Today’s post comes from this weekend’s guest soloist, percussionist Colin Currie. Read on to learn about his surprise gift from Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara – this gift of his own concerto!
It is a great honor to make my debut with the Houston Symphony this season, especially as we will celebrate together “Incantations” by Einojuhani Rautavaara, one of more than a dozen works for solo percussion and orchestra written for me in recent years. This piece has a special place in my repertoire, and is best described perhaps as the truly great “romantic concerto” for the solo percussionist. I approached this composer with the following in mind, that the end result would be a work of great drama, mystery and power, such was my experience hearing previous works of his. Also, I was thinking that the piece would most likely trace the structure of the familiar romantic concerto; employ bold sweeping themes, recapitulation of material at key moments, a haunting and beautiful slow movement perhaps, a cadenza…and indeed it proved to be so, and how! What excited me immediately about this was that as a percussionist, I had never had a chance to partake in this kind of musical structure in the pieces I play, as they are often housed in more abstract architecture. So – finally, a “classic” for my repertoire.
One of the things that so thrilled and moved me about getting this concerto off the ground was the initial trip to Helsinki to meet the great man at his apartment. Rather frail due to a very difficult health condition, I was warmly greeted at the front door, and shook the hand that in turn shook that of Jean Sibelius. No sooner had I crossed the threshold however, than Mr. Rautavaara proceeded to seat himself at the grand piano in the lounge area and launch into the searing opening theme from his latest work – a concerto for me! And this meeting was scheduled as a “meet-and-greet”! I was humbled down to my shoes.
Following this, we corresponded often, tweaking notes and percussion instrumentation, and I worked hard for about three weeks myself in the summer of 2009 to compose the cadenza, a task that I both relished and enjoyed.
Performing this work at the Houston Symphony, I am joined by the wonderful Finnish Maestro John Storgards, with whom I performed and recorded the work in Helsinki. He and Einojuhani Rautavaara are both part of the extraordinary culture for classical music that exists in Finland, and it is a thrill to share that with the audience in Houston.
Warmly, Colin
For more information or to purchase tickets to this weekend’s concert, Beethoven’s Fifth, please click here.
