The Texas Tech University Symphony Orchestra is giving a concert this Friday in Hemmle Recital Hall. Dr. Peter Fischer and Dr. Philip Mann are here to give more information on the event in this first part of The Front Row.
Dr. Mann, tell us about the concert.
This is one of our most exciting programs every year, and I can tell you as, essentially the music director of the program here, it’s one of the things that I look forward to most. It’s the opportunity for us to showcase annually the winners of our concerto competition. So, the kind of bright young shining stars of the school of music that have distinguished themselves from their peers by winning in their respective areas—strings, winds, brass, percussion and piano—a concerto competition.
The prize is that they get to offer that concerto in a public setting with the university symphony orchestra. So this is a chance, really from a conductors standpoint, to see someone from the orchestra step out, literally in front of the orchestra in the spotlight, and what you see on stage is a special dynamic. It is not just pride and excitement for one of their colleagues, but it is the support from fellow musicians as they help to support and accompany one of their own in a concerto position.
One thing that I’ve wanted to do with this program, is not just highlight it, but also take advantage of this as an opportunity to further showcase the school of music. In this case we have an opportunity to do a world premiere of our esteemed composition professor, Dr. Peter Fisher. I thought what better way to put the spotlight on the School of Music itself. We have one of our most distinguished professors offering a premiere. And then on the other end of the spectrum, some of our brightest young stars, offering a concerto.
Dr. Fischer, tell us about the piece you’ll be presenting.
It’s called Primordial, which is basically, it’s the beginning. For me, it’s the genesis of the planet Earth, of life, so it’s filled with a lot of intensity and emotions of building and explosions—of things that seem like they should end, but then they don’t end. It kind of builds upon all of that.
From a composer’s standpoint, of course we’re always a little bit anxious at that first rehearsal. We did five or six hundred pages of parts correctly and there were very few problems with that, so I was very, very pleased about that. But we’re often not sure what to expect at that first rehearsal and what’s going to be called upon us.
Maestro Mann took the Orchestra and he rehearsed the piece for about an hour and a half and he ran through the whole thing and then he started taking it apart in little tiny bits. And all these little nuances, some of which I had even forgotten that I had put in there, but they were all in there and he’s seeing all of these things within the score and he’s asking the orchestra to bring this out, and to bring this out, and for these people to be a little quieter. He’s worried about balance and all of these things. It was just an extraordinary experience for me as a composer.
Listen to the full interview at the top of the article.
