John Burge

Commissioner: Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Music Director, James Sommerville

Premiere: Leslie Newman, flute; James Sommerville, French horn; Bethany Bergman and Elizabeth Loewen Andrews, violins; Brandon Chui, viola; Laura Jones, cello; at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario, January 22, 2010.

Duration: 20 minutes

Program note: In 2009, John Burge was commissioned by the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and their Music Director, James Sommerville, to compose a chamber work for their 2010 New Music Festival.  A long-time admirer of James Sommerville’s virtuosity on the French Horn, John Burge was keen to accept this commission, especially when it was indicated that in addition to writing a work for James, Leslie Newman, Principal Flautist of the HPO, would also be able to participate in the commissioned work’s performance.  Leslie had performed a number of Burge’s composition in the past and is the dedicatee of Burge’s Sonata Breve No. 3, for flute and piano.

With 2010 and 2011 being prominent Mahler anniversary years (2010 is the 150th anniversary of his birth and 2011 is the 100th anniversary of his death), Burge decided to compose a one-movement work that paid tribute to Gustav Mahler.  While it may seem odd to compose a chamber work in honour of a composer renowned for his orchestral compositions, close study of Mahler’s orchestrations often reveals that it is his chamber music-like scoring that gives his music such intimacy and emotional power.  Structurally, And One for Mahler is organized around three sections: a march, a ländler (slow waltz) and an Adagio.  The march and ländler are in some ways, stock forms that Mahler draws upon in his music (often in a nostalgic fashion) while the slowly unfolding Adagio is Mahler composing with his most expressive sense of longing.  The work begins with a short, fanfare-like introduction scored for the French horn and strings, the material of which is later used to unify the entire work.

For those individuals who find the work’s title vaguely familiar, it is taken from the Stephen Sondheim song, "Here’s to the Ladies Who Lunch."  The song appears in the musical, Company, and is an ironic toast to the collective group of pampered society ladies.  The verse in question reads as follows:  Another long exhausting day/Another thousand dollars/A matinee, A Pinter play/Perhaps a piece of Mahler’s./I’ll drink to that!/And one for Mahler!   You have to admire the creativity in rhyming “thousand dollars” with “of Mahler’s.”

The full score and parts for this work are available from the Canadian Music Centre for purchase or print-on-demand: And One for Mahler (CMC)