
Earlier this week, Orli Shaham, Steve Mackey and David Robertson had a meeting. It’s common, if not customary, for the composer, conductor and soloist to have a huddle before the premiere of a concerto. At that meeting, the three talked about the details of the composition, especially the ending. “There are great musical ideas there,” said Orli, “but the epilogue seemed to need just a little something more after the end of the fugue.”
Inspired by Orli’s comment, Steve asked rather casually if Orli and David were “secretly wishing the piece ended with unqualified bigness?”
“In all honesty, Steve, yes. I do want to get ‘butts out of seats’ with a big ending,” Orli replied. “The fugue that comes before builds up a lot of momentum, and a lot of tension. The audience needs a release from that tension – a big ending is the least you can do for them.” Ultimately, she left the choice to the composer, “As a performer my job is to be committed to what you’d like to communicate. All I can do is promise to execute either possibility with total conviction.”
As it turned out, Steve had already written a “big finish” a while ago, but then he decided to go in a different direction. The story the concerto follows is the developmental progress of Steve’s young son, Jasper. As Steve was working on the composition last year, Jasper had two seizures. Fortunately, those incidences were not repeated, but that served as a blatant reminder to Steve about the fragility of life. At that point, Steve set aside his sketch for the jaunty, mirthful ending he had written, and he choose instead to go with a bittersweet, reflective conclusion.
One might think it would be a hardship on the performer to learn a whole new section, just days before the premiere performance. Steve himself was afraid that would be problem for Orli. But as it turned out, Orli mastered it immediately, “I suddenly understood the piece much better from a thematic standpoint,” she said. “It brings together so many of the musical ideas of the piece; it’s just so logical and organic, and it has a very cool-sounding part, technically. It was a non-issue to learn it, AND, it was much easier to learn than the end of the fugue, which I am still working on,” Orli added, with a wry grin.
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Orli Shaham and the St. Louis Symphony conducted by David Robertson will perform the world premiere of Steve Mackey’s Stumble to Grace on September 23 and 24 at Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis, MO. More information at STLSymphony.org. KWMU radio will broadcast the concert live on Saturday, September 24 at 8:00 pm. In St. Louis, tune in to 90.7 FM, or visit http://www.stlpublicradio.org/ for live webstreaming.