Pat Summers

By: centraljersey.com
In its East Coast premiere, Steven Mackey’s violin concerto "Beautiful Passing" will be the centerpiece of Princeton Symphony Orchestra’s first classical concert of the season on Sunday. The truism that "all music was once new" applies here: Concert-goers will experience Mr. Mackey’s piece early in what’s hoped will be a long life in the repertoire.
Performed by violin virtuoso and new music advocate Leila Josefowicz, for whom it was written, Mr. Mackey’s composition memorializes his mother. Her death two years ago prompted his reworking of the concerto he was then writing.
Music Director Rossen Milanov has dedicated this PSO season, his first full one, to collaborations with "the cultural luminaries in our midst here in Princeton," says Melanie Clarke, the symphony’s executive director. Among those treasures is Steven Mackey, professor of music and department chair at Princeton, as well as composer for orchestras, chamber ensembles, dance and opera.
His mother’s passing, he says, "turned the piece in a different direction. My heart wasn’t so into the fast and loud and showy stuff, and I became inspired by the serenity and inner strength she showed."
She had suggested he visit her earlier than usual that August day, saying, "Today will be my last day." She told him, "I paid my bills last night. Everything’s all wrapped up."
And she added, "I just feel that it’s time … Don’t be sad. I’m not sad. Please tell everyone I’ve had a beautiful passing." While Mr. Mackey sat at her bedside, she "gave up the life force," he says – "not that she willed it; it was more a matter of letting go." He titled the concerto "Beautiful Passing."
Without telling the story of his mother’s death, the composition plays with the forces at work. "I was inspired by the clangor of me and the nurses and aides all around: ‘Elaine, you can’t … !’ and I was also inspired by her serenity and her resolve; her ability to let go."
In the beginning of the concerto, "the violin’s simple melody suggests personal resolve and strength," Mr. Mackey says. "That’s interrupted by the orchestra. It comes in like a bull in a china shop, but it doesn’t deflect the violin from its purpose." The climax of "Beautiful Passing" is "not a big chord, or Ta-Da! moment," he adds. "It’s a moment where the music sort of lets go and just relaxes."
Nor is it dirge-like. The professor side of the composer knows well the lament genre, with music that’s "not all down," or slow and sad. In that tradition, "Beautiful Passing" is also meant to celebrate the life ("It’s got some dancing in there") and memorialize the passing.
"In fact," Mr. Mackey says, "without the dancing, the letting go means nothing."
Once he had finished the arc of the piece, pitting the contrasts of "life’s glorious cacophony" against the serenity of letting go, Mr. Mackey’s result included "the violin over time seducing the orchestra and calming it down, the way my mother calmed me down in terms of accepting this."
While concerned about Ms. Josefowicz’s reaction to what his work had become, he needn’t have worried. "I felt I owed her a virtuosic section, as in a traditional violin concerto," he remembers, wondering if he should build in something more. But she said, "Steve, no! It’s finished!" adding, "I’m honored to be involved in a piece that’s this personal to you."
In its own, non-traditional way, Mr. Mackey says, his concerto is very difficult to play. "A lot of musical effects have to do with a kind of flickering. I thought of it as the flickering of consciousness – you know, you’re just falling asleep, right on the cusp of letting go."
Such uncommon techniques and results would seem custom-made for Ms. Josefowicz, who isn’t afraid to take risks with her sound, Mr. Mackey says. He conferred with her about the direction of the piece, seeking her input. Besides in-person consults (she lives in New York), they also used email for exchanging both sound and score.
The concerto had its world premiere in 2008 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, followed by its first American performance with the St. Louis Symphony. It receives its West Coast premiere next May with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In all cases, Ms. Josefowicz solos.
A performer eager "to be doing something different to push myself and to grow," Ms. Josefowicz says she memorizes her new scores ("These great works deserve that attention") to free herself from distraction during a concert. No "worrying about notes on paper while there’s so much going on in the orchestra."
She thinks an audience senses when a musician really knows the music and may listen differently. Before that point, she brainstorms a lot with "her composers," believing she can contribute.
Ms. Josefowicz (whose first name is pronounced "LEE-la") was born near Toronto and has played the violin since she was 3. By the time she was 20, she says, she felt a little claustrophobic; she was doing what everyone else was doing – standard concert works. So began her immersion in "new" music.
Now 33, she’s almost dismissive about having made her Carnegie Hall debut at 16, attending Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music and high school concurrently, and winning a 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship "in recognition of her passionate advocacy and genuine commitment to the music of today."
She would "be doing the same thing without the fellowship," she says, not "depending on the outside for affirmation." Similarly, although her performing instrument is a Del Gesu made in 1724, she plays it, not the reverse. "The player is who makes the sound."
Steven Mackey, 54, began his music life in northern California, playing electric guitar in rock bands. "I thought I’d be a rock star and if not that, I had theoretical physics to back me up," he says. Then in a college music appreciation course, he heard concert music for the first time "and that was it. I changed my major to music and I’ve pursued that path ever since."
Beyond academe – he came to PU in 1985 and six years later won its first distinguished teaching award – his life is all about composing, commissions and performing, not necessarily in traditional ways. His "new music" compositions often feature unusual instrumentation – for instance, he has written concertos for electric guitar, saxophone and marimba. Only now is he composing a piano concerto, his second work for "a mainstream instrument."
Though he’s described his demographic as "iconoclastic musical omnivores," he didn’t see himself as a maverick till his music was performed in public and he was criticized. "Things I thought were self-evident as cool things to do" weren’t always seen that way, but as somehow heretical. "I discovered that not everyone agrees with me."
Despite or because of that, Mr. Mackey’s music has won "establishment" recognition ranging from a Guggenheim Fellowship to Kennedy Center and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center awards.
Stylistically, he sees himself as following in the tradition of Mozart and Stravinsky, citing their eclecticism as a common thread. From wildly varied influences, each earlier composer created his own style. Similarly, Mr. Mackey pays homage to all the music he has loved. "To me, this is how music goes."
Sunday, Oct. 3, 4 p.m., Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium: "Power, Passion, and Grace," the first concert in Princeton Symphony Orchestra’s 2010-2011 season. Rossen Milanov, conductor, and Leila Josefowicz, violin soloist. The overture to Mozart’s "The Magic Flute": Steven Mackey’s "Beautiful Passing" for Violin and Orchestra (East Coast premiere); Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor. For tickets, phone immediately: 609-497-0020. To learn of free events being presented in relation to the concert, visit www.PrincetonSymphony.org.