Missy Mazzoli - Violent, Violent Sea | Guildhall School of Music & Drama - 4 Nov 2020

Guildhall Symphony Orchestra
Jessica Cottis Conductor
This concert was performed live across four venues at Guildhall School on Wednesday 4 November 2020. It was recorded and produced live by Guildhall School’s Recording & Audio Visual department.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Mead Composer-In-Residence, Missy Mazzoli has received relatively little exposure this side of the Atlantic, but major UK performances include two European premieres - of her orchestral piece Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) at the BBC Proms, and of her second opera, Breaking the Waves (an adaptation of the Lars von Trier film), at last year’s Edinburgh International Festival. In March, just before lockdown, she appeared at nearby St Giles’ Cripplegate in tandem with fellow American composer and pianist Kelly Moran, performing some of her
own material.
Like Mazzoli herself, who also composes for her all-female art-pop band Victoire, Violent, Violent Sea looks simultaneously in opposite directions. Beginning with thoughts of an emotional mood rather than a precise musical idea, the composer wrote in her early notes for the piece:
LOUD BUT SLOW.
LIGHT BUT DARK.
VIBRAPHONE.
HOW TO DO THIS?
Almost throughout, the slow-shifting, sustained chords in the strings contrast with more chaotic (but precisely notated) lines in the winds and brass. This idea, though simple, generates myriad contrasts - of instrumental timbre, of texture (‘vertical’, or harmonic, against ‘horizontal’, or contrapuntal) and of rhythm. Tension and calm often coincide, while short Minimalist gestures overlay Romantic expression. If the harmonic language seems to have a foot rooted in tonality, this is without apology. ‘My goal with all my music,’ Mazzoli has said, ‘is to draw listeners in with something familiar and then have it be like, “Oh, I never heard it put that way.”’
Jessica Cottis spent her early professional years as assistant conductor to Vladimir Ashkenazy at the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Since then her performances have received consistent acclaim in the national and international press.
Recently noted as “Classical ‘face to watch’” (The Times), Cottis’s dynamic conducting style, high musical intellect, and inspirational leadership have led to guest conducting invitations from orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Houston Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Sinfonietta, Gävle Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Oulu Symphony Orchestra, as well as numerous re-invitations to the prestigious BBC Proms.
Following the success of her debut at the Royal Opera House in 2017 conducting the premiere of Na’ama Zisser’s Mamzer, she was immediately re-invited to conduct the world premiere of
The Monstrous Child by Gavin Higgins, which was “strikingly brought to life by the Aurora Orchestra conducted by Jessica Cottis” (Financial Times).
Upcoming performances this season include a return to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and debuts with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, and the English Chamber Orchestra. She works widely as an advocate for classical music.
Guildhall Symphony Orchestra:
Violin I
Sabine Sergejeva*
Paula Gorbanova
Amelia Harding
Cathryn Cowell
Giulia Lussoso
Ella Ronson Jessica Meakin
Joana Praça
Ella Fox
Tiago Costa
Gwyneth Nelmes
Jasper Noack
Luka Perazic
Harriet Haynes
Violin II
Tilman Fleig*
Sonja Tuomela
Pauline Herold
Ana González Alonso
Laura Pastor Rocamora
Nina Lim
Kalina Mincheva
Zoe Hodi
Ivelina Ivanova
Evie Rogers
Viola
Mabon Rhyd*
Kate Correia De Campos
Charles Whittaker
Samuel Watkin
Simon Philip-McKenzie
Georgia Russell
Lara Bowles
Kelvin Chan
Ami-Louise Johnsson
Cello
William Clark-Maxwell*
Christopher Hedges
Patrick Moriarty
James McBeth
Yishang Sheng
Kosta Popovic
Aline Christ
Rita Moutinho
Double bass
Yat Hei Lee*
Catharina Feyen
Kornel Koncas T
Evangelos Saklaras
Max Salisbury
Benjamin Du Toi
Flute
Fiona Sweeney*
Rebecca Rouch
Shahmir Samee (piccolo)
Sophie McLaughlin (piccolo)
Oboe
Emma Beach*
Sam Willsmore (cor anglais)
Clarinet
Hannah Hever*
Andrew Mellor(E-flat clarinet)
Fresca David (bass clarinet)
Bassoon
Ruby Collins*
Lucy Gibson
Horn
Leonardo Pinho*
Alexander Grinyer
Michael Hofmann
Elizabeth Baumberg
Trumpet
Adam Meyer*
Maciej Kropidlowski
Louis Grao
Trombone
Sam Dye*
James Graham
Bass trombone
Simon Chorley*
Alexander Froggatt
Tuba
Charles Jones
Timpani
Hristiyan Hristov (toy piano)
Percussion
Charlie Hodge*
Francisco Negreiros
Harp
Emilia Agajew*
Heather Brooks
*Section principal

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Noice.