Odyssey: 11 American Premieres for Flute and Piano Mimi Stillman Charles Abramovic Innova 814   CD1 Benjamin C.S. Boyle (1979)   (15:22) Sonata-Cantilena for Flute and Piano, Op.21 (2009) 1.         Andantino sostenuto  5:26 2.         Lento affettuoso         5:16 3.         Con anima       1:32 4.         Vivace con spirito       3:08   Mason Bates (1977)   (11:55) Elements for Flute and Piano (2000) 5.         Earth   3:13 6.         Water  2:47 7.         Air       2:42 8.         Fire      3:13   Richard Danielpour (1956)     5:05 9.         A Quality Love from Margaret Garner (2005)             Gerald Levinson (1951)          (15:20)            Odyssey for Solo Flute (1973) 10.       Molto lento     3:02 11.       Agitato, violento         1:23 12.       Liberamente, fantastico           5:01 13.       Molto ritmico 2:02 14.       Largo   3:52   Zhou Tian (1981)       5:37     15.       Duet for Flute and Piano (1999, rev. 2005)                         CD2 David Ludwig (1974)  (12:58) Sonata for Flute and Piano (2003) 1.         Con moto        3:33 2.         Misterioso      5:59 3.         Con moto        3:26   Daniel Kellogg (1976)             (10:42) Five Sketches for Solo Flute (1997) 4.         Impulse           2:02 5.         Loss    3:44 6.         Interlude          1:14 7.         Autumn Refrain          1:48 8.         Tempest          1:54   Andrew Rudin (1939)             (12:04) Two Elegies for Flute and Piano (1979) 9.         Elegy I: Adagio           4:47 10.       Elegy II: Adagio Maestoso e Lirico    7:17   Katherine Hoover (1937)        (13:03)            Mountain & Mesa for Flute and Piano (2009) 11.       Hungarian Lassú         5:31 12.       On the Mesa   4:37 13.       Dizi Dance      2:55   David Bennett Thomas (1969)           5:41     14.       Whim for Solo Flute (2009)      Michael Djupstrom (1980)     4:14 15. Sejdefu majka budaše (2007) (Sejdefu’s Mother Wakes Her)                         58:49                           The Artists   Internationally acclaimed flutist Mimi Stillman has performed as soloist with orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Bach Collegium Stuttgart, and Orquesta Sinfónica Carlos Chávez, and as recitalist and chamber musician at venues including Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Verbier Festival, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Symphony Space, Kingston Chamber Music Festival, and Bay Chamber Concerts. At 12, she was the youngest wind player ever admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Julius Baker and Jeffrey Khaner. Ms. Stillman, a Yamaha Performing Artist, was the youngest wind player ever to win the prestigious Young Concert Artists. She has won numerous prizes, awards, and competitions including Astral Artists Auditions and fellowships from the Earhart and Bradley Foundations. She has recorded for EMI, Innova, Albany, Dolce Suono, DTR, and Centaur Records. Ms. Stillman holds an M.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a published author on music and history. Her book of arrangements of Debussy songs, Nuits d’Étoiles: 8 Early Songs, is published by Theodore Presser Company. Her articles have appeared in the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World, Flutist Quarterly, and other professional journals. A sought-after teacher, Ms. Stillman teaches masterclasses and coaches chamber music at universities and flute societies, and is flute clinician at the Music For All National Festival, presented by Yamaha. As Artistic and Executive Director of Dolce Suono Ensemble, which she founded in 2005, Mimi Stillman has presided over its establishment as a highly regarded and pioneering force in the music world. Dolce Suono Ensemble’s active commissioning program has led to the creation of 23 new works in seven years. Commissioned composers include Steven Stucky, Shulamit Ran, Richard Danielpour, and Steven Mackey, and guest composers have included George Crumb and Ned Rorem. Dolce Suono Ensemble has garnered extensive praise in the media and been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Music Project, and other organizations. Mimi Stillman and pianist Charles Abramovic have performed as a duo for ten years, and together with cellist Yumi Kendall are founding members of the Dolce Suono Trio. www.mimistillman.org   Charles Abramovic is widely acclaimed for his international performances as soloist, chamber musician, and collaborator with leading musicians. As a recitalist and chamber musician he has performed throughout the United States and Europe, with engagements at festivals in Berlin, Salzburg, Bermuda, Dubrovnik, Aspen and Vancouver. He made his orchestral debut at the age of 14 with the Pittsburgh Symphony, and has soloed with the Baltimore Symphony, Colorado Philharmonic, Florida Philharmonic, and other orchestras. He performs regularly with artists such as Midori, Viktoria Mullova, and Sarah Chang. Mr. Abramovic is a founding member of the Dolce Suono Trio, with flutist Mimi Stillman and cellist Yumi Kendall. He is a distinguished composer as well as interpreter of new music, and his Laus D (A Haydn Tribute), written for Dolce Suono Trio, was commissioned by Dolce Suono Ensemble and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. He has recorded for the EMI, Bridge, Koch, Avie, and DTR labels. He is Professor of Keyboard Studies at Temple University. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Peabody Conservatory, and received his doctorate from Temple University.     A Note from Mimi Stillman   Charles Abramovic and I titled this recording “Odyssey” not only because it is the name of Gerald Levinson’s work but because the concept of an odyssey aptly describes our project: an exhilarating journey of musical discovery. The process of selecting the works  from all the recent American flute music was the first step. I chose mostly works that were written for me, many which Charlie and I premiered and subsequently performed together. We designed the collection to present a broad  range of musical styles, languages, and approaches from composers of diverse  backgrounds. They are a distinguished group, including some of today’s most eminent composers, such as the Grammy Award-winning Richard Danielpour, and most promising emerging composers. They have an impressive array of commissions and performances by the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles. In the works, one hears a huge variety of techniques and expressive colors from flute and piano individually and in the pairing of both instruments. Three of the works, by Daniel Kellogg, Gerald Levinson, and David Bennett Thomas, are for solo flute, in contrast with the rest which are duos. All eleven works receive their premiere recordings here, intended to document and disseminate these important contributions to the repertoire.   There is a geographical odyssey in the collection, as composers draw on the music of different world cultures – David Ludwig was inspired by traditional Argentinean music, Katherine Hoover by Hungarian, American Indian, and Chinese music, Michael Djupstrom by a Balkan folk song. Some composers reference  their own heritage, as does Zhou Tian with Chinese music. Several of the works integrate styles other than classical, particularly folk song and dance, as in the pieces by Richard Danielpour, Djupstrom, Ludwig, Hoover, and Zhou, who also cites American jazz as an influence in his work. Amid the variety there are also connections among the works; recurring tropes that emerge from the composers’ reactions to the fundamental nature of the flute. The flute is the closest instrument to the human voice, and every composer includes long, cantabile vocal lines. Benjamin C.S. Boyle titled his work Sonata-Cantilena in a nod to Francis Poulenc’s “Cantilena,” the second movement of his Sonata for Flute and Piano, a staple of the flute repertoire and a piece Benjamin and I played together in our sessions prior to his writing his sonata. Boyle’s music, the works by Danielpour and Djupstrom, which are arrangements of songs, and lyrical sections of all the pieces vividly showcase the vocal qualities of the flute. The works also highlight many aspects of flute and piano virtuosity – atonal  acrobatics in the Levinson, bubbling streams and fiery sparks in the water and fire elements of the Bates, and inexorable momentum and intensity in the Ludwig, to name a few examples. Several composers employ extended techniques for flute – flutter tonguing, pitch bends, key clicks, tongueless attacks, and foot stomps in the Thomas. Taken together, the works in this collection exploit the technical and artistic capabilities of both instruments and make enormous demands of expression, control, and subtlety.  The composers on this recording are my valued colleagues and friends. In some cases I have performed multiple works by them, so this recording is a culmination of a long working relationship. Kellogg, Ludwig, and I met as students at the Curtis Institute of Music, and together founded an ensemble devoted to performing the music of Curtis composers, which we directed through two years of concerts, with the guidance of Jennifer Higdon. This experience of co-directing my own ensemble was formative and provided me with the experience I needed when I founded Dolce Suono Ensemble, of which I am Artistic Director, in 2005. Kellogg wrote Five Sketches for me while we were both students at Curtis, and I played it in composition classes with  Richard Danielpour. Djupstrom and Zhou are fellow Curtis alumni. Bates, Boyle, Kellogg, and I are all winners of Young Concert Artists, and Bates was commissioned by YCA to write Elements for me.   Katherine Hoover is a flutist who has written numerous pieces for the instrument, some of which I have performed. I gave the world premiere performance of Mountain & Mesa at the National Flute Association  convention in New York City in 2009. The works by Gerald Levinson and Andrew Rudin are the earliest on the recording, and I was surprised when I learned  that they had not been recorded as I think these compelling works deserve to be heard. Benjamin C.S. Boyle, Richard Danielpour, David Ludwig, and David Bennett Thomas have been commissioned or premiered by my Dolce Suono Ensemble, as part of ongoing collaborations with these composers. The Boyle was commissioned and premiered for our “Samuel Barber at 100: The Composer and His World” project in 2010 and the Thomas premiered when Dolce Suono Ensemble was in residence for the American Composers Forum Philadelphia’s “New Voices” project in 2009. For Charlie and me, the process of learning a piece of music and developing it through to performance and recording is like an odyssey; an intellectual and emotional journey of musical discovery which unfolds over time. We invite you to join us on this exciting musical adventure.   Notes From the Composers     Benjamin C.S. Boyle | Sonata-Cantilena for Flute and Piano   These days, it is increasingly difficult not to be overwhelmed by an extraordinary diversity of musical influences. We have at our fingertips – for the first time – the entire history of musical composition; not only a millennium of Western Art Music, but the music of every culture of the world, spanning every genre. In this increasingly confusing collage of style and association, I have never felt a stronger need to hone my work towards a pure substance – a message, a single idea, a voice – that is solely me, and, while not excluding the various ancillary influences I enjoy, focusing on the core repertoire that has most greatly informed my ear as a composer. Sonata-Cantilena celebrates the influences of two composers whom I hold in the highest regard: Samuel Barber and Francis Poulenc. While Barber’s lyricism and skilled vocal writing informed my writing for the flute (as I believe it did his), Poulenc’s generous example of form gives my work its title. For, as in Poulenc’s Flute Sonata, my sonata features a slow “Cantilena” as its second movement, lyrical and unfettered, linking together the moody first movement to the third movement – a quick scherzo – and the darker finale – a virtuoso toccata.    The piece was shaped by the knowledge of the strengths of the two stellar performers for whom the piece was written: Mimi Stillman and Charles Abramovic, commissioned by the Dolce Suono Ensemble.   www.benjamincsboyle.com   Mason Bates | Elements for Flute and Piano   Underneath all of its silk-toned finery, there lurks an indigenous quality in the flute reminiscent of its ancient, woody ancestors – recorder, pan-flute, and indigenous flute from all cultures.  When I was commissioned in 2000 by Young Concert Artists to create a recital work for flutist Mimi Stillman, a fellow Young Concert Artists winner, I immediately began to fantasize about a piece with some kind of primordial flavor. After taking note of her extraordinary talent, I settled on a continuous, four-movement form that would seamlessly present her amazing technique and artistry in a unified fashion. The Aristotelian categories of matter – Earth, Water, Air, Fire – attracted me because of their suggestive possibilities, while providing a blank slate regarding overall form. Like the elements, the movements are distinct yet inextricably related, beginning with dusty bent notes low on the flute; moving through a quivering, bubbly world into a crystallized and airy one; and culminating, finally, in a fiery climax. While thematic relationships join Earth with Air and Water with Fire, the textural world constantly metamorphoses from one element to the next, ending with abrupt juxtapositions of these various timbres in the work's final moments. www.masonicelectronica.com   Richard Danielpour | A Quality Love from Three Mezzo-Soprano Arias from Margaret Garner Text by Toni Morrison Arranged for flute and piano by Mimi Stillman and Charles Abramovic   The last aria from Act 1 of my opera Margaret Garner portrays Margaret alone after the wedding of Caroline, the daughter of the plantation owner Edward Gaines. She is cleaning up after the guests and contemplates the many kinds of love that exist. And having understood within herself that a fundamental form of love starts with the love of one’s self she begins to sing her aria.   Mimi Stillman and Charles Abramovic approached me with the idea of the transcription of "A Quality Love" around the time I was writing a trio for their Dolce Suono Trio, entitled Remembering Neda. Normally I am not enthusiastic about arrangements of my work, especially songs, but owing to the extraordinary musicianship of Ms. Stillman and Mr. Abramovic, I thought it appropriate to make an exception here. Musicians of this sort are rare and from a composer’s point of view, should be welcomed with gratitude and appreciation. www.schirmer.com/composers/ danielpour_bio.html   Gerald Levinson | Odyssey for Solo Flute   Odyssey is an extended exploration of the entire range of the modern flute, in terms of pitch, color, breath, and articulation. It is an essay in shaping a large form using only the resources of monody. One-line music, pure melody, is the foundation of Western music and still the most prevalent texture among most musical cultures in the world. However, it largely went into eclipse during the "tonal" or "common-practice" epoch (Baroque-Classic-Romantic) of European music, but has experienced a rebirth in the freer harmonic languages (modal, chromatic, post-tonal) of the 20th century and beyond, as epitomized by Debussy's tiny masterpiece "Syrinx" and others by Varèse, Stravinsky, and Messiaen. Odyssey takes the form of a continuous arc across five sections, slow-fast-slow-fast-slow, lasting about 14 minutes – a test of the performer's virtuosity, stamina and focus. The opening grows slowly from a single-note long-short gesture, by way of a 5-note motif (which reappears in each of the following sections), toward rather fantastic arabesques. The second part juxtaposes short, sharply defined rhythmic cells, dissolving into the long, drawn-out lyricism of the third section. This is abruptly succeeded by the extremely athletic perpetual-motion fourth part, only to draw back inward for the simple concluding section. Odyssey was written in 1973. This recording, by the extraordinary and intrepid Mimi Stillman, is its first. www.presser.com/levinson.html   Zhou Tian | Duet for Flute and Piano   Duet is a short musical exploration of color and rhythm of the flute, and a first impression of the impact that two cultures have had on me as a developing composer. At the time of composing this piece, I was drawn to two different and yet equally interesting types of music: dance pieces of the Dai minority from China's Yunnan province and Chick Corea's jazz. Although I heard connections between the two (improvised performance, attention to color and rhythm, and modes from non-Western music, etc.), I never thought I'd write a piece influenced by them. But I did; immediately and almost intuitively in my next work. I wanted the piece to be a mosaic of different techniques and styles, and the flute was the ideal instrument because it's so capable of different colors. At the end I never found out which culture had more impact on me as a composer, and perhaps that is why the piece is called Duet. My thanks go to Mimi Stillman and Charles Abramovic for making this premiere recording possible. Their professionalism and kindness have brought so much joy and inspiration to our collaboration. Because of their hard work, I sleep better at night! www.zhoutian.org   David Ludwig | Sonata for Flute and Piano   I was commissioned to write my Sonata for Flute and Piano in 2002 by flutist Jeffrey Khaner.  We had both been at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan and I felt particularly inspired by the great musicians there and the remarkably beautiful city of Sapporo.  Many of the ideas of the piece were conceived in that city, especially the slow and expansive second movement. There is also something of a Latin influence in the piece because I was on my way to Argentina soon after.  The outer movements are deeply influenced by traditional Argentinean music.  The first is highly rhythmic and articulated and the last uses a child’s folksong about the coming of Spring.  There are two very different cultural influences here, but this is for me indicative of our time and the smallness of our world. The first movement is severe and dissonant, rhythmic and driving.  The opening notes of this movement serve as the seed of the whole piece, and all of the sonorities to follow grow out of them.  The middle movement stands in relief of what’s come before: long and more lyrical melodic lines frame the music, amidst repeating and expanding chords that rise and fall.  The third movement has much in common with the first, though it is a small “theme and variations” (in some sense, the entire piece is in that form). This last movement ends with the same gesture which closes the first movement, but going in the opposite direction; a little more wild and a little more fun. I am delighted and privileged to have Mimi Stillman and Charles Abramovic recording my work and thank them for their extraordinary care and feeding of my first flute sonata! www.davidludwigmusic.com   Daniel Kellogg | Five Sketches for Solo Flute   Five Sketches for Solo Flute was inspired by Mimi Stillman's virtuosic playing. After working with her in ensemble situations I wanted to write a set of character pieces for solo flute that would show off her range of expression and agility. Impulse alternates fast whimsical flurries with slower arcing lines. A diatonic language mixes in blue notes to create a short sporadic movement. Loss begins with slow, long lines in a chromatic language. This sour sound turns harsh as fast runs fill in dissonant leaps. The intensity builds to a screeching climax which gives way to a distant and unchanged return of the opening phrases. Interlude offers contrast to the more abstract movements through a lyrical waltz. Autumn Refrain uses broad, warm lines to remember a season recently passed while sour tones portray the starkness of winter. Tempest begins with a fast, frantic melody that constantly pushes forward with a strong flair. Rhythmic playfulness maintains the intensity through a softer middle section that builds to a second outburst of the opening melody. Following the climax, the piece ends abruptly with soft secco notes. www.danielkellogg.com   Andrew Rudin | Two Elegies for Flute and Piano   Two Elegies was composed in 1979 as a response to the unexpected deaths of two women of my acquaintance. Elegy I is in memory of Mary Nikolas, the foster mother of a friend who graciously welcomed me into her home for the Christmas holiday season of 1978, though we scarcely knew each other. Recitativo passages surround a simple melody, before an alarming interruption intrudes and the piece concludes with a quiet chiming. Elegy II is much longer and more complex.  It is written in memory of Joan Chittum, the wife of a valued friend and colleague, who died unexpectedly following an accident. She and I shared a common birth date and had sometimes celebrated our birthdays together. The work is essentially a large ABA structure preceded by an introduction (for piano alone) and followed by a coda. The series of slow, steady, descending 6-note chords which underlie the entrance of the flute (and recur as the beginning of the coda) somehow are linked in my mind to the blank and rather emotionless feeling of walking down a long hospital corridor. The work is published by Associated Music Publishers. In this recording, Mimi Stillman and Abramovic have accorded Two Elegies a truly authoritative reading. www.composerudin.com   Katherine Hoover | Mountain & Mesa for Flute and Piano   Though flutes are found all over the world, the music they play is quite varied.  This piece brings together three different styles of music. Hungarian Lassú, the music of the gypsies of Eastern Europe, is harmonically sophisticated and melodically adventurous.  The “czardas”, its best-known form, generally begins with a “lassú” that sounds, and sometimes is, improvised.  The piano imitates a cymbalom, or hammered dulcimer in this duet. The Hopi lullaby in On the Mesa was notated by Natalie Curtis at Third Mesa in 1913.  Sounds of nature were an integral part of the music of Native America, and I have set this gentle melody with simple harmonies and bird-like sounds. The dizi is one of the more commonly played flutes in China. Dizi Dance uses patterns and chords characteristic of much Chinese music, combined with shifting rhythms, syncopations, and a swift tempo. I was extremely pleased to have Mountain & Mesa premiered by the outstanding musician and flutist Mimi Stillman, and I am delighted with her superb recording with pianist Charles Abramovic. www.katherinehoover.com David Bennett Thomas | Whim for Solo Flute Whim is a short work for solo flute in which I endeavored to put to use a rhythmic concept that I had studied in Messiaen's music. He refers to the idea as the "first notation" style of rhythm, in which time signatures are not used, but rather the performers are required to count the rhythmic values continuously as the piece unfolds without the aid of regular metric groupings represented by time signatures.  Many other twentieth century composers have used this idea as well. Rather than having my meters change from 7/8 to 11/16 to 3/4 (which is how they would appear otherwise), the flutist must keep counting the smallest values so that the rhythms are proportionally accurate.  I also had in mind the first phrase that Miles Davis plays on his seminal big band album "Miles Ahead": an assymetrical, lop-sided, "where's beat one?" phrase, that always captivated me.  Neither of these ideas will be obvious to the listener in regard to the style in which my piece is written, but nonetheless, they were the impetus of the music.  Writing for Mimi gave me the opportunity to see if I could make these ideas work, on a whim.   I became a fan of Mimi Stillman while hearing her perform an arrangement of a Paganini Caprice. Her technical facility and musicality make her the complete package. She is endlessly patient, willing to play draft after draft to put the composer’s mind to rest. www.davidbthomas.com   Michael Djupstrom | Sejdefu majka budaše (Sejdefu’s Mother Wakes Her)   This work is a free setting of a traditional sevdalinka folk song from the Balkan region. In creating this instrumental version of a vocal work, I tried to preserve the spirit of the original lyrics, which deal with universal themes of love and loss. These are the traditional themes of sevdalinka songs, a genre which originated through contact with the Turks, and fuses elements of European, Middle Eastern, and Sephardic music. The original song's structure was preserved in making this transcription, but I treated the harmony and the melodic line more freely, taking advantage of the extended range and agility of both instruments.  Originally written for flute and guitar, this piece was transcribed especially for the present recording by pianist Charles Abramovic, exquisitely performed by Mimi and Charles. www.michaeldjupstrom.com   This project has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius, The Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, and a Subito grant from the American Composers Forum Philadelphia.   Recorded August 18,19, 20 & 22, 2010 at Rock Hall, Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University, Philadelphia   Producer and Recording Engineer: George Blood Assistant Engineer and Assistant Editor: Tadashi Matsuura Innova Director: Philip Blackburn Operations Manager: Chris Campbell Innova is supported by an endowment from the McKnight Foundation. www.innova.mu Graphic design: Mark Willie, Willie•Fetchko Graphic Design Stillman and Abramovic photos: Vanessa Briceño