The Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra serves up two enticing programs this weekend.
Saturday and Sunday’s Halekulani Masterworks Series concerts offer the exhilarating “Glass and a Fifth,” and no, you won’t need a drink to enjoy it.
“Glass” refers to the acclaimed contemporary composer Philip Glass, whose work will be getting its Hawaii orchestral debut with his second violin concerto, “An American Four Seasons.”
A bonus is that versatile virtuoso Robert McDuffie, who was integral to the creation of the work, will be the soloist. The conductor is Peter Oundjian, who premiered it with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 2009.
It was McDuffie who asked Glass to compose the concerto as a companion to Vivaldi’s popular masterpiece “The Four Seasons.”
“I always loved the Vivaldi, and I felt that the only way to get performances of the Vivaldi — which is overplayed — was to pair it with an engaging and provocative work,” McDuffie said in a phone call from his hometown of Macon, Ga.
“I went to Philip and told him he was ‘America’s Vivaldi,’ and I wanted him to write an American ‘Four Seasons’ … and to tap into the rock ’n’ roll Philip Glass that turned on David Bowie and Paul Simon and David Byrne.”
McDuffie has met with a lot of colorful characters in music and has an appreciation for mixed musical genres. He proudly claims the legacy of Macon as the hometown of Otis Redding and Little Richard, as well as members of The Allman Brothers Band and alternative rockers R.E.M. (McDuffie grew up with R.E.M. bass guitarist Mike Mills.)
McDuffie’s mother still plays jazz piano at a Macon restaurant. “She’s 88 and she wears leather pants and bling” and “gets very upset if people don’t tip her,” McDuffie said.
The violinist started his music studies in Macon with Henrik Schwarzenberger, a superb instrumentalist from Hungary who had escaped turmoil in both Europe and Indonesia. McDuffie also studied at Juilliard with the legendary Dorothy DeLay, who, aside from giving him stylistic and technical tips that serve him to this day, told him to move away from his partying roommate.
“She told me to ‘get the f— out of there.’ And she didn’t talk like that,” McDuffie said. “And I left. Omigosh, I moved out.”
Glass is certainly the most recognized contemporary American composer, with works like his opera “Einstein on the Beach” and the film score for “Koyaanisqatsi” among the most famous of his major compositions. But the jazzy, slashy “American Four Seasons” has quickly become one of his most popular works in concert — McDuffie said he’s been told that it is Glass’ most performed orchestral composition.
THE WORK features four short solo sections as introductions to each season, followed by more traditional concerto passages where orchestra and soloist alternately trade and blend parts. Glass included plenty of his signature arpeggiated passages, repetitive to the point of excruciating tension.
McDuffie recalls being immediately captivated upon hearing a computer-generated recording of it.
“I could tell right off the bat that it was exceedingly beautiful,” he said. “I couldn’t stop listening to it in the car. I would drive around just listening to it.
“This was something that was special for him, I think. He was writing beautifully for the strings then. At that time I think he was in love with a cellist, and had written some beautiful poems for her. So I got him at the right time.”
The only point of disagreement between composer and performer was the naming of each movement. The four movements were originally named in the same order as Vivaldi’s composition — spring, summer, fall, winter — but McDuffie found an “icy beauty” to Glass’ slow summer movement. He sees it as winter.
“We decided not to name the seasons, which in a way makes it even more intriguing, where people can decide for themselves,” McDuffie said. “I’m glad that we didn’t ‘order’ the audience to assume that they were listening to winter when they can decide for themselves.”
McDuffie has performed the concerto about 90 times already, but still finds it challenging and exciting to play.
“I still have to put in a lot of work,” he said. “I do it from memory, and if you make a wrong turn with Philip Glass, you will derail. So I have to make sure I’m locked in. Once it’s locked in, then it’s all about being seduced again by Philip Glass’ music. It’s just a seductive and manipulative work – manipulative in the best sense — and it still gets me every time I play it.”
No less seductive is the second work on the symphony’s program, Beethoven’s magnificent Fifth Symphony. Beethoven described its famous four-note opening motif as “Thus Fate knocks at the door.” He then took 30 minutes to extract every bit of musical content out of it, closing with a finale so brilliant and triumphant that after World War II, the symphony was dubbed “Victory” – as in “V for Victory.”
SYMPHONY LOVERS will also want to note Friday’s pops concert, which features the music of Broadway giants Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim.
Tony Award-winner Debbie Gravitte and fellow Broadway stars Anne Runolfsson and Hugh Panaro will sing tunes from “Phantom of the Opera,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Jesus Christ Superstar” and other classics.
Conducting the orchestra will be John Devlin, recently appointed music director of the Hawaii Youth Symphony.
“GLASS AND A FIFTH”
>> Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday
>> Cost: $34 to $92
>> Info: 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com
“TRIBUTE TO BROADWAY”
>> Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
>> Cost: $27 to $79
>> Info: 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com
