Hearing a concert of world premieres of a single classical composer’s music has been a rare occasion anywhere in the world in the last 100 years. Sergei Rachmaninoff played the last concert of his touring life in Knoxville in February 1943.
American composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich, and Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, still present concerts of their music. But there are very few others.
At St. John’s Cathedral downtown last Thursday, American composer and Knoxvillian Jason Overall presented a concert of his music before an appreciative crowd. Overall usually hides in plain sight as the cathedral’s music director, a post that has supported composers throughout Western classical music history, beginning with Bach and Haydn.
The three new works on Overall’s program were performed by Knoxville musicians who are best known for their playing with the Knoxville Symphony.
Cellist D. Scot Williams did the heavy lifting by opening the concert with “Suite for Unaccompanied Cello.” Its compositional structure owes a debt to the famous solo cello suites of J.S. Bach, with its opening movement Prelude, followed by four dance pattern movements: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue.
But the similarities ended there. It was challenging music for even the best cellists to play, with its demanding extended techniques that produced snaps and clicks as well as gorgeous, ethereal harmonics made by slightly brushing the bow against pressed strings at their lowest point next to the bridge. There were also lovely passages, set against grating moments. The rhythms were equally challenging.
It was not by any means the work of an idle-time doodler-composer. It was serious music made by a creative mind with strong ideas. There were moments that had the feel of organ music, but with its dissonances and complex chords spread out for a single string instrument to play. Williams was the master of it all.
Oboist Claire Chenette, violinist Sean Claire, cellist D. Scot Williams and violist Eunsoon Lee-Corliss play Knoxville composer Jason Overall’s “Quartet for Opie, Violin Viola and Cello.” (Photos by KnoxTNToday)
Next came “Quintet for Piano, 2 Violins, Viola and Cello,” performed by pianist Eunjin Choi, violinists Sean Claire and Sarah Ringer, violist Eunsoon Lee-Corliss and cellist Theodore I. Kartal.
With more instruments in the mix, the piece again had the sense of organ music, reassembled with different voices. There were more melodic passages. The opening movement, Symphonie, even had a short quote from Bernstein’s “Candide.”
The third movement, marked Pas de deux, showcased pairs of instruments that moved around the ensemble, as well as a lovely cadenza played by Claire.
The fourth and final movement, Déploration et chorale, brought all the voices back together. A word from 16th century France, deploration can have the meaning “to cry out,” which certainly seemed to capture the sense of the ending of the piece.
The final work was a more melodic and entirely lovely Quartet for Oboe, Violin, Viola and Cello, joyously played by oboist Clair Chenette, violinist Claire, violist Lee-Corliss and cellist Williams.
Organ music, this time from the French tradition, again came to mind.
Although this was the first time I had heard Overall’s music, I hope it is not the last. He is a gifted composer. His music is intellectually fascinating and challenging. It doesn’t let the listener off easily. But the three works on this concert, at least, were a pleasure to experience.