Piano and orchestra
SKU:
FG.55011-372-5
Composed by Matthew
Whittall. Study score.
Fennica Gehrman
#55011-372-5. Published
by Fennica Gehrman
(FG.55011-372-5).
ISBN
9790550113725.
Imag
es of the sea figure
prominently throughout my
life and memories: from
holidays on the Atlantic
coast during my Canadian
childhood to my current
Baltic home, and the
imagined, only later
experienced Mediterranean
of my ancestral heritage.
As an immigrant (son of
an immigrant) bound to
two northern countries,
the sea is emblematic of
my twin homelands, from
the expanses of water
surrounding them to those
separating them. A Mari
usque ad Mare. The sea is
also an enduring image of
the unknown, of expanses
unexplored, of the raw
power of nature and, for
too many currently, of
terror holding a hope of
refuge - or the pain of
loss.
Such disparate
ideas were captured for
me in the seascapes of
the New York painter
MaryBeth Thielhelm, whom
I met in 2008 during a
residency on the Gulf of
Mexico. Her vast,
abstract, nearly
monochromatic depictions
of imaginary seas in
wildly varying moods were
the catalyst for a
concerto where the piano
is frequently far from a
hero battling a
collective, but rather
acts as a channel for
elemental forces surging
up from the orchestra,
floating - sometimes
barely so - on its
constantly shifting
surface. There are few
themes to speak of,
beyond a handful of
iconic ideas that
periodically cycle
upward. Rather, the
piano's material is
largely an ornamentation
of the more primal
rhythmic and harmonic
impulses from the
orchestra below - a
poetic interpretation, if
you will, of the more
immediate experience of
facing the vastness of
some unknown body of
water.
The title
Nameless Seas is borrowed
from one of Thielhelm's
exhibitions, as are those
of the four movements,
which are bridged
together into two halves
of roughly equal weight -
one rhapsodic and free,
the other more
single-minded and direct,
separated only by a short
breath. The opening
movement, Nocturne, is
predominantly calm, if
brooding, darkness and
light alternating
throughout. Lyrical
arabesques sparkle over
gently lapping
cross-currents in the
strings and mirrored
timpani, the piano's full
power only rarely
deployed. The waves
gradually build, drawing
in the full orchestra for
a meeting of forces in
Land and Sea, a brighter,
more warmly lyrical scene
that unfolds in series of
dreamlike, sometimes even
nostalgic visions, which
for me carry strong
memories of sitting on
rocks above surging
Atlantic waves. The third
movement, Wake, is a
fast, perpetual-motion
texture of glinting,
darting rhythms and
sudden shafts of light,
with a prominent part for
the steel drums, limning
the piano's quicksilver
figurations. An ecstatic
climax crashes into a
solo cadenza that grows
progressively calmer and
more introspective rather
than virtuosic. Much of
the tension finally
releases into Unclaimed
Waters, a drifting,
meditative seascape in
which the piano is
progressively engulfed by
a series of ever-taller
waves, ultimately
dissolving into a
tolling, rippling
continuum of sound.
It has been a great
privilege to realize such
a long-held dream as this
piece, and to write it
for not one, but two
great pianists.
Risto-Matti Marin and
Angela Hewitt, both of
whose friendship and
support have been
unfailing and humbling,
share the dedication.
Nameless Seas was
commissioned by the
PianoEspoo festival and
Canada's National Arts
Centre, with the
premieres in Ottawa and
Helsinki led by Hannu
Lintu and Olari Elts.
Thanks are due also to
the Jenny and Antti
Wihuri fund, whose
generous grant provided
me with much-needed time,
and Escape to Create in
Seaside, Florida, the
source to which I
returned to do a large
part of the work.
