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Zwilich's Way: A New Symphony
| Article
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10887 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1993 |
1,160 Words |
| Author
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Philip Kennicott
Philip Kennicott, based in New York, is a writer on
performance arts. |
Ten years ago composer Ellen Taafe Zwilich won a Pulitzer Prize for her Symphony No. 1, becoming the first woman to win the coveted honor for a musical composition. This February, as part of its 150th anniversary celebration the New York Philharmonic premiered her Symphony No. 3. At no point in the intervening decade has Zwilich left the public spotlight, nor slackened in her steady production of large-scaled, well-received symphonic scores. Indeed, Zwilich is one of today's most frequently commissioned and performed composers. Not only does she continue to produce highly crafted music at a remarkable rate, but she is astoundingly successful in the far more difficult task of keeping her music before the public.
World premieres are one of the tried and true ways to generate interest in new works. To a lesser extent, American or North American premieres also sell tickets. But after that--sometimes after a single performance--interest in new music usually flags. Not so with Zwilich's music. The numbers are astonishing: On the same evening as the premiere of her Symphony No. 3 in New York, the Minnesota Orchestra was performing Zwilich's popular orchestral work Celebration. That marked the score's hundredth performance since its premiere in 1984. On the same evening, in Phoenix, Zwilich's flute concerto was being performed by James Galway, marking that piece's twenty-second performance. A recording of the same work b Doriot Anthony Dwyer was nominated for a Grammy Award this year. Other works have fared as well or better: The Symphony No. 1 has had at least forty performances; Prologue and Variations, for string orchestra, has had seventy-five performances; and a trumpet concerto has been heard at least twenty-five times.
Accessible Style
One thing is clear: Zwilich has mastered the difficult art of survival in the increasingly moribund world of classical music. Part of her success is attributable to career wisdom. Many of her works are jointly commissioned, which assures at least a handful of performances as well as a bit more exposure. She has also written many concerti, some of which have been taken up by popular soloists; a new trumpet concerto, for example, has been commissioned for Doc Severinsen and is scheduled to be heard in 1994. Many of the concerti also survive in the spotlight by filling a niche: Her catalog includes concerti forflukte, oboe, trumpet, and trombone, and will son include works for bassoon and French horn as well. But Zwilich's career savvy is clearly a secondary factor. Her musical taste, accessible style, and compositional skills are the primary reasons for her success.
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