William Bolcom's "Prometheus, for Piano, Orchestra and Chorus" (2010) in Review

* Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review of Bolcom's Canciones de Lorca, Prometheus

Tenor Rene Barbera and the Pacific Symphony under Carl St. Clair do a wonderful job on the Lorca work; John Alexander and the Pacific Chorale with Jeffrey Biegel on piano combine with the orchestra to give us a very nice reading of "Promethus."

Grego Applegate Edwards, March 9, 2016, Grego Applegate Edwards's Classical-Modern Music Review

* New works fire VocalEssence season opener: Pieces by William Bolcom and Michael Daugherty were the highlights at Orchestra Hall.

Vocal Essence; conducted by Philip Brunelle
William Bolcom: "Prometheus" for piano, orchestra and chorus

"Bolcom patterned "Prometheus" after Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, the piano depicting the suffering of the god chained to a rock as punishment for giving humanity fire. He set a poem by Byron, but words were often less important than the dense soundscapes.

From the cacophonous opening piano solo, strikingly played by Jeffrey Biegel, to the final moment of peace, Bolcom created a compelling dramatic trajectory.

Both works were sung with passionate commitment and technical mastery. Brunelle's subtle ferocity on the podium brought out the best in all the forces and the pieces."

William Randall Beard, October 10, 2011, Special to the Star Tribune

* KSO, guest pianist tackle challenging pieces with aplomb

Going from the brutality of hell to heaven in the course of a single concert isn't an easy feat to accomplish gracefully. But Thursday night at the Tennessee Theatre, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and pianist Jeffery Biegel did precisely that with performances of William Bolcom's challenging "Prometheus," and Beethoven's "Symphony No. 9 in D Minor," Op. 125.

Beigel, for whom "Prometheus" was written, with the KSO joining eight other organizations in commissioning the work, not only played the piano with consummate skill, but physically expressed the beating down of Prometheus who is subjected to the vengeance of Zeus for giving sacred fire to mortals.

It was Beigel's bright idea for "Prometheus" to use the same orchestral and choral forces as Beethoven employed in the "Ninth," intending it as a concert companion piece and counterweight to the symphony, as well as a strong piece on its own.

It isn't a piece one claims to like, in the usual sense of enjoyment, but credit certainly goes to Richman for taking on a work that is as challenging for the performers as it is the listeners on the same concert he is mastering Beethoven's "Ninth."

Using Lord Byron's poem about Prometheus' ordeal as the choral text, the Knoxville Choral Society chanted the first two stanzas, set against crashing, brutal chords from the piano and often sharp, angular sounds from the orchestra.

While Byron relates Prometheus' pain and agony, Bolcom is delivering his warning that modern man is risking being overpowered by technology. Although "Prometheus" accomplished a lot more, its demands on the audience gave some indication of how the first hearers of Beethoven's symphonies must have felt upon hearing a kind of music they had never heard before.

Richman's handling of the opening of the first movement of Beethoven's "Ninth," with its shimmering background and fragments of theme being provocatively introduced was a pure delight to hear. The back and forth of the bitterness of struggle and the exhilaration of overcoming it were especially beautiful moments.

Then the unleashed joy of the second movement, with the hymn-like melody in the oboes and clarinets, was genuine pleasure. By the time the "Finale" arrived in this wonderful performance, with both the power of chorus and the soloists joining in, it was easy to see why, after the "Ninth," nobody else dared write a symphony for a while.

Magnificent!

Harold Duckett, April 15, 2011, freelance contributor to the Knoxville News Sentinel.


* "Jeffrey Biegel is a pianist with a dazzling technique, superb musicianship and a flair for the unnecessary.

The Pacific Symphony premiered Bolcom's "Prometheus" Thursday night at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, with the Pacific Chorale. Biegel was soloist; Carl St.Clair conducted. Bolcom's score, which is a setting of Lord Byron's "Prometheus," has something to say, and the performance said it brilliantly.

Biegel's ambition here was considerable. Money is tight these days, so he got nine institutions (among them the Detroit Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic and the University of Kentucky) to sign on. Four private donors were approached for the underwriting. It is a miracle that Biegel, who engineered everything himself and is technologically savvy, didn't develop carpal tunnel syndrome from all the e-mailing this project must have entailed. The piano is Prometheus, and Biegel began rattling his chains with violent attacks at the lower range of the piano. The playing and singing were solid and gripping. Biegel presented himself as a major Beethovenian in his sparkling playing of the "Choral" Fantasy, the score's main highlight."

Mark Swed, Chief Music Critic, Los Angeles Times

* [Beethoven's 'Choral Fantasy']: "Biegel gave the solo part its thundering and playful due. The Chorale sounded magnificent."

[William Bolcom's 'Prometheus']: "In three movements, 23 minutes in length, "Prometheus" is a dark and challenging work, a throwback to the uncompromising avant-garde of the recent past. Its musical materials are gnarled, atonal, jagged. The pianist represents Prometheus, and he is not having a good time. The chorus intones Byron's text, sometimes in eerie, unpitched declamation, at others in thickly-scored clouds of poison gas. The orchestra is frenetic and volcanic, its motives carved out of granite. One senses a "bound" universe of sound and atmosphere.

But Bolcom's operatic sense shines through. He introduces his constituent sounds separately before he begins to combine them. The hesitant beginning gradually becomes more lyrical; from reality we move into the interior dream world of Prometheus. There is hope, it seems, for us and for Prometheus, and it lies in our spirit. Man's "funereal destiny," man's "wretchedness" is not all: "His Spirit may oppose itself" to them.

On those last words, Bolcom has the chorus break apart into imitative counterpoint, a voluptuous wash of color and peace. The music becomes almost hymnal, almost tonal, and euphonious. A dramatic arc has been completed, we have moved beyond mere despair. [Carl] St.Clair, pianist Jeffrey Biegel, the [Pacific Symphony] orchestra and the Pacific Chorale gave the work a rapt performance. The rough places were made plain and clear, the beauteous ending relished."

Timothy Mangan, Orange County Register, Nov. 19, 2010

* CANADIAN PREMIERE:

"The new work was William Bolcom's Prometheus, a work for orchestra, chorus, and obligato piano that constitutes a setting of Byron's poem of the same name. The heroic quality of the poem is not really of today's taste, and Bolcom's astringent writing, addressing the anguish of the protagonist, will suit the sensibility of those drawn to terse, modernistic sounds. The choral writing was strong, as was the performance by the choir.

As the piano soloist, Jeffrey Biegel was impressive, encompassing the considerable difficulties with apparent ease, his technique fully equal to the demands and style of the work. His two encore pieces showed that he is a pianist that readily communicates with an audience, the showman quality of his playing, and tremendous speed, impressive by any standards."

Kenneth DeLong, For The Calgary Herald, February 27, 2011