About this piece

               Musical selection from the Esprit/CBC CD Harry Somers/Celebration

               Be perfect and articulate,
Look neither to the right nor left,
Know everything, be temperate,
Look neither to the left nor right,
Do not go walking late at night,
Do not be passionate.

               Liner note (excerpted) written by Larry Lake, Composer and Host of CBC's Two New Hours

               Harry Somers was at once the most celebrated and the most neglected of Canadian artists. Although many of his smaller works, such as his Five Songs of the Newfoundland Outports are constantly performed, his major compositions are rarely heard. Louis Riel has been called Canada's national opera, but it has been mounted only twice and is not available on a recording. His orchestral works, justly celebrated are notable for their absence in our concert halls. This recording will, in some measure, help to change that situation. It contains three examples of Harry Somers at his best. The earliest piece is his Five Songs for Dark Voice, written in 1956, when the composer was 31. His middle age is represented by Elegy, Transformation, Jubilation written in 1980. The mature Harry Somers is represented by The Third Piano Concerto of 1996. . . a bravura work, the tone of which is set by the initial piano entrance. . .

               As important as his instrumental works are, it is in the vocal music that we find the quintessential Harry Somers. His love of the voice and his sense of vocal colour were central to his art. His first songs, still performed today, were written when he was in his twenties, and he continued to write for the voice throughout his career, producing six operas, twelve choral works and fifteen sets of songs.

               Early in Harry Somers' career, the poet Michael Fram was a favourite collaborator. Together, they produced Somers' first opera, The Fool, in 1951, Three Simple Songs in 1953, and Conversation Piece in 1955. The Five Songs for Dark Voice were commissioned by the Stratford Festival for Maureen Forrester in 1956. This work was a true collaboration in every sense and fulfilling for both composer and poet. In his notes for the songs, Somers referred to Fram's "beautiful imagery and his meaningful symbols of human feelings." For his part, Fram said, "The emotions released in me seemed to find their inevitable expression."

               Harry Somers later recalled that at the time he wrote this work, he was enormously impressed with Mahler's writing for voice and orchestra, and although he always hated labels, he went so far as to call these songs "neo-romantic." He referred to this set as his "dark songs" - dark songs for dark voice. . .

What they say - About this piece

               ". . . best of all was the earliest piece on the program, Five Songs For Dark Voice, commissioned by the Stratford Festival in 1956 and still one of the loveliest settings of poetry (by Toronto's Michael Fram) in the Canadian repertory.
Mezzo-soprano Jean Stillwell sang, the Esprit Orchestra played and the ear felt gratitude."
     — William Littler, The Toronto Star, Tuesday, November 16, 1999
          (Reviewing an Esprit Harry Somers' tribute concert)

About the Composer

               Born in Toronto in 1925, Somers only began to study music in his early teens and, as if to make up for lost time, immediately engaged in intensive study. At the age of sixteen, he entered the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto where he studied piano with Reginald Godden (1941 - 43) and Weldon Kilburn (1946 - 49) and composition with John Weinzweig (1942 - 43, 1946 - 49), receiving scholarships in 1947 and 1949. In the latter year, he was awarded a Canadian Amateur Hockey Association scholarship through which he studied composition with Darius Milhaud in Paris (1949 - 50). At that time, Somers' music was subject to the dual influence of serial music (championed at that time by Weinzweig) and a more personal past-conscious view of music and the musical repertoire. He once remarked that, for him:

               

. . . composition evolves from a body of tradition and a series of conventions, be they old or new. Now in the 1950s, I was out of touch with developments that were happening in composition; I had to learn my own way. And my own way was to write works that employed Baroque techniques fused with serialism and the more highly tensioned elements of 20th century music I was familiar with at the time.

               Harry Somers was a founding member of the Canadian League of Composers and in 1971, was named a Companion of the Order of Canada. He received honorary doctorates from the University of Ottawa (1975), the University of Toronto (1976) and York University (1977). From the late 1950s, he composed almost exclusively on commissions from a wide variety of North American musical organizations and individuals.

               Harry Somers died March 9, 1999. He left Canada and the world of music, an inestimable legacy of some of the most original and dramatically powerful scores of the century. His work has embodied Canadian music for the last half century and is truly a major part of Canada's artistic heritage.

               For More About Harry Somers:

               The composer's Web site
http://www.harrysomers.com

               The Canadian Music Centre - Associate Composers Directory
http://www.musiccentre.ca/apps/index.cfm?fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid=1235&by=S

               CBC Records Feature about the composer
http://cbcrecords.ca/catalog/product.xml?product_id=8883;category_id=3943

               Governor General tribute
http://www.gg.ca/media/news/archive-2001/20010223-1_e.asp

What they say - About the CD

               "For lovers of vocal art, the focus of this admirable selection, wonderfully performed, of the late Harry Somers' music would be the song cycle Five Songs for Dark Voice, commissioned by the Stratford Festival in 1956 (when the composer was only 31) for contralto Maureen Forrester. Somers chose his texts from the poet Michael Fram, with whom he already collaborated on his first opera The Fool (1951), Three Simple Songs (1953) and Conversation Piece (1955).

               Somers admired Fram's "beautiful imagery and the meaningful symbols of human feeling," and the songs have a deceptive simplicity: They unfold gradually like Japanese paper flowers set into a bowl of water. The opening lines of each song contain a concentrated, potent observation: "Now every grief is personal" or "The hands that do not touch will bruise." Somers' settings, clearly influenced by Mahler in terms of an affinity for a lower voice supported by a spare orchestral texture, expand the tight, riddling texts to an emotional expansiveness that never seems forced or sentimental. The five songs are notable for their feelings of containment and proportion. The touch is that of a master.

               Jean Stilwell performs them with a haunting beauty, often allowing a trace of hysteria in her tone to suggest the underlying tension of the texts ("How can I walk in this city?" seems a prescient question now, almost half a century later). Her rich and focused mezzo, which records so expressively, provides a natural instrument for this rewarding music. Though we know it was not the case, this cycle might have been written for her.

               The CD also includes exciting performances of Somers' The Third Piano Concerto (1996) by James Parker - for whom it was written - and the orchestral work Elegy, Transformation, Jubilation (1981). Throughout this collection, Alex Pauk's Esprit Orchestra radiates authority and commitment."
     — Urjo Kareda, Opera Canada, Fall 2000

                "This is an admirable recording and a fitting tribute to this late, great Canadian composer who died in March, 1999, at the age of 73. The three works range from Five Songs for Dark Voice, composed in 1956 for Maureen Forrester with a text by Michael Fram, through the complex Elegy, Transformation, Jubilation of 1981, and on to The Third Piano Concerto, dating from 1996 and one of Somers' final works (the last two are given their world premiere recordings here).

               The Five Songs have been badly in need of an updated recording since Forrester's own rendition appeared three decades ago from RCA Victor, with the National Arts Centre Orchestra led by Mario Bernardi. Even for its time, that recording was severely compressed, but still blessed by Forrester's husky voice and poignant phrasing. In comparison with this new reading, she makes more of, for instance, the word "articulate" in the second song, and is particularly moving during the passage "At four o'clock before the dawn" in the fourth song. Jean Stilwell, for her part, turns in a gorgeous performance all round, reveling in the urban angst and self-doubt that characterizes the text.

               The three-part orchestral work from 1981 opens with a beautiful string Elegy, a latter-day example of the long line that marked much of Somers' music of the 1950s and '60s and proof that here was a composer with a unique, discernible voice that carried throughout his entire career. The winds enter just at the end, leading attaca into the Transformation and Jubilation, which share a track and are not delineated in any obvious way. Parts two and three are less conventionally beautiful than the Elegy, and more clearly inspired by electroacoustic music, with its swells and metallic colours. Ingenious orchestration, but not a real crowd-pleaser.

               James Parker gave the premiere of The Third Piano Concerto with Pauk and the Esprit Orchestra in 1996 in Toronto, and those forces offer a stirring performance here as well. The busy first movement incorporates the kind of nervous rhythms that were always a hallmark of Somers' music, the middle movement brings a sharply contrasting calm and a lovely solo piano introduction, and the finale serves up some delectably dense polytonality. A brief cadenza calls for some dazzling finger work on the part of the soloist, and Parker pulls it off with aplomb."
     — Rick MacMillan, Opus, Fall 2000

About the guest artists

               Jean Stilwell has sung with all the major orchestras and opera companies in Canada and with many others throughout the world. In addition to her many roles in the standard repertoire, including Carmen, Maddelena in Rigoletto, Cherubino in Le Nozze Di Figaro and Musetta in La Beheme, she is renowned for her performances of contemporary music.

               Among her many credits in contemporary repertoire are the Canadian premiere of Sir Michael Tippet's The Mask of Time with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, performances of Tippet's A Child of Our Time with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Luciano Berio's Folk Songs with the Calgary Philharmonic and the National Ballet, Oskar Morawetz's From the Diary of Anne Frank with both Symphony Nova Scotia and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and R. Murray Schafer's Adieu Robert Schumann with the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

               For More About Jean Stillwell:

               http://www.deanartists.com/stilwell.htm

               http://www.missenlink.com/artists/jeanstilwell/jeanstilwell.pdf

               http://cbcrecords.ca/catalog/category.xml?category_id=3869

               James Parker, piano

               Pianist James Parker received his early musical training in Vancouver, studying with Kum-Sing Lee at the Vancouver Academy of Music, and at UBC. With the assistance of The Canada Council, he then studied with Adele Marcus at the Julliard School, where he received his Master of Music degree in 1987 and his Doctorate in 1992.

               Mr. Parker first achieved national prominence when he won first place at the 1984 Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition. He has performed with every major Canadian orchestra - including the Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg and National Arts Centre orchestras, to name a few. Mr. Parker has also given recitals throughout North America and Command Performances for dignitaries and diplomats at Canada House in London, the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the Canadian Consulate in Chicago. A frequent guest on both radio and television, he has performed on Bravo!, the CanWest Global Network, MuchMusic, and on CBC radio and television broadcasts.

               He is a member of the acclaimed Gryphon Trio, with whom he has appeared throughout North America and Europe.

               Harry Somers wrote his The Third Piano Concerto specifically for James Parker.

               For More About James Parker:

               http://www.gryphontrio.com/bios/james.html