Triple Concerto, “Summit”

Written: 2022-23
Duration: 30'
for piano trio (violin, cello, and piano) and orchestra (2-2-2-2 / 4-2-3-1 / 3 percussion, timpani, strings)
Commissioned by Neave Trio
World Premiere: Mostly Modern Orchestra with Neave Trio, JoAnn Falletta, conductor, Mostly Modern Festival, Arthur Zankel Music Center, Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, June 17, 2023.
Publisher: Bill Holab Music

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Also available: Summit Trio, a piano trio derived from three of the movements from Triple Concerto.

PROGRAM NOTE

As we live through a sixth mass extinction, it is not difficult to question whether we can act as good stewards of our earth. While I often feel a sense of despair — how could we have messed this up so badly? — my thoughts are often, perhaps irrationally, tempered by a sense of optimism. Maybe we can fix this, or at least that’s what I tell myself. Triple Concerto is essentially an exploration of these emotions. As a scenic point of departure, the entire work also uses three types of geographical regions as inspiration.

Triple Concerto (nicknamed “Summit” after the last movement) is structured a bit differently than a traditional concerto. An introduction and three larger movements are interspersed with three small trio-centric movements that loosely function as either a prelude, interlude, or cadenza. These three smaller movements also exist as a stand-alone version for the piano trio that may be performed as a sort of “teaser” for the concerto on a chamber music concert.

The first movement, Introduction, loosely evokes a sunrise. Toward the end of the movement, bird song melodies from around the world are incorporated and performed by the winds. This leads to a movement entitled Chorale Prelude, focusing on the piano trio, leading to a joyful third movement, Bright Pastorale, filled with bright, sunlit bell-like chords and sounds reminiscent of birdsong. Moments of despair begin to appear as the movement progresses. The movement ends darkly, like an overcast sky before a storm. The fourth movement, Interlude, echoes the beginning, focusing on the trio once again and evoking a sense of longing, the sound of a more innocent time. Tundra, the fifth movement, is cold, dark, and bleak but with swaths of color. A sense of sadness and loneliness permeates this movement, at times represented by various mournful effects such as bent notes created by dipping tubular bells in water and glissandi in the strings and brass.

After the fifth movement, the trio performs a virtuosic Cadenza, full of grief and rage but with signs of hope. This leads to the final movement, entitled Summit. Ascending lines suggest climbing a mountain, both literally and figuratively. After a brief climax, eleven bell-like chords sound one after the other, symbolizing the chimes of the Doomsday Clock. The winds perform birdsong once again, perhaps of songbirds that may soon become endangered or even extinct. In a nod to Haydn’s Symphony No. 45 (his “Farewell Symphony”), the players leave the stage one by one until all that is left are the trio and conductor.

Triple Concerto was commissioned by the Neave Trio and premiered by the trio and Mostly Modern Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta, conductor, at Mostly Modern Festival in Saratoga Springs, NY.

– RP

Movements should be listed in programs as follows:

I. Introduction
II. Chorale Prelude
III. Bright Pastorale
IV. Interlude
V. Tundra
VI. Cadenza
VII. Summit

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