The Flowering Arts, an orchestral work commissioned by James Levine and The Boston Symphony Orchestra, premiered in January of 2006 with four performances in Symphony Hall.
Hailed as “a powerful premiere” (Boston Globe) the work was commissioned to celebrate the Orchestra’s 125th-year anniversary.
Audio Excerpt:
The Flowering Arts, 0:55 - 1:31
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I am always talking with composers, especially those who teach, as to where they’ve had exceptionally bright, talented students. As much as I prefer playing multiple works by great “elder statesmen” of our time in order to develop a relationship between their music and the audience, I don’t want to neglect our younger composers whose music is already interesting and also growing. Thus the presence on this program of Jonathan Dawe, a composer just over forty who writes music that is noteworthy for its originality. His new piece, The Flowering Arts, which we commissioned for the BSO’s 125th anniversary, is inspired by some older music-in this case some very old music indeed. Of course this isn’t in itself a new procedure, but his contemporary take on that older music is extraordinary. I’ve heard several other works of his, including a chamber opera that’s been recently premiered. The combination of elements in his music is unique, and doesn’t belong to any standard “school.” Even with the juxtaposition of old elements in The Flowering Arts, the language is entirely Jon’s own. And it’s a piece that will be fun for the audience.
James Levine
BSO Program Book January 2005
BSO triumphs again with ’Fantastique’ symphony
By T.J. Medrek Saturday, January 14, 2006 Boston Herald
There are two possible sources for that sonic boom you might have heard throughout Greater Boston on Thursday night around 20 minutes past 10: 1) the ferocious cascades of blazing sound produced by James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall in the ”Witches’ sabbath” finale of Berlioz’ ”Symphonie Fantastique,” or 2) the earth-shaking, roof-raising roar of approval from the audience that immediately followed.
Certainly there was no doubt that Levine and his superb band had triumphed in a daring performance of the symphony that’s become the BSO’s signature tune. And there were howls of approval as Levine urged principals and then players of each section of the orchestra to stand - starting, appropriately, with the nothing-short-of-spectacular, truly breathtaking woodwinds.
But the baton stops at the maestro’s desk, and with passages like, especially, the daringly slow ”Scene in the country” movement (how did the musicians ever sustain such exquisite purity of tone at this tempo?) and the apocalyptic ”March to the scaffold,” Levine claimed this BSO classic as his own - and reclaimed it for the orchestra that, hard as it is to believe, just keeps sounding better and better.
This overwhelmingly grand finale may have overshadowed the concert’s first half in impact, but that’s not to diminish the world premiere of Jonathan Dawe’s ”The Flowering Arts” (a BSO commission dedicated to Levine) and another proven masterpiece, Schumann’s Fourth Symphony, magnificently rendered.
For contemporary music, Levine has so far as BSO music director concentrated on elder statesmen such as Elliott Carter and Milton Babbitt, not coincidentally something of a Dawe mentor. But at 40, the Boston-born (but not raised) Dawe is practically a kid in classical terms, so Levine’s interest should be taken very seriously.
Although the colorfully off-kilter sound-world of ”Flowering Arts,” rooted in music of the French Baroque as deconstructed via fractal geometry (!), may not anticipate the symphonic music of the future, it certainly is a very fine present.
And it was especially rewarding to leave the hall on a Green Line train filled with groups of young concertgoers enthusiastically discussing the performance. For all the BSO’s noble history, these truly may one day be seen as the orchestra’s glory years.
