Lune à travers les vitres (The Moon Shining through the Windows)
16 Vent dans la cheminée (Wind in the Chimney)
17 Tempête au dehors, dans la nuit (Storm Outside in the Night)
18 Lever de soleil (Sunrise)
Caroline Goulding, violin
David Fung, piano

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810 – 1849) / Yevgeny Sudbin (b. 1980)
19 À la minute (Variations on the Minute Waltz)
Yevgeny Sudbin, piano

JOHN LUTHER ADAMS (b. 1953)
20 Red Arc / Blue Veil
Vicky Chow, piano
Doug Perkins, percussion