Debussy's La Mer: Chamber Premiere by PostClassical Ensemble

I talked with Angel Gil- Ordóñez, Music Director of PostClassical Ensemble, about their upcoming concert, The Pale Blue Dot: A Musical Voyage Inspired by Nature, Wednesday, November 19 at 7:30pm in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. 

Evan Keely: “A Musical Voyage Inspired by Nature” certainly seems descriptive of this fascinating and eclectic program, but I sense that there is more to it than inspiration alone. The guest curators for this concert are Enric Sala and Kristin Rechberger: Enric Sala is a National Geographic fellow who leads Pristine Seas, an effort to create and maintain marine protected areas, and Kristin Rechberger is the CEO of Dynamic Planet, “which helps build conservation economies that restore nature rather than deplete it, that are regenerative rather than extractive.” Is this a concert not only “inspired by nature,” but one that seeks to inspire the defense and preservation of the natural world?

Angel Gil-Ordóñez: Definitely. The structure of the program is: We as human beings lived in harmony with nature. With industrial progress we destroyed that harmony. But there are solutions. Both Enric and Kristin are extraordinary advocates of the solutions, and they are achieving incredible results around the world. 

EK: It will be very interesting to hear this chamber orchestra arrangement of La Mer by Joolz Gale. How did you come across this arrangement, and what made you want to include it in this program?

AGO: I am always inspired by original chamber orchestral or instrumental versions of pieces that later became symphonic. A few examples that I have conducted: Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring for 13 instruments, Silvestre Revueltas’ Sensemayá, and the original version of Manuel de Falla’s El Amor Brujo (which I recorded for Naxos).

The arrangement of Debussy’s La Mer by Joolz Gale that we will perform is precisely the inverse experiment: how to extricate the chamber music component of a symphonic work. Arnold Schoenberg was a master of this in his arrangements of Gustav Mahler. Joolz Gale achieves it brilliantly as well. What is lost in textures and colors that the orchestra provides is gained in intimacy and focus.

As soon as I learned of this new arrangement through the publisher Boosey & Hawkes, I wanted to do it. This is the perfect occasion.

EK: The US government documentaries The Plow That Broke the Plains and The River (1936 and ’38, respectively) offered warnings that are still relevant today about the exploitation of natural resources and the catastrophic consequences that follow. In this concert program, you’ve included some of the music Virgil Thomson composed for those films; what’s the message for a concertgoer who may not know these documentaries?

AGO: The selections from Virgil Thomson’s original scores we have chosen from these two landmark New Deal documentaries from the 1930s were created to raise public awareness of environmental degradation and the promise of federal reform. The Plow That Broke the Plains examines the conditions that led to the Dust Bowl, while The River explores the ecological and economic significance of the Mississippi River and the devastating consequences of its flooding. PostClassical Ensemble will perform Thomson’s music, steeped in the soundscape of 1930s America and drawing from folk, jazz, and popular idioms, with the original films projected and a live narrator replacing the original voiceover. We find it relevant that almost 100 years ago, this was an important issue. The message is there is still a lot of work to do. PCE previously released the world premiere recording of Thomson’s complete scores for these films in 2007 both in CD and DVD (Naxos American Classics).

EK: It’s always a joy to hear the Children’s Chorus of Washington. Has PCE collaborated with them before?

AGO: This will be the first collaboration with PCE, but I worked with the choir and its director Margaret Clark in a new opera production produced by the IN Series. Margaret is a great musician, and the choir is one of the jewels in Washington.

EK: Of course I understand it’s a surprise, but is there anything you want to tell me about what Joel Friedman will be offering?

AGO: Let’s say that we will end with a singalong with the audience of one of the better-known Beatles’ songs. Joel’s arrangement for PCE and the choir is simply amazing.