Theofanidis - Rainbow Body

Woah.

Symphony No.1 Christopher Theofanidis (b.1967)

This one just popped up in my Facebook feed this morning, when Naxos of America announced that it was available on iTunes, and streaming via Naxos Music Library. I thought, "good NY Times quote, good orchestra, American composer I've never heard of, super-new symphony (2009)--what's not to like?!" And so I liberated myself from my daunting (but obviously flexible) queue and dug into this piece.

  The Composer

Christopher Theofanidis is a Texas-born-and-based composer who has received more than a handful of impressive awards and performances in his relatively young life. His awards are legion:

Fulbright

SIX Morton Gould ASCAPs

Guggenheim Fellowship (whatever)

a GRAMMY Nomination (yeah, but me too)

Tanglewood Fellowship

et cetera

and his works have been performed by the London SO, Philadelphia Orchestra, National SO, Baltimore SO, Detroit SO, St. Louis SO, American Ballet Theatre, and of course (on this recording, in fact), Atlanta SO.

There's not a lot of information it seems, on Mr. Theofanidis, save what is provided by him on his website, so if you're interested, that's where you'll find him.

Symphony No.1 

Theofanidis' first symphony was a commission by Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. At 4 movements and 35 minutes, it's on the longish side of the works I've looked at so far, and what seems to be the going length for modern symphonies... but that's not to say he doesn't make it worth your while.

I'll give you the summary up front: This is a BIG, bold symphony. A Texas-sized symphony. Theofanidis doesn't play around; there are orchestral bells, about 40,000 horns (give or take... ear was a little fuzzy), and moments where I'm quite sure he ran out of "f"s and just wrote, in a Mahleresque taunt, "I bet you can't play this loudly enough, you sallies." (That's my second use of "Mahleresque" in as many days. Whoops!)

In his program notes, Theofanidis says that he studied how first movements shape the character of symphonies, and it seems he made a conscious decision to make an out-sized statement from the start. "Hello, world. I am Christopher Theofanidis, and I am here. And I have brought an orchestra the size of Texas with me. Your puny halls are too small to contain my gargantuan symphonies! Bring me the finest meats and cheeses in all the land for a green room feast!"

Okay, nothing quite so brash as that, either. I just felt like going old-school SportsCenter on you.

The first movement is huge, as I said, but it's also playful. If you can picture dinosaurs stomping around, crushing things while little sparrows flit carelessly about their feet, you'll get a sense for the scale of the push-and pull of this movement. Huge brass and percussion. Playful little woodwinds. Huge brass and percussion... see?

The composer describes the second movement as "quite lyrical, but not slow", with "raining" phrases throughout. It's really a nice contrast to the first. Nocturnal in feel. (The dinosaurs are sleeping.) And he lets the orchestra sing a little bit, too! Atmospheric neutral syllables add a little more color to his soundscape.

There's a real feeling of anticipation at about the 6' mark of the movement, in this ascending line that rocks back and forth at its apex. It really had me anxious to hear what came next. Or if there WAS a next. And then, at the end, another flourish, an eruption in the forward direction that propels us to the Scherzo.

As the 3rd movement breezes along, I find myself almost incredulous: where does he get all this energy?!?! I mean really. Did he have an espresso IV while he was composing? What an exciting piece this is... but I mean, it's almost exhausting. And then, the brisk scherzo ends an... oh no... safety belts, friends. There's one more to go.

The composer calls the 4th movement the mirror image of the 1st; where the first was mostly joyous and ebullient, the 4th is mostly brooding. In fact, in the composer's own wonderfully-chosen words, the last movement is "quite dark and monolithic in character, but is occasionally tormented by flashes of light and beauty." And don't we all know someone like that?

This is an outstanding symphony for the uninitiated, especially younger ones. This is a musical joyride for the it-ain't-a-movie-until-something-explodes generation. You can't possibly be bored by this symphony. If anything, you can be agitated by it if you try to take a minute off. Theofanidis never lays off the gas, even in the slower sections.

This symphony is unbridled intensity.

And good Lord I loved the heck out of it. What a triumphant composition. It is, as the kids say, epic. In fact, that's almost the only word that does the piece justice. It makes me wish I had taken that trumpet scholarship so that I could maybe someday be in an orchestra that played this. For now, I'll have to be content to listen to the very capable Atlanta Symphony Orchestra play it, and frankly, from where I'm sitting, that's not a bad deal.

More on Theofanidis' 1st

The composer has provided program notes for this piece at his website.

Recordings Used