1974
1974 67 9 december 1974 My dear Isty, It was good to get your letter and the news that La Tourangelle was in the final, final stages of completion. You know my best wishes go to you for its successful production. If it comes at a time when we are free I’d love to make the trip to hear/see it. Paul’s memorial concert was a great success in every way. Gene & I were more than gratified by the way everything turned out—musically & humanly. There were two works on the concert: Schoenberg Suite Op. 29 (& an excellent performance of it) & the 1st performance of a large work for mezzo & chamber ensemble by Jay Reise,1 who is a former student of Hugh Hartwell—both of whom in their day held Paul’s scholarship. The fact of this kind of connection with genuinely gifted young men has given the creation of the scholarship itself a special kind of reality & meaningfulness. The concert, itself a high point, came in the midst of what has been for me an incredibly busy & at times difficult period. Since Sept. I have been working at the score of my violin concerto (for Isaac Stern) & only just finished it this past Friday. I suppose if I didn’t also have to teach parallel with the intensity of my crazy way of working things would have been easier. As it is I find myself welcoming the close of the term & look forward with special pleasure to our trip to Sarasota in Jan. for 10 days just to be in the sun & away from paper & work. But this will be all too brief since, on the returning, school starts again & I must turn to thinking of how to write some new works which are commissioned. It is not the| 109 writing of more music which I sometimes dread—quite the contrary—the appetite & need for that is as strong, perhaps stronger than ever. What I dread is the constant language problem. Since the Magic Theater & Contra of almost 10 years ago not two works have been the same at least in outward appearance; & I find it increasingly difficult to find still another way, another approach, no matter how subtle the shift of attitude. The violin concerto is a good case in point & I will have to hear it before I can honestly judge what I have done. Since the first performances are in April in Pittsburgh I’ll know soon enough. If there’s the slightest chance you can come to hear it in New York April 15 at Carnegie please let me know. I’ll try to get tickets for you. It would be good to see you again & have one of our old talks which I miss so much. [ … ] George note 1 Jay Reise (b. 1950), American composer, student of George Crumb, Hugh Hartwell, and Richard Wernick; Robert Weiss Professor of Composition at the University of Pennsylvania. The work performed on this occasion was, presumably, Movements of Imagination, for soprano and large chamber orchestra (1974). See also his article , “Rochberg the Progressive,” Perspectives of New Music 19/1 (Fall–Winter 1980) and 19/2 (Spring–Summer 1981): 395–407. Part II: Musical Composition (1965–1976) 110 | ...
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