Classical music is rooted in the old world, but it pays careful mind to the present.
Orchestras, opera companies, universities and foundations are constantly commissioning new music by living composers. They love to tout these contemporary works, written in various styles, by staging splashy premieres at the concert hall.
This practice has two benefits, in particular. It keeps classical current, and relevant, and it expands the repertory. Performances can’t be all Beethoven, all of the time.
It also allows the genre to diversify itself. Classical gets ribbed for being all about “dead white guys,” but the truth is, the industry is working hard to support art by new and talented writers from different cultural backgrounds and multiple musical influences. And institutions do what they can to keep the music playing, producing multiple performances of fresh works, so that they have a chance to become part of the canon, and not disappear after they debut.
That is much of the reasoning behind the Colorado Symphony’s “Mozart & Now” program, set to be performed Jan. 26-28 at Boettcher Concert Hall. The lineup for the weekend of concerts is mainly Mozart, which will bring in the crowds, but Colorado Symphony principal conductor Peter Oundjian has mixed that with pieces by more recent names.
As Oundjian sees it, present-day audiences are not opposed to new work; in fact, they can be quite curious. They just do not get too excited about entire evenings of music built around titles they do not know.
So, the move will support a few composers whose reputations are at varying stages while giving audiences just the right amount of the unfamiliar. The programs include work by living composers Valerie Coleman and Carlos Simon, as well as Christopher Rouse, who died in 2019.
“Combining programs allows us, with our massive concert hall, to do the kind of repertoire that we’re a little bit afraid to do because we have to sell so many tickets,” he said.
The idea of presenting emerging composers within a program of Mozart makes sense. He was once in their shoes.
“Mozart was the one composer who was probably the most accused of being too modern, with too many notes, too different from what had come before,” Oundjian said in a recent interview
All that has changed, of course. Just a few centuries later, he is classical’s big draw.
“So there’s a distinct dichotomy in that and how we think of as Mozart today, which is as a good way to secure the box office,” said Oundjian.
There is another unusual twist to the upcoming Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances. The Colorado Symphony normally repeats the exact same program over the course of its three-day performance weekends. (I cannot remember a single time it diverted from this practice.) But in order to get more of the newer music played, each of the programs is slightly different.
All three are set to include Mozart’s bright, brief “Divertimento in D major,” written for a small ensemble of musicians. But ticket buyers will need to pay attention to figure out when to hear the rest.
They can choose between programs that, variably, include the overture from his opera “The Magic Flute,” his Symphony No. 40, and his Horn Concerto No. 4, which will feature horn player Michael Thornton. The lineups are spelled out clearly on the orchestra’s website, though it takes a little sorting.
Sprinkled in, on the first two evenings, are the newer works. That starts Friday with Simon’s Trombone Concerto, which will feature in-house player John Sipher. Simon, whose influences include jazz, gospel and neo-romantic classical, wrote the piece to commemorate the Underground Railroad, the network of safe houses used by early American slaves as an escape route north. The concerto was commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
“The piece premiered about six months ago, and this will only be the second public performance,” said Oundjian.
Saturday will showcase Rouse’s Symphony No. 6. Rouse, in Oundjian’s view, was one of the most important composers of the 20th century, but he does not get the recognition of peers, such as Phillip Glass, whose work is performed frequently.
Rouse is known for writing music that is “big and bold and sometimes a little bit spectacular,” said Oundjian, though this particular work is more introspective and the “final couple of pages of the piece are really moving.”
Saturday’s program will also have Coleman’s “Umoja: Anthem of Healing,” Coleman is a flutist and well-known as a member of Imani Winds, one of classical music’s busiest touring chamber ensembles.
But she has succeeded well as a composer. “Umoja” recently was singled out by the industry group Chamber Music America as one of the “Top 101 Great American Chamber works.”
Coleman originally created the work — which, according to her website, mixes short, sweet melodies with sustained ethereal passages — for a small group of players.
“It’s a wonderful piece that Valerie wrote a long time ago and has rewritten several times,” said Oundjian. “And this is her final version, which is for a full orchestra.”
IF YOU GO
The Colorado Symphony will perform “Mozart & Now” Jan. 26-28 at Boettcher Concert Hall in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Tickets and info at 303-623-7876 or coloradosymphony.org
