The Gardens of Hokkaido
For piano and orchestra
Album...
The Gardens of Hokkaido
Release date: 2010
Written by: Knut Vaage,
Performed by: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Einar Røttingen, Ingar Bergby
Orchestration
pf solo, orch: 3(2)-3(1)-3(1)-3(1) 4-2-2-1 timp perc:3 hp cel str
Duration
27 minutes
First performance /Commissioned by
First performance in Bergen, 2005
Commissioned by Einar Røttingen
Introduction to The Gardens of Hokkaido...
"The Gardens of Hokkaido explore the journey of sound in space, as a small community of musicians create three-dimensional textures, where the individuals either harmonize or contrast."
ear audience and listeners, The piece you'll soon hear is, so far, the highlight of my collaboration with the pianist Einar Røttingen, who has been a driving force behind ordering and performing new works in our environment. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him, the orchestra, and the conductor Ingar Bergby, who put forward the plans for a larger work for piano and orchestra. The title "The Gardens of Hokkaido" is, as the name suggests, taken from Japan's northernmost island, because the idea itself was born during a conversation Einar Røttingen and I had on a train journey between Sapporo and Tokyo. It is not program music, but the encounter with the Japanese culture, the landscape and the people remains as a memory, and becomes almost like a timbre in the work. In memory, I can still picture patches of pine forest, mountains and sea - and the brilliant light that chased away the claustrophobia after traveling through the world's longest undersea tunnel. The train journey took 12 hours, so I had plenty of time for speculation. It has also taken time to develop this piece as it has been involved in an experimental project in the orchestra to create a workshop for testing new works. This has opened up dialogue between all involved. The musicians have been given the opportunity to provide feedback on the material. All the actors got an insight into the work at an early stage. At the same time, it has also improved the situation around a short trial period, which is often critical for original performances. All in all, the workshop gave us a fruitful and confidence-building process that I hope the orchestra will also let other composers benefit from. When I now had the opportunity to write for piano and orchestra, it was too tempting to comment on Edvard Grieg's A minor concerto. But what in Grieg's work is a powerful opening with the characteristic Grieg falling leitmotif, in this piece is reduced to a delicate falling movement from the back desk of the 2nd violin to the piano's first solitary staccato on the note a. Here all further similarities end, as far as i can see
The Gardens of Hokkaido are in a batch, which develops in a kind of free form. The piece is composed from both sides: an active material from the start onwards, while the calm theme in the work is composed from the end and flows the other way towards the opening of the piece, as if two hands want to grasp each other without completely closing.
It has been important for me in this piece to emphasize the movement of the sound in the room, and in this way to focus on the orchestra's ability to create three-dimensional textures. The idea is that the orchestra, like a small society, consists of many more or less equal individuals in interaction, or in opposition to each other.
Because of these ideas, the orchestra is divided symmetrically in two, with the pianist in the middle, harp and celesta on each side, percussion in a wreath behind, two equal string orchestras which sometimes means that there are 4 basses on each side of the stage. In the same way, the bladders are also divided, e.g. with a flute on each side, piccolo in the middle. A trombone on each side, a tuba in the middle. A trumpet at the end on each side, etc.
So when there is a small solo, it is never just with one musician, but in dialogue or in the form of echo effects that permeate the entire work. The score is planned so that the sound constantly wanders, for example. between soloist and musicians in the orchestra, or expands from the soloist octet which forms a semi-circle led by the strings to gradually include everyone. This texture creates a more chamber-music feel, where more musicians than usual get to participate with solo elements as part of the orchestral texture. Of course, this reorganization of the entire orchestra will create an unfamiliar working situation for the conductor and musicians, and some extra work for the stage manager. So I'm crossing my fingers that it's worth the effort, and that the listener can experience this sense of space in the sound image.
Knut Vaage
information about the work
Press
"The work, which has only one movement, is clearly divided into sections. There is a slow meditative sequence, there is a sequence with hammering rhythm, and there are constantly various "Japanese" references. "The Gardens of Hokkaido" is a rich orchestral movement structured with simple, effective contrasts in dynamics and rhythm. "It is never boring, and you never get the impression that they are in a hurry", van Gogh wrote about the Japanese visual artists. Something similar could be said both about "The Gardens of Hokkaido" and about Røttingen's and BFO's interpretation of it."
Knut Vaage's "The Gardens of Hokkaido" is a piano concerto inspired by the Japanese landscape. The composer wanted to write an "anti-hierarchical" composition, and has divided the orchestra into two symmetrical formations - like an unfolded paper butterfly.
"Knut Vaage moves in contemporary music with great excess. What we have previously heard often shows an impressive imagination and variety, but within a fixed and structured framework. He belongs to those contemporary composers who are not boring, until his sound world is too colorful and He has a fine ability to bring to life the many possibilities of the symphony orchestra without succumbing to the temptation to overburden the composition with massive tutti sounds.....the concerto has clear structures and is particularly well-formed with magnificent forte parts, but also with delicate orchestral use in weak parts....Carl Nielsen makes an impression, but so does Knut Vaage. Long and beautifully, Einar Røttingen played "Point of view" as an encore, and Ingar Bergby followed up at the end with "Tjat" as an extra orchestral piece. Funny and partly loud banter which again emphasized Knut Vaage's talent as a composer."
