{"id":335,"date":"2017-12-17T12:53:20","date_gmt":"2017-12-17T17:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/?p=335"},"modified":"2018-02-25T12:59:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-25T17:59:01","slug":"a-letter-from-london-and-nielsen-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/a-letter-from-london-and-nielsen-4\/","title":{"rendered":"A Letter from London (and Nielsen 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

December 17, 2017<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Yesterday I arrived in damp and blustery London, which, despite the gloom and ghastly weather is full of the irrepressible cheer of Christmastime. There is something about dusk descending at 4 p.m. \u2013 or even of being soaked by the spray of a passing double-decker bus whilst walking to a carol service \u2013 that makes the Yuletide spirit all the more real. I write just before the commencement of a rather brutal schedule of mulled-wine-soaked lunches and dinners with friends. It\u2019s the one time of year when nearly everyone from this continent of my life is in the same place, which is something to treasure.<\/b><\/p>\n

It is, of course, a natural time to reflect on the year that is drawing to a close, while contemplating aspirations for that which is about to begin. 2017 has been another year of enormous change for the Jacksonville Symphony. We\u2019ve welcomed many new musicians and staff members, and continued our ambitious program of growth, both in the range of music we play, and for whom we play it. Our concerts reached 255,000 Jacksonvillians \u2013 a record \u2013 and we began important collaborations, like our residence at Daily\u2019s Place and our string programs for school kids in Clay Country. Our national profile is on the rise too. I was delighted when we were invited to collaborate with the American Composers Orchestra to showcase the music of tomorrow. You can hear that venture in action in April. I\u2019m always focused on how the orchestra plays, and I know I speak not only for myself but for the musicians when I say how proud I am of the performances we gave. A few come to mind as particularly special: Sibelius\u2019s Seventh and Fifth symphonies, Mahler\u2019s Second and Beethoven\u2019s Third. On a personal note I\u2019m also delighted to have extended my commitment to the orchestra and city through the 2020\/21 season. Jacksonville has become home, the orchestra family, and we still have an enormous amount to achieve together. One of my heros, the conductor Simon Rattle, once said that with orchestras, as in life, monogamy is best. I\u2019m not sure I entirely agree in the latter case, but certainly in the former!<\/p>\n

There is much to look forward to in 2018. We\u2019ll being the year with an announcement about our new Composer in Residence. I can\u2019t wait to share this news with you; we\u2019ve found a unique artist who writes music that is at once accessible and adventurous. As I\u2019ve said before, this season is something of a list of my favourite music, and the first program of the year \u2013 featuring Nielsen\u2019s Fourth Symphony, The Inextinguishable \u2013 is no exception. Rehearsals begin, cruelly, on January 2, so the musicians and I are committed to rather more abstemious New Year\u2019s celebrations than usual.<\/p>\n

Carl Nielsen was a Danish composer who lived from 1865 to 1931. His Fourth Symphony was written amidst both the turmoil of the First World War, and strife in his marriage. He\u2019d married a brilliant sculptor, Anne Marie Brodersen, who had very different ideas about her role in the world from most of her contemporaries. I\u2019m always amazed when two artistically-tempered people can live together, and it was certainly a struggle for the Nielsens. Nevertheless they succeeded. The Inextinguishable is a musical depiction of a human quality we all know well: the desire to live, to exist, to triumph, amidst great difficulty. The four movements are bound together by a powerful musical line that is best described as \u2018the will to overcome.\u2019 The symphony doesn\u2019t so much begin as erupt in a welter of energy and force that is unabated until its conclusion. As if to underline this quality visually, Nielsen employs two sets of timpani \u2013 the performers of which are the most balletic in the orchestra \u2013 so that we actually see strength of purpose throughout the symphony.<\/p>\n

One of the things I admire most about Nielsen is his individuality of style. Like his contemporary Sibelius, his musical personality had the hardiness to avoid being drawn into the binary stylistic battle that was raging in Europe in the 1910s: Schoenberg\u2019s atonality on the one hand (which we heard a few weeks ago in his Five Pieces for Orchestra) and Stravinsky\u2019s primal Russian-ness, epitomized by his ballet The Rite of Spring, on the other. Nielsen was a conductor, and his compositions tell us that he had the music of other composers swirling around in his head all the time (a plight with which I sympathize). But despite the odd snatches of Brahms, Wagner and Renaissance polyphony, he carves out a completely individual style that is full of resilience and humanity. The Inextinguishable is relentlessly optimistic. What an apposite sentiment for Christmas and the New Year.<\/p>\n

Reproduced with kind permission of The Florida Times-Union. Originally posted here:\u00a0http:\/\/www.jacksonville.com\/entertainment\/music\/arts\/2017-12-31\/conducting-electricity-letter-london<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

December 17, 2017 Yesterday I arrived in damp and blustery London, which, despite the gloom and ghastly weather is full of the irrepressible cheer of Christmastime. There is something about dusk descending at 4 p.m. \u2013 or even of being soaked by the spray of a passing double-decker bus whilst walking to a carol service \u2013 that makes the Yuletide spirit all the more real. I write just before the commencement of a rather brutal schedule of mulled-wine-soaked lunches and dinners with friends. It\u2019s the one time of year when nearly everyone from this continent of my life is in the same place, which is something to treasure. It is, of course, a natural time to reflect on the year that is drawing to a<\/p>\n

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